Elliot smiled, and Judith suddenly realised what was unsettling her about him. He seemed to be enjoying the conversation. Like a cat toying with a mouse.

‘And don’t worry,’ he continued. ‘I won’t wait for that bill for your dress, we both know you were making that up, don’t we? Now why don’t you piss off before I call the police and have you forcibly removed?’

Judith didn’t have an answer to that. For the first time in years, she was entirely lost for words.

Chapter 6

Judith cycled back into Marlow replaying the conversation with Elliot in her head. What had she been thinking? Despite herself, she couldn’t help but feel a delicious thrill at her audacity. She’d just confronted a man in broad daylight who might have been a killer! And the encounter had gleaned important information, not least the fact that Elliot believed Stefan Dunwoody had been a liar, a cheat, a fraud and a crook. Those were a serious list of crimes, weren’t they? Although, how could her lovely neighbour Stefan, who his assistant Antonia had agreed was a perfect gentleman, be in any way a criminal? It didn’t seem possible.

Judith was deep in thought as she cycled down the High Street. She didn’t see any of the elbow nudges and amused looks from the locals as she passed, her dark grey cape flying behind her, her legs pedalling as hard as they could. Before she reached the suspension bridge, she lifted her feet from the pedals and freewheeled down the path that led through the graveyard to the entrance of All Saints’ Church.

Judith leant her bicycle against the wall and tried to put her thoughts in order. Her immediate concern was simple. She had a theory that Elliot was involved in Stefan’s death. And if he were, then he could hardly have been at choir practice the night before, could he? She just had to prove it, which was why she was popping into All Saints’.

Judith wasn’t a regular churchgoer. She was one of those people who’d happily tell anyone who asked that she only went to church on high feasts and holidays, whilst not quite noticing that she didn’t go to church on those days either. But she was on nodding acquaintance with the vicar, a very nice young man called Colin Starling. Perhaps he’d be in the church and would be able to tell her if Elliot had attended choir practice?