After the long wait in the transit lounge I caught the trans-island flight to Salay. All trans-island flights land at Salay Ewwel, the first. I stayed one night in an airport hotel, and the following morning took an inter-island shuttle flight from Ewwel to Salay Hames, the fifth. I was welcomed by the police on the island, assigned a car and a driver, and a young detective constable. He had no part in the enquiry but was there to act as liaison to the force, should that be necessary.

I went first to the mortuary, where I was able to confirm the body had been correctly identified and labelled. I approved the release of the body to the family, who would have to arrange for transporting it back to Dearth, if that was what they wished. The mortuary assistant said they were still trying to trace any family member who could make such decisions, otherwise the body would be interred in a serf grave.

I then went to see the man called Stud, on custodial remand, awaiting sentence. After this I was taken to the station house where I was shown the police paperwork, including several pieces I had not seen in the file I had been given in Dearth. Finally, I was driven to the house where the murder had taken place. It was indeed an impressive and in my view ostentatious house. I made a close examination on my own for nearly half an hour.

I returned to the station house, where I formally confirmed the papers were in order, signed the necessary release, thanked everyone I had met for their help and cooperation, and after a quick lunch I was driven to the airport. Once I was back in Dearth City I filed my report and returned to normal duties with Serjeant Jeksid.

There it could have ended, but there were several inconsistencies I had noticed. I had either been discouraged by the Hames force from investigating further, or for various reasons I felt the anomalies were beyond my jurisdiction.

Firstly, there was no evidence that placed the prisoner, Stud, inside the house at any time, let alone at the point when the murder happened. There were, for example, no signs of a forced break-in. Stud’s fingerprints were not found on the murder weapon, nor indeed on anything else in the house.

But Stud had confessed to the murder. In fact, he had confessed twice – the second time it was written down and he signed his name. He incriminated himself and although he was given several chances to withdraw the confession he re-affirmed it. The police in Hames maintained that it was inescapable proof of guilt.