Judith sighed to herself. Very well, if the police didn’t believe that Stefan had been killed, then she’d just have to investigate his murder for herself, wouldn’t she?

Once Judith had finished giving her formal statement, she stepped back onto her punt and, with a regal wave at the forensic officers in their paper suits as she passed, she allowed the river to carry her back to her house. She then got out her old bicycle and climbed onto it. After all, if she wanted to discover who’d killed her neighbour, there was an obvious place to start.

It was only a five-minute cycle along the Thames Path into the nearby town of Marlow, and for once Judith didn’t acknowledge the little nods and waves she got from complete strangers as she whizzed along. But then, she never knew why so many people waved to her at the best of times. It never occurred to her that she was considered something of a minor celebrity in the town. To her mind, there was nothing interesting about her life, and every time she professed herself confounded by someone’s interest in her, she only embellished her reputation for eccentricity even further.

Turning from the towpath into a little park with swings and slides, Judith saw a flock of pigeons pecking idly at the ground. Filthy creatures, she thought to herself as she sped up her bike, a big grin spreading over her face as she bore down on them. And then, at full tilt, she cycled into the flock, calling out ‘Pigeons BEGONE!’, and scattered squawking birds into the air.

Judith loved Marlow with a passion. To her mind, it wasn’t too large, it wasn’t too small, it was just right. The perfect town for a Goldilocks like her. The High Street had an elegant Georgian suspension bridge and ancient riverside church at one end, an ornamental obelisk at the other, and, in between, there was every type of historic building from centuries of piecemeal development down each side. To tie it all together into an aesthetic whole, red-and-blue bunting criss-crossed the length of the High Street, creating the sort of ‘chocolate box’ image of an English Home Counties town that jigsaw puzzles were made of.