By nine-thirty Kate and Benton were back in Wisteria House and had showered, changed and eaten the supper served by Mrs. Shepherd in the dining room. Both liked to get out of their working clothes before joining Dalgliesh at the end of the day, when he would review the state of the investigation and set out the programme for the next twenty-four hours. It was a familiar routine to which both looked forward, Kate with more confidence than Benton. He knew that AD was satisfied with him—he wouldn’t otherwise still be part of the team—but he recognised that he could be over-enthusiastic in putting forward opinions which more thought would have modified, and his anxiety to curb this tendency to over-enthusiasm inhibited spontaneity, so that the evening review, although an exhilarating and important part of the investigation, was never without anxiety.

Since their arrival at Wisteria House, Kate and he had seen little of their hosts. There had been time only for brief introductions before they had left their bags in the hall and returned to the Manor. A white visiting card, with the address and the names Claude and Caroline Shepherd, had been handed to them, on which the initials EMO signified, as Mrs. Shepherd explained, that the evening meal was optional and that dinner could and would be provided. This had set off a fascinating chain of more esoteric initials in Benton’s mind: HBO—Hot Baths Optional, or Hard Beds Optional; HWBO—Hot Water Bottles Optional. Kate had spent only a minute in reiterating the warning already given by Chief Inspector Whetstone that their arrival should be kept private. She did it with tact. Both she and Benton had needed no more than a glance at the Shepherds’ intelligent and serious faces to know that they didn’t need and wouldn’t welcome any reminder of an assurance already given.

Mr. Shepherd had said, “We’ve no temptation to be indiscreet, Inspector. The village people are polite and not unfriendly, but they are a little suspicious of incomers. We’ve only been here for nine years, which makes us recent arrivals in their eyes, so we don’t see much of each other. We never drink in the Cressett Arms and we aren’t churchgoers.” He made the last statement with the self-satisfaction of one who has resisted the temptation to fall into a dangerous habit.