‘Only for a few moments. Or so I thought. Turned out my friend really, really wanted to see me. She waited outside my window for nearly three hours, which meant I had to hide under the desk for nearly three hours. But I could never reveal I was hiding from her, it would have been too embarrassing. I ended up having to pee in a metal wastepaper bin, and you’ve no idea how hard it is peeing in a metal bin while hiding under a desk.’

‘I don’t normally hide in wardrobes,’ Becks said in an attempt to distance herself from the woman in front of her who openly admitted to peeing in bins, and who, she now realised, could very well be mad.

‘But how can I help you?’ she continued. ‘Are you looking for Reverend Colin?’

‘Oh no, nothing so grand. I was just wondering if there was a list anywhere of the people who sing in the church choir.’

‘Well, as it happens, there is,’ Becks said, heading over to a piece of paper that was hanging on the back of the door to the vestry. ‘It’s here.’

Judith saw thirty or so names on the paper written out in different hands and different inks, with quite a few crossed out.

Before Judith could find Elliot Howard’s name, Becks straightened the piece of paper as it wasn’t hanging neatly from the drawing pin.

‘Sorry, if you could let me read—’

But now it was skewiff in the other direction, so Becks rotated it back.

‘Sorry, it’s not straight.’

‘If you don’t mind—’

Becks yanked the paper from the wall and carried it over to the desk.

‘I’d better write this out again, it’s a mess,’ she said, getting a sheet of A4 from a printer to the side of the desk.

‘I only wanted to see if Elliot Howard was a member of the choir.’

Becks stopped what she was doing and looked at Judith, surprised.

‘Elliot? Oh yes. He’s been in the choir for years.’

‘He has?’

‘For as long as I can remember.’

‘Then can you tell me, was there a choir practice last night?’

‘There was.’

‘And he was here, was he?’

‘He was.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Quite sure. You see, I sing in the choir as well. He’s a baritone, I’m a soprano.’

‘What time was choir rehearsal?’

‘Well, we first have a full rehearsal with the boy trebles from seven to eight. And then at about eight we let the trebles go, and the adults stay on to rehearse until about nine.’

‘So Elliot was here at eight o’clock?’

‘He was here the whole time from seven until nine.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Absolutely sure. But why are you asking?’

Judith hesitated, wondering what to say. Then, as was so often the case with her, she decided that honesty was the best policy.