‘That was the prof, boss. He hasn’t finished the post-mortem yet, but he wanted you to know that all early indications show natural causes for Ma Jones’s death. He said it looks as though Cardiff was right about a blood clot from her leg.’

Well, that was something. It was sad that she’d died alone, but at least she hadn’t been murdered, and she hadn’t had to suffer the shock of hearing how her only son had died. ‘Okay, I think for now we can assume that Ratty Jones was an accidental victim. He simply got in the way.’

The door to the CID room opened and Stacey and Jay entered, looking excited.

‘Sir,’ said Stacey, ‘Annie Carson called. She told us she had a visit from a Sky engineer who came into her house to check for a faulty Sky box. She gave us a pretty good description too. We rang the others, and they’d all had visits from the same engineer. We believe that’s how he knew where the photographs were, sir.’

This was a step forward. ‘So, what does our man look like?’ he asked.

‘White male, approximately five foot ten or eleven, smartly cut brown hair, rather sharp features, appeared an athletic type, but not muscly — thin, more like a runner than a weightlifter. He was wearing black workmen’s trousers with multi-pockets and a black leather belt, and a blue-and-black polo shirt with SKY embroidered on the right shoulder. Annie said he sounded like a southerner, maybe London but not Cockney.’ Stacey closed her notebook.

Jackman wondered at this. ‘That’s very detailed, isn’t it, for a man who was only in her home for a short time.’

‘Annie is very observant, sir,’ said Stacey. ‘Plus she’s cursing herself for forgetting. She told us he made a point of having her check his ID card before he came into the house. She said he was friendly and polite, and she thought at the time that it made a refreshing change from some of the workmen and engineers who’d come to the house. Sadly, she can’t recall the name on the card.’

‘Even so, I’m surprised that all but one of the women forgot to mention him,’ Jackman said.

‘We decided it was because of the trauma they had all suffered, sir,’ said Jay. ‘They’re all still reeling from it, so it’s not surprising they forget things. And as Sylvia Wilson said, it was such a fleeting visit, and required no further action. Basically, he just checked the serial numbers.’