‘Yes, I’m sure,’ Tom replied, without hesitation. ‘I killed her on the morning of Christmas Eve. We had an argument over something and nothing, and I lost my temper. Then I panicked, and tried to make it look like an accident.’

‘But you were like a father to me,’ Johnny objected, and the hurt in his voice was so much like Naylor’s that Penrose could hardly bear to hear it. ‘You cared more about me than my own father ever did. How could you do that?’

The two men stared at each other and Penrose was about to intervene when another voice beat him to it. ‘Tom, what have you been saying?’ Nora Pendean stood in the doorway, her face ashen with fear as she looked at her husband. ‘What have you said, Tom?’

‘I’ve told them what I did, love,’ he said calmly. ‘I couldn’t go on hiding it. Johnny has a right to know what happened to his mum.’

‘But you didn’t do it!’ She turned to Penrose. ‘Don’t believe a word of it. He’s saying it to protect me, so please don’t punish him. He’s only lying because he loves me.’

‘Listen to me, Penrose. I went in to see Emily yesterday morning, while Nora was up at the castle. She’d been mending one of the kings from the nativity and she had it on the counter in front of her, ready to be collected, so I offered to take it to save Nora the bother of coming down when she had so much else to do. We got talking, and Emily said something about our daughter that made me see red, so I just lashed out. I had the figure in my hands, and before I knew it, Emily was lying on the floor. I tried to help her, but there was nothing I could do …’

‘Tom, please!’ his wife screamed.

‘… so I washed the figure and cleaned up after myself, and put Emily where we found her today.’ 285

‘And Mrs Pendean had nothing to do with this?’

He shook his head. ‘No. I should never have told her, but she knew something was wrong. She wanted to help me, but all she did was put the figure back in the church last night. I swear that’s the only part she played in any of this.’

‘That’s why you were in the church last night, Mrs Pendean?’

‘No, don’t listen to him. I went to the church to pray for forgiveness – for what I did, nothing to do with Tom.’

Penrose didn’t know who to believe, but he could see that neither was about to stand down, and he knew that the only chance of getting to the truth was to question them separately once there was some forensic evidence to go on. There was certainly nothing to be gained from continuing such a public debate, particularly in front of the dead woman’s son. ‘I’d like you both to come with me,’ he said quietly. ‘You’ll be taken to Penzance police station, and held there on suspicion of the murder of Emily Soper, and of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.’