There was a moment’s silence. When Bristow spoke again, the disappointment in his voice verged on annoyance.

‘What do you want to speak to her for? Tansy’s quite clear that the voice she heard from upstairs was male.’

‘I’m not interested in this girl as a suspect, but as a witness. Lula had an appointment to meet her at a shop, Vashti, right after she saw you at your mother’s flat.’

‘Yeah, I know; that came out at the inquest. I mean – well, of course, you know your job, but – I don’t really see how she would know anything about what happened that night. Listen – wait a moment, Cormoran… I’m at my mother’s and there are other people here… need to find a quieter spot…’

Strike heard the sounds of movement, a murmured ‘Excuse me’, and Bristow came back on the line.

‘Sorry, I didn’t want to say all this in front of the nurse. Actually, I thought, when you rang, you might be someone else calling up to talk to me about Duffield. Everybody I know has rung to tell me.’

‘Tell you what?’

‘You obviously don’t read the News of the World. It’s all there, complete with pictures: Duffield turned up to visit my mother yesterday, out of the blue. Photographers outside the house; it caused a lot of inconvenience and upset with the neighbours. I was out with Alison, or I’d never have let him in.’

‘What did he want?’

‘Good question. Tony, my uncle, thinks it was money – but Tony usually thinks people are after money; anyway, I’ve got power of attorney, so there was nothing doing there. God knows why he came. The one small mercy is that Mum doesn’t seem to have realised who he is. She’s on immensely strong painkillers.’

‘How did the press find out he was coming?’

‘That,’ said Bristow, ‘is an excellent question. Tony thinks he phoned them himself.’

‘How is your mother?’

‘Poorly, very poorly. They say she could hang on for weeks, or – or it could happen at any moment.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ said Strike. He raised his voice as he passed underneath a flyover, across which traffic was moving noisily. ‘Well, if you do happen to remember the name of Lula’s Vashti friend…’

‘I’m afraid I still don’t really understand why you’re so interested in her.’

‘Lula made this girl travel all the way from Hammersmith to Notting Hill, spent fifteen minutes with her and then walked out. Why didn’t she stay? Why meet for such a short space of time? Did they argue? Anything out of the ordinary that happens around a sudden death could be relevant.’

‘I see,’ said Bristow hesitantly. ‘But… well, that sort of behaviour wasn’t really out of the ordinary for Lula. I did tell you that she could be a bit… a bit selfish. It would be like her to think that a token appearance would keep the girl happy. She often had these brief enthusiasms for people, you know, and then dropped them.’