‘No, never. Our Nan was dead organised for ninety-one. Anything she wanted brought down she put in a little pile, and either my Eric or me carried it for her. She never went back upstairs until we took her, which was at nine every evening. She had a downstairs toilet, so she didn’t need to go up until bedtime.’ Lizzie Coupland wiped her eyes. ‘We’re really going to miss the old dear. Salt of the earth, she was.’

So she never attempted the stairs, but she did last night. The night of the prowler. Without expressing his concerns to the Couplands, Simon suggested they go in and make themselves a cuppa while he waited for the doctor and the detectives. He needed to think. What if the prowler hadn’t run away at all? What if he’d got in? Did he startle the old lady?

As soon as the others arrived, Simon wanted back in that house and fast — number forty-seven Connaught Road was now a crime scene.

* * *

Marie was just stepping out of the shower when the phone rang.

‘Sorry to call so early, DS Evans, but they said you might like to take a look at this one. It’s a prowler and a possible intruder.’

‘That’s got my name on it, Sergeant. Address?’ She picked up a pen and scribbled it down, then dashed to the wardrobe. ‘Show me attending.’

In twenty minutes she was at the victim’s address, parking behind the car of a local GP she knew.

‘Doc Mason! Morning!’ she called out. ‘Is this a patient of yours?’

He came out of the house to meet her, a stocky little man with a thatch of prematurely white hair and black-rimmed glasses. ‘Was, I’m afraid, DS Evans. Nancy Eliza Cutler. Lovely old woman. Frankly, I’m shocked to find her like this. I saw her for a check-up a week or two back and I swear she was fitter than me.’

‘Do you have time to go back in with me?’ Marie asked.

‘Of course, but it’s pretty self-explanatory.’

‘DS Evans, can I have a word before you go in, please?’ PC Laker had been stationed outside the property.

Marie frowned. ‘You look anxious, PC Laker. What’s the problem?’

The young constable frowned. ‘I don’t think this is quite as straightforward as it appears, Sarge. I don’t know how much you’ve been told yet, but there was a prowler in her back garden last night. The neighbour thinks he did a runner, but I’m not so sure. I think he might have got in and scared the old girl.’

Marie didn’t know PC Laker well, but he’d been policing the area for several years and, according to Stacey Smith, he had a reputation for being observant and efficient. ‘Okay, come back in with us, and as soon as I’ve spoken to the doctor here, we’ll do a careful walk through.’

Laker looked relieved.

The doctor was gazing down at his elderly patient and shaking his head. ‘Had to be an accidental trip — she never had dizzy turns, and her blood pressure was amazing for a woman of her age.’ He pointed to her feet. ‘I would guess that the missing slipper at the top of the stairs is probably the culprit.’ He sighed, then a slightly puzzled look stole over his face. He knelt down and examined her feet. ‘That’s odd.’