‘He stole clothes?’ She grunted. ‘Weird. It’s usually the family silver.’

Jackman chuckled. ‘It’s one of those strange little clues — so easily overlooked. It could be the crucial piece in the puzzle.’

‘The bit where we go: “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that at the time?” Trouble is, it’s not helping us now. We still know sod all.’

‘Maybe,’ said Jackman, still sounding reflective. ‘And before I forget, smart work finding those tiny holes. If it hadn’t been for that, it would have been put down as an accident. Damned good work.’

‘I’m sure Rory would have picked it up, boss. I just got there first.’ She changed the subject. ‘Anything about the woman herself yet? She must have had some kind of skeleton in the cupboard to get herself murdered. People don’t set up elaborate traps to kill old ladies unless they have a good reason.’

Jackman stared thoughtfully at her. ‘My money’s on her knowing something about the killer. It must have been about to come out, so he had to stop her.’

‘Possible, or this was payback for something she’d done in the past.’

‘Also possible.’ Jackman grinned. ‘Maybe she’d criticised his prize dahlias or sung out of tune at the harvest supper . . . Sorry, Marie. I’m being flippant now.’

She smiled back. ‘My money’s on the dahlias.’

‘Ah well, we’d better go and organise the whiteboard. We don’t have much yet, but things are moving quite fast. A simple request to help out with an intruder, and now we have two thefts and a murder.’

‘In a matter of days,’ added Marie. ‘As you say, things are hotting up.’

‘Enough to warrant a team campfire, I reckon. Could you tell the others, Marie? Four p.m. in the CID room. We’ll keep it in-house to start with . . .’ He looked at her. ‘What about bringing in Stacey Smith and her new crewmate, and PC Simon Laker?’

‘Good idea. They’re on the ground, and they’ve been a massive help so far. Shall I go have a word with their sergeant?’

‘Please,’ Jackman said. ‘See if we can pinch them for a quick meeting today, and sound out how he feels about them joining our investigation. They’re up to speed on it, and their local knowledge could be invaluable.’

A few short minutes later, Marie paced back into Jackman’s office. ‘Result, boss. Skip is fine on all counts, just so long as they can deal with any ongoing jobs of their own. Basically, they’re ours whenever we need them.’

‘Excellent.’

‘Oh, and I put in a good word for Laker while I was there. He sensed right away something wasn’t right in that house. He’s got a good nose, that one.’

Marie followed Jackman out to the main CID room to, as he put it, “play with the whiteboards.”

* * *

At four p.m. everyone was present, with the exception of Gary Pritchard.

‘He’ll be here in a few minutes, boss,’ said Marie. ‘He went back to Connaught Road, said he wanted to check something out.’