Sefton realized that there was something he’d expected Ross to have mentioned by now, yet she hadn’t. ‘The barmaid gave you something,’ he said to her.

‘Yeah.’ Ross raised a finger, wait a sec, as if she’d forgotten. Sefton was pretty sure she hadn’t. She found it in her bag and pinned it to the board. It was a colourful flier for the pub evening. ‘I think that was her way of saying that, no matter what had happened to her, I was welcome in that pub.’

Sefton didn’t know why he felt worried at her poker face. An alert went off on Ross’ phone. She looked at it. ‘DCI Forrest’s office. The fingerprint results have been checked between both crime scenes. And … we have a match.’

‘Excellent,’ said Quill.

‘The smeared one at the Staunce scene, by the message on the wall, is the same as one found inside the Spatley car. So, since Tunstall was in custody for the Spatley murder when Staunce was killed—’

‘That should clear Tunstall of suspicion.’ Quill indicated the objectives list. ‘I’d say we’ve achieved objective seven there.’

‘—but said fingerprint doesn’t appear in any criminal database, so Forrest’s office is asking us to help build a case against Tunstall by looking into the possibility that he may have had an accomplice.’

‘This is what happens,’ sighed Quill, ‘when only one suspect is visible.’

*   *   *

An hour later, Ross found Costain alone by the tea kettle. She made sure she was calm, and then she walked over to him. ‘I’ve changed my mind,’ she said.

‘About what?’

‘About tonight.’

‘Too late,’ said Costain, slurping his tea as he moved off. ‘I booked the table.’

Ross stood there for a moment after he’d left, annoyed at how easily he’d shrugged that off, and at how it turned out she didn’t mind that.

*   *   *

That evening, Sefton put the Xbox controller down on the table and closed his eyes. ‘I killed someone,’ he said.

Joe took a deep breath and slowly lowered his own controller. ‘I wondered what you hadn’t been saying,’ he said.

Sefton told him everything.

Joe held on to him. Finally he said, ‘You killed someone by accident, someone who was trying to kill you.’

‘I know that.’

‘You lot would normally get counselling and compassionate leave—’

‘And be investigated and interviewed and all that, and I could do with that and all.’

‘Because that would end up with you being officially told you hadn’t done anything wrong.’

‘Probably.’

‘Well, you haven’t.’

Sefton considered for a moment, and realized that, as always, Joe had helped him frame how he really felt. ‘No,’ he said finally, ‘I have.’

*   *   *

‘Russell Vincent bought our paper,’ said Sarah, dropping her bag onto the kitchen table.