‘Tony Gardner,’ she said.

‘Yeah, that’s him.’ He tugged at the frayed end of a cloth bracelet on his right wrist. ‘Thing is, Tony’s upset about his death.’

‘Tony couldn’t come in himself?’

‘He lives a bit out of town, up in Hadleigh, and I’m central, so, you know, I said I’d pop in.’

He watched tensely as Sasha flicked through her notebook.

‘So while you’re here, Abs, I wonder if you’re able to give us some information.’ Sasha smiled amiably. ‘After all, you and Tony and Andrew Dean and…’

She stared at her notes, momentarily unable to make sense of her own writing, and Abs said, ‘Jez Weston – Jeremy – my best mate.’

‘Yes, the four of you were questioned about the disappearance of Rhiannon Jenkins several years ago.’

Abs made a sucking sound with his teeth. ‘I regret to say we was. But of course we had nothing to do with that.’ He smiled anxiously. ‘Why, do you think Deano was…?’

‘A murder investigation has begun into Mr Dean’s death,’ Sasha said, and Abs swallowed. ‘Would you like some water?’

‘I’m good, Detective Silver.’

‘Dawson,’ she said.

‘Detective Dawson, yeah,’ he said. ‘Thing is, as I say, I didn’t know Deano that well. He was Tony’s mate. I only met him the once, on the trip to Wales. We didn’t get on, me and him. He wasn’t a… charming individual.’

‘Do you know if he had any enemies?’

Abs laughed grimly. ‘Loads, I’d imagine. Deano couldn’t hold his drink, he was a lairy fella, and he’d had a few run-ins with the feds… the police, I mean.’

Andrew Dean’s criminal record stretched back to his teenage years and included custodial sentences for assault, affray and threatening behaviour, as well as driving under the influence. He’d also been cautioned a number of times for alcohol-related incidents.

‘Look.’ Abs took out his phone to look at the time on the screen. ‘I’d love to help, but I’ve got to go soon. I’m going out tonight. It’s the annual Laid In Essex! production party.’

He grinned, perhaps waiting for her to ask him all about it, but all she said was, ‘That’s nice.’

‘Yeah, they’ve invited some of the old faces from the show. Not that any of us are old, I mean former cast members. A lot of famous people are going to be there, some mates of mine you’d probably recognize. I’m really looking forward to it.’ Sasha could tell just by the way his grin lifted to his ears. ‘And my best girl Kelsey’s gonna be there.’

‘Sounds great. So just to clarify, do you have any information you think would be useful to us in our investigation?’

Abs’s fingers fluttered impatiently on the table. ‘No, why would I? I ain’t seen Deano in years. I wouldn’t wish him harm or anything, but I really didn’t have anything in common with him, except…’

Sasha waited for him to finish the thought.

Except for that time we were both questioned about the disappearance of a young woman.