‘That if you take away all the smokescreens and petty jealousies, especially after listening to Penny Hawkins, who although she comes across as a bit of a prickly bitch I think is pretty astute, Rose-Marie Bateman was having an affair with someone, who took it upon themselves to kill her. And the reason she was killed was because she’d become surplus to requirements or things were getting too complicated for the killer. Penny said she was behaving like she was in love. Perhaps the killer wasn’t expecting that – or couldn’t cope with it. Anyway, I don’t think it has anything to do with what she was researching or her university work because everyone there had too much to lose with her gone.’

‘What about the professor? Wouldn’t he get more glory with her out of the picture, one less name on the list of authors of the research paper?’

‘Short term yes, but long term, if there was a lot of offshoot research because of this, she was his meal ticket. I’m quite sure he would be looking at the long-term view.’

My pontificating was abruptly cut off by the sound of my cellphone. The shock of it breaking the quiet set my heart racing. When I saw the name on the screen, it ramped up a little more.

‘Shit,’ I muttered and then answered. ‘Hello?’

‘Gidday.’ He was so self-assured he didn’t even say who it was. I’d fix him.

‘Hi, who’s this?’

‘My number’s programmed into your phone, Sam. You saw the name when you answered the phone. Stop playing silly buggers.’

Damn, sprung. I turned aside, so Smithy wouldn’t see the embarrassed look on my face. ‘Hi Paul.’

‘That’s better. Say, what are you doing for lunch today? Court’s taking a recess, so do you want to grab a bite?’

‘I’d love to, but I’ve already arranged to meet Maggie – I have a little debt to settle. Perhaps tomorrow. Will you still be in town?’ I was quite relieved I didn’t have to lie to him as, yes, I was meeting Maggie, at Modak’s for a cinnamon pinwheel to make good on my gambling debt. I could work on tomorrow’s excuse tomorrow. I realised I’d left an opening this evening and decided to close it. ‘I’m meeting Mum for dinner tonight; it looks like they’re heading home tomorrow.’ Okay, so I did have to lie, after all.

‘Excuses, excuses,’ he said, with good humour in his voice. I felt a pang of guilt. He was a good man and he sure as hell got my pulse racing, but ‘us’ just didn’t feel quite right. ‘I’ll give you a ring tomorrow and see if you’ve got a space in your busy schedule for lunch. Bye.’

He hung up before I had a chance to respond and I was left staring at the phone.