“Well, she was in a hurry!”

“You met Mrs Jameson then?”

Leah nodded, glancing back at the door. “She nearly knocked me over on the footpath, pregnant or not.” She paused; eyebrows raised. “Hang on, is that the widow of the man who …?”

“The very one.”

“I thought I recognized the name.” She dumped her bag on the reception desk. “Oh well. I’ll forgive her a bit of brusqueness so.”

“I don’t think she likes women very much,” I said.

“What was she doing here?” Leah looked concerned. “You’re not acting for her, are you?”

I shook my head. “She was a bit upset at the bank, so I took her in here to calm her down.”

Leah took a deep breath; she seemed a bit breathless herself. “You okay?” I asked.

She nodded, tapping her chest. “Par for the course.” She narrowed her eyes. “You know that man was in here last week? That woman’s husband.”

My head snapped up. “Bob Jameson – the man who was killed? Here in the office?”

“Yes. I’d swear it was him. Big man with grey hair. I saw his picture in the paper.”

“What was he in here for?”

She shrugged. “He just called in on spec, I think. Don’t think I even caught his name at the time. Marina met him in the doorway. And I don’t know what it was about, but he spent about half an hour in your office with her.”

“Jesus.” I felt like I had to sit down. Surely this was something Marina should have mentioned. We’d had coffee together the morning after his body had been found, for God’s sake.

“When was this?” Forty questions formed in my head but that was the first one that came out.

Leah paused to think. “Thursday lunchtime?” She opened the appointments book to check and shook her head. “No appointment, although Marina should have put him in the other book. I’m sure it’s not there though. She always forgot.” She took out the other book, the one where we listed people who just called in without appointments, opened it and shook her head again. “Nope.”

I remembered something. Thursday was the day I’d arrived back. “You closed early that day, didn’t you? I called in at a quarter past five and the place was locked up.”

Leah put her hand to her cheek. “Oh God, did you? Sorry about that.” She closed her eyes to think. “Thursday, that’s right. I was feeling a bit queasy, so Marina told me to head off about five. I must have just missed you.” She frowned. “I didn’t know she was going to close up though.”

“It doesn’t matter.” I waved my hand dismissively. “But Bob Jameson called in and you’ve absolutely no idea what it was about?”