This got through to the woman.

‘You’re not saying Iqbal’s … dead? Are you?’

‘So you know Mr Kassam?’

‘Yes, yes I do. And I’m Suzie Harris,’ she said, all attempts at subterfuge forgotten. ‘I live at 14 Oakwood Drive.’

‘Thank you, but why didn’t you tell me your real name the first time around?’

‘You never tell the Old Bill your real name,’ Suzie said, as though it were a truth universally acknowledged.

DS Malik sighed.

‘Can you tell me when you last saw Mr Kassam?’ she asked.

Suzie took a moment to gather her thoughts.

‘Yesterday, I think. When I came to walk Emma. That’s his Dobermann. You see, Iqbal works nights. Sometimes. As a taxi driver. So I give Emma a once-around-the-block every morning.’

‘Can you tell me why you were hiding behind a bush in his garden?’

‘That was only because I saw the police car. I wanted to know what was going on. But are you serious? You’re telling me he’s dead? He can’t be. What happened?’

DS Malik didn’t want to share any details, but she knew that in any murder there was a ‘Golden Hour’ immediately after the investigation started when the chances of catching the killer were at their highest. There was no one else who lived with Mr Kassam to talk to, and she could see that there was only one neighbouring property, and the garden was overgrown, the curtains drawn, and there was a ‘For Sale’ board up by the pavement. There was no one living there.

Suzie was currently the only witness they had who had even remotely known the deceased. So DS Malik explained how it looked as though an intruder had got into Mr Kassam’s house and shot him while he slept.

‘But that’s not possible,’ Suzie said, once she’d absorbed the news.

‘Why not?’

‘Iqbal was about the nicest person in the world. Ask anyone who knew him. He was kind, he never lost his temper. All he wanted to do was earn enough money to buy himself a nice boat he could keep on the river.’

DS Malik remembered the sailing books and the little statue of an old sailing ship in the house.

‘Then what about family? Do you know who his next of kin might be?’

‘No idea. But he was from Bradford originally, that’s what he told me. And he spent some of his childhood in Marlow. That’s why he ended up back here.’

‘Do you have any contact details for his family?’

‘I think his parents died some time ago. And he was an only child.’

‘So he’s got no immediate family?’

‘I don’t know. There’ll be cousins, I suppose. Maybe. Somewhere.’

‘One last thing. You say you walked Mr Kassam’s dog every morning?’

‘That’s right.’

‘So you have a key to Mr Kassam’s property?’