‘Sam, Sam, Sam,’ he said, his beaming phizgog bobbing up and down in front of mine in synch with each repetition. ‘You are going to love this, you are going to love this so much.’

‘Not half as much as you do, by the look of it. So are you going to share the cause of your excitement, or are you going to leave me in suspense?’ I tried to walk around him so I could chuck my bag under my desk.

‘Suspense,’ he said as he blocked my path.

‘Do you like being hurt?’ He can’t have been tuned in to my mood, or else he would have gotten the hell out of my way.

‘It depends who’s doing the hurting, but no. DI Johns wants to see you, and when you get out, let’s see if you’re doing the jig too.’

I frowned at him, puzzled, shoved my bag into his hands and, with a what-have-I-got-to-lose wave, headed down to the DI’s office. It must be something good to get Smithy that animated. He hadn’t even been that excited when his wife had a massive box of choccies and a dozen Mars Bar muffins delivered to his desk for his birthday.

Having circumvented the array of printers and shredders outside in the hallway, I took a deep breath, knocked at the DI’s door and walked in.

The DI had an odd look on his face. It hung between expressions, like he wasn’t quite sure whether to be amused or pissed off. ‘Constable Shephard, take a seat.’

I walked to the proffered chair and sat down. ‘You wanted to talk to me?’

‘Yes.’ He cleared his throat. ‘A rather interesting situation has come up concerning Mr Bennett, the circus owner.’

‘Have you already established him as the murderer?’ I asked. That was quick. Surely, the only way that could have happened would be with a confession, but to be frank, he didn’t look the type to own up to dropping a fart let alone a murder or two.

‘No, we didn’t get very far with Mr Bennett at all and…’ he paused, as though he didn’t want to finish the sentence. ‘He refused to talk to us.’ The DI had his hands clasped together, resting on the desk. His knuckles were rather white. ‘It would appear that Mr Bennett has developed a particular liking for you. He has made it very clear he will only deal with the police if you are present.’