‘We’re not quite there, but it does seem to be our missing water engineer.’

‘So what about this Anglo-Saxon dagger?’ she asked, as she sipped her own wine.

‘I’ve no idea how that fits in,’ he said. ‘It’s pretty hard to be sure that it was the murder weapon. When the body is in so many pieces, and in such condition, there are any number of other causes of death that might be missed. But it’s certainly weird.’

Sam moved Gillard aside, and made her way out of the kitchen with a handful of serving spoons. She then went into the hall and crossed into the garage by the internal door. He followed her, and was amazed to see that she had transformed the garage into a restaurant. She had managed to hang some old curtains to mask the shelves of paint tins and tools, she’d installed a small folding table with a red checked tablecloth, and had suspended from the ceiling a network of soft white Christmas lights. A full-length mirror stood by the garage door, and in front of it on a coffee table were a couple of dozen large candles, their light reflected throughout the room.

‘This is gorgeous,’ he said, embracing her. ‘What a clever idea.’

‘I’d originally planned to book a restaurant tonight, seeing as it’s the first day out of lockdown. But everywhere was booked solid. So I brought the restaurant in to us.’

‘It’s wonderful.’ Gillard went upstairs, showered and changed. The meal Sam served was fitting to the surroundings. A ceviche of monkfish with lime and ginger, cucumber and spring onions, followed by fillets of sea bream with fresh local asparagus, followed by strawberries. Sam disclosed that she had cycled off to the pick-your-own farm eight miles away to get the berries. ‘I think I ate as many in the fields as I picked,’ she said.

They had just finished the meal, at half past nine, when the doorbell went.

Sharing a puzzled look with Sam, Gillard got up and went to answer it.

There, standing on the doorstep, was his Aunt Trish.

Chapter Twelve

Gillard’s jaw dropped. ‘The hospital didn’t let us know you were coming out.’