‘Oh!’ Sam looked pleased to be chosen. ‘Well, if it was someone I knew well, I might say, “Aren’t you going to take off your gloves?” in a light-hearted way. I wouldn’t want to upset them or make them feel awkward.’

‘Sergeant Kombothekra would find his own woolliest gloves and put them on, lest his guest should feel alone and misunderstood,’ Proust told Moore.

‘But if it was someone I wasn’t close to – and there are plenty I trust in that category – I wouldn’t say anything. I’d just think, “That’s unusual” – but people are, aren’t they?’

‘Right.’ Kerensa Moore nodded. ‘The very answer I wanted. I think we can assume, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that Billy figured he could keep his gloves on and no one was likely to query it because of basic politeness.’ No one disagreed with this.

‘He wore gloves, but left DNA from his mouth on the crockery,’ said Proust. ‘Is he a moron?’

‘I’d say not,’ said Moore. ‘I think the gloves might have been as much about avoiding skin contact with the gun as anything else. Symbolic distance from the act.’

‘I’m done with Linzi Birrell,’ said Dunning. ‘Who wants to take Angela McCabe?’

‘I will,’ said Simon. ‘Angela McCabe, forty-seven years old, address 7 Bradby Avenue, Chiswick. Happily married, two children, ten and eight. Killed 11 November 2014. And with his third murder, Billy moves to a different socio-economic bracket. Angela McCabe was upper middle class and so was Joshua Norbury, whereas Linzi Birrell and Rhian Douglas both came from working-class backgrounds and led working-class lives. Angela and Josh had been best friends – like particularly close siblings, we’re told – for nearly fifteen years, since they met on a …’ – Simon cleared his throat – ‘… holistic holiday in Crete, where they were on the same creative writing course.’

‘Yet I keep hearing that they weren’t hippies,’ Proust said. ‘When in fact only a hippie or someone of that persuasion could hear the word “holistic” without gagging.’

‘I can promise you they weren’t hippies or anything like that – really,’ said Grace Woolston. ‘Angela McCabe was trying to write a screenplay and went on many creative writing courses – this one was in the sun, by a beach, so she thought, “Why not?” She had reservations about the holistic stuff, but she thought she could just ignore it.’

‘And what was Joshua Norbury’s excuse?’ Proust asked.

‘The crime we’re here to investigate is murder,’ Simon told him. ‘Not going on the kind of holiday you disapprove of. Norbury was young, gay and single and wanted to meet someone in the same situation – hopefully the love of his life. He’d been told by a mate that those holistic holidays were the place to go. Josh didn’t meet a romantic partner, but he did make a best friend for life: Angela McCabe.’