‘Round here,’ said Wilson, leading him out of the hall and into the bedroom. ‘There’s one by the bed, and there’s another one in the sitting room.’

‘Have all the flats got these?’

‘Yeah.’

The relative positions of the bedrooms, sitting room, kitchen and bathroom were identical to those of Flat 1. Many of the finishings were similar, down to the mirrored doors in the walk-in wardrobe, which Strike went to check. While he was opening doors and surveying the thousands of pounds’ worth of women’s dresses and coats, Lechsinka emerged from the bedroom with a belt, two ties and several polythene-covered dresses, fresh from the dry-cleaner’s, over her arm.

‘Hi,’ said Strike.

‘Hello,’ she said, moving to a door behind him and pulling out a tie rack. ‘Excuse, please.’

He stood aside. She was short and very pretty in a pert, girlish way, with a rather flat face, a snub nose and Slavic eyes. She hung up the ties neatly while he watched her.

‘I’m a detective,’ he said. Then he remembered that Eric Wardle had described her English as ‘crap’.

‘Like a policeman?’ he ventured.

‘Ah. Police.’

‘You were here, weren’t you, the day before Lula Landry died?’

It took a few tries to convey exactly what he meant. When she grasped the point, however, she showed no objection to answering questions, as long as she could continue putting the clothes away as she talked.

‘I always clean stair first,’ she said. ‘Miz Landry is talking very loud at her brudder; he shouting that she gives boyfriend too much moneys, and she very bad with him.

‘I clean number two, empty. Is clean already. Quick.’

‘Were Derrick and the man from the security firm there while you were cleaning?’

‘Derrick and…?’

‘The repairman? The alarm man?’

‘Yes, alarm man and Derrick, yes.’

Strike could hear Robin and Wilson talking in the hall, where he had left them.

‘Do you set the alarms again after you’ve cleaned?’

‘Put alarm? Yes,’ she said. ‘One nine six six, same as door, Derrick tells me.’

‘He told you the number before he left with the alarm man?’

Again, it took a few tries to get the point across, and when she grasped it, she seemed impatient.

‘Yes, I already say this. One nine six six.’

‘So you set the alarm after you’d finished cleaning in here?’

‘Put alarm, yes.’

‘And the alarm man, what did he look like?’

‘Alarm man? Look?’ She frowned attractively, her small nose wrinkling, and shrugged. ‘I not see he’s face. But blue – all blue…’ she added, and with the hand not holding polythened dresses, she made a sweeping gesture down her body.

‘Overall?’ he suggested, but she met the word with blank incomprehension. ‘OK, where did you clean after that?’