“… If it hadn’t bitten a man who was tied up at the time.” I finished his sentence for him.

“Exactly.”

I scratched my chin. “Seems such a strange way to kill someone though, doesn’t it? I mean someone must have gone to an awful lot of trouble.”

Molloy nodded. “Assuming it was the snakebite that killed him. We still don’t know that. Also, a very hands-off way of killing someone. Little physical contact. Leaving a snake to do the dirty work, so you could almost convince yourself you hadn’t played a part in it.”

I hadn’t thought about it that way. It had seemed more personal to me, but maybe Molloy was right. Something else struck me. “Do you think it could have been a message?”

Molloy looked at me with interest. “A message to whom? Not to Jameson himself. He’s dead.”

“His wife? His brother? Someone connected with him? Someone connected with the charity? Everyone who was here for this cycle is connected in some way with the Jameson Grace Charity.”

“I’m having some background checks done on our Bob Jameson and his charity.” Molloy nodded at his phone on the reception desk, which had been beeping and lighting up since he’d put it there. “And it looks as though he wasn’t as squeaky clean as he made out.”

“Really? I saw that he got into trouble at some stage for taking too high a salary – he had to pay it back but there weren’t any other consequences, I don’t think.”

“Only the tip of the iceberg apparently. He seems to have made a lot of enemies behind the scenes. A few things just waiting to bite him in the arse.”

I grinned. “Unfortunate choice of words.”

“What? Oh yes.” Molloy copped it but didn’t smile. He looked as if he didn’t have the energy.

I heard the kettle click off and I went into the kitchen to make the coffee. I shouted at him over the partition. “What kind of things?”

Molloy followed me in and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. “It’s bound to come out now that he’s not here to defend himself and get injunctions or what not. But there have been several complaints, which have brought the Jameson Grace Charity to the attention of the Regulator. There’s an investigation ongoing which has only just started digging.”

“What kind of complaints?” I chucked some coffee into two mugs. I noticed they were chipped – I needed to get a few more.

“Complaints about the care homes, about the treatment of the residents there, along with broader issues to do with the charity and the misapplication of assets. It’s all a bit of a mess, from what I can gather.”

I poured water into two mugs.