‘Oh it was that, I can tell you. But it was me who insisted the police start investigating. Philippos was such a good sailor, you see. But they never found anything suspicious. In the end they ruled it was a tragic accident.’

‘Suzie’s right, though. It says here a witness on the shore saw Philippos on his boat with someone else.’

‘It says a witness thinks they saw someone else on the boat,’ Judith said testily. ‘It was a possible lead for a time. But the man on shore was old, and he wasn’t ever able to identify who this second person was, or even if it was definitely Philippos’s boat. It all fizzled out, sadly.’

‘Do you think your husband was with someone?’ Becks asked, and the tone of her voice made her subtext clear.

‘Do you mean, was he with his fancy lady? I don’t know. I know he had one at the time. He always did. But I doubt it. Only Philippos’s body was ever found. If he’d been with someone, her body would have been found as well. Or been reported as missing. Now I think we’re done here, don’t you? I don’t like coming in here at the best of times, and it’s clear we’re not going to find what we came here to find.’

‘We’ve not finished,’ Becks said.

‘I think it’s time you both left.’

Becks looked as though she’d been slapped in the face.

‘Come on, Judith,’ Suzie said. ‘There’s no need to get—’

‘No no,’ Judith said, interrupting, ‘it’s nothing to do with you, Suzie, I just don’t like coming in here. Too many memories. Too much history.’

‘Yes, of course,’ Becks said, putting the newspaper article down.

‘So if you could show yourselves out?’

Suzie and Becks stood in silence for a moment, but Becks recovered first.

‘Come on, Suzie, we should go,’ she said, and started to usher Suzie out of the room. ‘But Judith, if you need anything? Someone to talk to, or to get back to the case, give us a ring,’ Becks added as she paused in the doorway.

Becks took in the calamity of mess, and the woman who stood alone in the middle of it. Judith had picked up the old newspaper article and was already lost in it.

Becks and Suzie let themselves out.

Chapter 37