She would have killed for a coffee herself, but there was no way she was going to ask for one when she was the one who was late. His office, when they entered it, was anything but neat. It made David’s look like the epitome of minimalist chic. In front of them was a desk with a chair on either side. But all three surfaces had been engulfed in an avalanche of papers and books. Where did he work?

He pointed to two chairs wedged tightly together between filing cabinets in one corner of the room. ‘Take a seat.’

He sat down beside her, apparently oblivious to the discomfort their physical proximity was causing her. These weren’t the ideal conditions in which to ask someone whether their recently deceased ex had been a genius or certifiable.

He slurped noisily at his coffee. ‘So, what was it you wanted to see me about? In your email you said you’d taken over the site Beth had been working on.’

‘Going through her site journals and talking to some of her staff, Beth seems to have made some claims about the site that I’m having trouble verifying at the moment.’

‘You do surprise me.’ Craig made no attempt to disguise the sarcasm in his voice.

‘You and Beth had been colleagues for a long time before she left Sheffield.’

‘No need to beat about the bush, Clare.’ He smiled. ‘I take it you know that Beth and me were an item.’

Clare nodded. ‘Neil Fuller mentioned it.’

‘Neil Fuller. What’s he got to do with it?’

‘He was assisting Beth on the dig.’

Craig’s face flushed red from bottom to top. ‘Really? Didn’t take him long, did it. He always did have a bit of a thing for Beth. Even in his undergrad days. But I wouldn’t have figured she would have considered him up to her sort of standards. Just goes to show what people will stoop to when they’re desperate.’

From what Neil had said, she’d thought that the two men had gotten on well, but apparently not. At least not as far as Stuart Craig was concerned. ‘I didn’t mean to suggest there was anything going on between them. Neil’s married with a young baby.’

Craig said nothing. He was obviously less than entirely convinced. Was there a chance Clare had misjudged things? It was clear that Neil had hero-worshipped Beth. Was that all it was? He wouldn’t be the first man to have an affair while his wife was at home changing the nappies.

Very little had gone the way she’d envisaged it so far today. She needed to get things back on track. ‘When you and Beth were at Sheffield you worked on a number of projects together.’

‘That’s right.’ His eyes flicked distractedly around the room as he spoke; he was barely taking in a word she was saying.