He nodded to where his Volvo was parked. ‘We might be more comfortable in the back of my car.’

She glanced around, taking in every window in the street as she did so. ‘I’d rather do it here if you don’t mind.’

‘Whatever you prefer. You seem to be very interested in what’s going on here, Mrs Foggarty.’

‘I know Mr Crabbs, Chief Inspector.’

He couldn’t help noticing the present tense. ‘Were you a friend of his?’

‘You might say so. More of an acquaintance really. Is he alright? Has something happened to him?’

‘I’m sorry to have to tell you that Mr Crabbs is dead, Mrs Foggarty. He appears to have been murdered.’

For a moment he thought she was going to faint. He helped her to a seat on a nearby garden wall.

After a few moments she regained her composure. ‘I’m sorry. It’s just such a shock.’

He sat down next to her. ‘It’s always a shock. You never get used to sudden death.’

She said, ‘No, I don’t suppose you do.’ She turned to face him. ‘Has this got something to do with the dig?’

‘That’s a very curious question, Mrs Foggarty.’

She looked taken aback at the directness of his statement. ‘You might think so, but it’s perfectly obvious to me. Crabby has been spending a lot of time up there recently and then there was all of that strange business with the Kinsella woman. This sort of thing isn’t a regular occurrence in the village, you know. It wasn’t like this before they started digging up there.’

‘I understand from my constable that you’re not entirely happy with the excavations.’

‘Honestly, Chief Inspector, it’s a travesty. Little more than grave robbing and all so that charlatan Paul Marshall can build houses.’

‘Is that what made you decide that it was OK to nearly kill someone?’ She repeated, ‘Kill someone? I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

‘That brick that you threw, Mrs Foggarty. It struck a young woman on the head. She had to be taken to hospital.’

Sheila Foggarty clapped her hand to her mouth. ‘Oh my God! It wasn’t meant to hurt anybody.’

Suddenly and quite without warning, Sheila Foggarty began to sob. Stone reached into his pocket and produced a paper tissue.

When the sobbing had subsided, she said, ‘Thank you. It was only meant to scare them. To make them stop digging. We just don’t want the houses.’

‘We?’

‘Me and Crabby … and a few of the other local residents.’ A look of horror suddenly spread across her face. She gesticulated towards Crabby’s house. ‘You don’t suppose this is some sort of retaliation, do you? For what we’ – she corrected herself – ‘for what I did.’