Cleaver looked at his watch, and said, ‘Now, to your question. There was a long-standing enmity between the Tickett family and the Willows, now largely healed, but I’m sure not telling you anything you don’t already know.’

‘I know about the murder of Henry Willow in 1982, and the jail term that Christopher Tickett served.’

Cleaver nodded as he chewed the cake thoughtfully. ‘You have got to feel for the Ticketts. Everything that goes wrong in the village is frequently blamed on them. Fly-tipping, vandalism, petty theft. They’re with the other lot, the Roman Catholic Church in Upper Rissington. But they are devout.’

Gillard worked on a different, less celestial, system of accounting and knew there was a fair number of criminal convictions attached to the Ticketts’ address. However it was not his job to share that information.

‘So there is hostility?’

‘No, suspicion maybe. The Ticketts’ yard is on land leased from Willow Farm. Michael, who runs the farm, is quite reclusive and hostile to the Tickett family, but his sisters Crystal and Vicky and the rest of the Willow family are quite outgoing and mix with them well enough. There was some upset at the fact that while most of the village is up in arms about the negligence of the water company, the Tickett family are getting well paid working for them.’

‘But isn’t the work intended to put right the sewer problems?’

‘That’s what Chris Tickett keeps saying, and he does have a point. And a good proportion of what the Ticketts earn finds its way into the till at the Anvil Arms, so you could say the village as a whole does benefit.’

‘Did you ever meet any of the other Aqua Western people? I know they spent a fair amount of time here.’

‘Yes, a couple of times. Trevor Collier. A bit elusive when things got unpleasant. Oh, and some officious senior manager called Arrowsmith. Didn’t like him at all.’

‘So I heard.’

‘You will also discover that I attended a demonstration outside their office in Windsor just a few weeks after I arrived, and another one in London. There’s bound to be a record of my arrest. We were protesting against the pollution, and the lack of action by the company. That, of course, was before the remedial work was started last October.’

Gillard had read the statement. ‘You were arrested with Sheila Ransome, as I recall.’

Cleaver chuckled. ‘Yes indeed, she is a power to behold! Never underestimate the elderly. They can move mountains.’

Gillard heard the sound of a key in the front door, and a woman’s voice called out to him, addressing him as Matt.

‘I’m just in here with the detective, Mr Gillard. I’ll be a few minutes.’