‘Yes, but the boyfriend maintained that they were a good little Christian couple and weren’t having sex. They were doing the saving-it-for-marriage thing. So if she was saving it for marriage with him, why did she need these?’

‘He could have been lying, just another part of the act – throw doubt.’

‘If you’d seen him, you’d realise he was telling the truth. He comes across as rather … flaky, I suppose. Very Christian.’ I was sure there were plenty of good Christian folk out there who would resent that comment, but it was the best description. ‘She was on the Pill for a reason. It wouldn’t be for fun, believe me. Those things screw your body up.’

He gave me an indecipherable look. ‘Don’t some women need them to regulate periods? Or even acne? Perhaps she was on them for medical reasons.’ It was a good question.

‘That could be the case, but I don’t think so,’ I said. ‘The boyfriend said they hadn’t seen that much of each other lately, too busy and stuff like that. Maybe they hadn’t been seeing each other because she was seeing someone else, someone with a penchant for murder. She could have been weaning off contact with him or been avoiding him because she felt guilty because she was sleeping with someone else.’

‘I thought it was only guys who did things like that.’

‘Guys wouldn’t feel guilty about it.’

‘True,’ he said. ‘Did the post-mortem results mention any sign of sexual assault or activity?’

‘Not that I’m aware of, the prelim just talked of cause of death. I can make a phone call to get more details there – I have a friend in the morgue.’

‘Alive, I presume.’

‘Last time I checked. Of the pathologist variety.’

‘Handy. So we’re back to looking at this murder in terms of her direct associates. If you’re right, and she was duped by the killer because she was expecting a gift or proposal even, then relationships take time to reach that kind of level where you can look at commitment.’ I could feel Paul’s eyes on me, but I stared fixedly down at the desk while he continued. ‘If the boyfriend talked of them being a bit distant for a while, then the relationship with the killer could have been going on for some time, which then begs the question: is this murder related to the other murders at all, or is it just a coincidence of timing? We may have completely separate cases here.’