‘You’re Annie’s husband.’

‘That’s correct. May we come in?’

‘I suppose so, but all I know is what I’ve been told. I haven’t been out of the house all day.’

‘As well as investigating the circumstances of his death, we also need to build up a picture of the man himself,’ James said. ‘I’m hoping you can help us in that respect.’

The house was modest and quite messy inside. As Janet led them through to the living room, she explained that she was in the midst of giving the place a clean.

‘I’ve got my sister coming for Christmas, and I want it to look tidy. I don’t get a chance to do it when the boys are here,’ she said. ‘It’s their dad’s turn to have them for the holidays so they’re staying with him in Carlisle until the New Year.’

An artificial Christmas tree stood in front of the patio doors in the living room and decorations hung from the ceiling. There were framed photos of her twins on a sideboard and a bunch of toys were piled up in a corner. Janet had to move stuff from the sofa so that James and the officer could sit down. She sat on the chair facing them and wrapped her arms around herself.

‘I assume you know that Charlie came here yesterday morning to have a go at me,’ she said. ‘I told Annie about it. He was out of order and I told him so.’

‘I gather you also told his wife.’

She nodded, a shadow crossing her face. ‘It was my way of getting my own back. He was horrible to me and I was really upset.’

‘You told Sonia Jenkins that he threatened you.’

‘That’s because he did. He said I’d regret it if I spoke to anyone else about what happened between us.’

‘Did it get physical?’

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Did he hit you?’

She shook her head. ‘Of course not. Charlie wasn’t a violent man. Just self-centred and thoughtless. His bark was worse than his bite. That’s why I’m gutted that he’s dead. I loved him, you see – we had a connection.’

‘So how long did the affair with him last?’ James asked.

‘Almost four months. He came on to me one night in The White Hart when Sonia was away. I was flattered and it went from there. I knew it was wrong because he was married, but I didn’t care because I’d been single for so long and it excited me.’

‘So when did it end and why?’

‘I called a halt to it a month ago because he finally admitted to me that he would never leave his wife,’ she said. ‘He’d led me to believe that he would and we’d even talked about moving to Carlisle together so it would be easy for my boys to spend time with their dad. I took him at his word but should have known better. I wasn’t the first woman he’d had an affair with.’