‘Oh, the same. But I want to apologise to you. I saw how one of my congregation spoke to you when you came in. His tone was unacceptable, and he was wrong to make you move.’

‘There’s nothing to apologise for,’ Becks said. ‘And it’s not so different in our church. You should see the looks Major Lewis gives if someone he doesn’t know dares to sit in his family’s pew.’

Imam Latif smiled.

‘You always know what to say, Mrs Starling. The sad truth is, one tries to be progressive, but some people feel they have to cling to the old traditions, don’t they? Now, why don’t we walk together?’

Imam Latif indicated the door through which the men had carried the coffin.

The four of them started to follow.

‘Now you I don’t know,’ Imam Latif said to Judith.

‘I’m Judith Potts,’ Judith said. ‘Thank you for inviting us to your mosque.’

‘The pleasure is all mine.’

‘But could I ask you a few questions?’

‘Of course. How can I be of service?’

‘Well, it’s just the awful way he died.’

‘Indeed. A tragedy.’

‘Would you say you were surprised, though?’

‘Do you mean, did I think Iqbal was perhaps mixed up in malfeasance?’

‘I suppose I do.’

Becks and Suzie looked at Judith to translate, which she was happy to do.

‘Malfeasance. Wrongdoing.’

‘Oh,’ Becks said, impressed. Suzie shrugged as if to say, ‘what use is that to me?’

‘To be honest,’ Imam Latif said, ‘I can’t say I knew Iqbal well. We rarely saw him here. Which is fine by me. Better to welcome someone infrequently than pressure them into not coming at all. But he always struck me as a sincere and thoughtful man. Maybe a little too inward. Too private. And there was a bit of anger there as well.’

‘You thought so?’

‘Perhaps I mean frustration. The one proper conversation I had with him, I remember him telling me it was his dream to travel by boat all around the UK.’

‘He said the same to me,’ Suzie said.

‘But he said he’d had that future taken from him.’

‘When was this?’ Judith asked.

‘About a year ago. Sometime last year anyway.’

‘And did he say why his future had been taken away from him?’

‘It was something to do with an inheritance, I think.’

The women exchanged glances. This sounded promising.

‘From his neighbour,’ Imam Latif continued.

‘That’ll be Ezra, I imagine,’ Suzie said.

‘That’s right. He said his neighbour was called Ezra, and he’d died and left him all of his money and his house. But when it came down to it, someone else had made his neighbour change his will at the last minute. So this other person inherited from his neighbour and not Iqbal.’

‘Oh,’ Becks said. ‘Poor Iqbal.’

‘Indeed.’

‘Was this other man called Elliot Howard?’ Judith asked eagerly.