‘We did, sir. He has an alibi for the night of the murder, and it checks out. The odd thing is that he saw the other intruder a couple of nights ago — he couldn’t give a description, but he definitely saw him go through the window of Mrs Sylvia Wilson’s house.’

‘Are you sure that none of this is Ratty’s doing, Stacey?’ asked Jackman.

Stacey glanced at Jay. ‘We’re both certain, sir. He was bricking it, and not because he felt guilty. This other fella scares him — badly. Plus, Ratty always throws up his hands to what he does. It’s a compulsion. He’s no thief, and he has no history of ever going near children.’

‘Well, that’s good enough for me,’ said Jackman. ‘I hope you warned him to butt out of his “compulsion” for a bit. We don’t want him muddying the waters.’

‘Stacey has already done that, sir,’ said Jay. ‘Firmly too.’

Jackman smiled. ‘She has a way with words, our Stacey.’ He looked around. ‘Now, anything else?’

There was little more to discuss, so Jackman brought the meeting to a close. Back in his office, Marie asked about Giles Bannon. ‘In light of the murder, shall we drop our background checks on him, boss?’

He pulled a face. ‘No, better not. As soon as the initial flurry of activity surrounding the old lady’s death dies down there’ll be a pause. It won’t take long to conduct our house-to-house enquiries and so on, and then we’ll be left waiting for Forensics to fill in the gaps. I’d rather not let our friend Giles escape our minds. I think we’d better be prepared.’

‘Good. I wish I could get a sense of whether he’s really guilty or not. It helps if you find yourself talking to the man himself.’

Jackman smiled at her. It was good to see Marie so on top of things, so relaxed. ‘So, the next thing is to start delving into Nan Cutler’s past. Apart from a few snippets from the next-door neighbours, we know precious little about that old lady.’

‘Me and Gary will press on with that,’ said Marie. ‘We’ve already brought back a load of personal papers from the house, which’ll help us build up a picture of her background.’

‘Okay. Meanwhile, it’s time I brought Ruth up to speed.’ He paused. ‘But get away on time tonight, Marie, and make sure the others do too. We could get busy soon, so take advantage of an early night while you can. Or maybe you have plans for this evening?’

‘Might have.’

‘Ah.’

She laughed. ‘Better put you out of your misery, I suppose.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Yes, I’m having dinner with Ralph Enderby.’

‘Good for you! Have a lovely evening.’

‘I’m sure I will. Oh, and tell Laura we’ll be happy to join you both for dinner.’

He beamed at her. He’d waited years for this. One of his greatest aims in life had been to see Marie happy again.