‘Then, hot on the heels of that coincidence, I remembered something else, something that had been bothering me for months. It had always jarred: Linzi Birrell’s row with Miff Sheeran, owner of the Hot-n-Tasty café. Ahmed, Linzi’s fiancé, had been absolutely adamant that Miff wouldn’t hurt a fly and couldn’t possibly have killed Linzi. Yet it seemed she’d lied through her teeth to the police even in the face of three witnesses saying otherwise: Miff flat-out denied she and Linzi had ever exchanged sharp words about a dodgy lasagne. She was too lovely and harmless for Ahmed to suspect her of murder, but at the same time she was a barefaced liar, intent on deceiving the police when there was a murder under investigation? That didn’t gel for me at all – ever.’

‘You also questioned why Linzi had never mentioned the row to Ahmed,’ Wing reminded Simon.

‘Right. She’d have mentioned it, wouldn’t she? According to our three witnesses, Miff was giving Linzi a bollocking for ordering the same dish more than once – that was asking for trouble, apparently. Except any sane person knows that it’s perfectly reasonable to order whatever the hell you want in a café. It was totally unreasonable of Miff to suggest otherwise – and hilarious that she thought she was right. Would Linzi really fail to tell Ahmed such an outrageous story? I don’t think so. I never thought so.’

‘We get it, Waterhouse,’ said Dunning. ‘You’re right not just now, but also since records began. Get to the point.’

‘Suspecting that the murders had something to do with e-readers – unwanted ones – I remembered another detail from the Hot-n-Tasty witnesses’ accounts,’ Simon said. ‘They all mentioned Linzi walking out without eating her lunch, but only one of them said she picked up her phone and her book and walked out. I started to wonder … I formulated a little theory, and when I put it to the test, I found it was bang on.

‘I went to Hot-n-Tasty and I asked Miff Sheeran again: did she and Linzi have a row or discussion about lasagne? Again, Miff said no, no way, didn’t happen. That’s when I asked her if she and Linzi had ever exchanged views about e-readers.’ Simon looked around at the puzzled faces. Did no one get it, still? What was wrong with them?

‘Miff told me that yes, for sure, she and Linzi had disagreed about e-readers. Linzi had come in one day with a Harry Potter book and an e-reader that was a present from her best friend—’

‘Rhian Douglas,’ supplied Sellers.

‘Right. Rhian had given Linzi a Kobo, like Charlie’s—’

‘Like mine used to be, before it got smashed,’ Charlie chipped in.