Perez thought this tied in with the flowers in the living room and the hopeful tone of the note he’d found on the dressing table. He stood up to leave. ‘Do you think Anna Blackwell committed suicide?’

Maggie answered straightaway. ‘Not in a thousand years. She adored her daughter. There was no way she would have killed herself and left Lucy without a mother.’

‘Did she ever tell you who the father was?’

Maggie shook her head. ‘I never asked and she never told me. It was Anna’s big secret. I’ve never felt the need to pry into the affairs of my staff.’

When Perez walked out into the playground, it was almost dark and the children had stopped singing. He turned to look back at the school and saw the head teacher staring out at him.

8

The Colleague

Jimmy Perez was hungry. It seemed a long time since he’d eaten the soup in Gail’s farmhouse and he decided to have an early dinner. He made his way back to the hotel along the silent village streets. It was impossible to believe that anything sinister could happen in a place that was as quiet and ordinary as Stonebridge.

As he walked into the hotel, Perez saw three people – two men and a woman – sitting around a table in a corner of the lounge bar. He recognised one of the men as his ex-wife’s husband, Doctor Tom King. The rest of the bar was empty, but Perez couldn’t be seen where he stood in the lobby. He was hidden by a large plant in a copper pot, and he had a good view through a glass door. He stood there, feeling a bit silly. Like a kid playing hide-and-seek. He strained to make out what the people in the lounge were saying.

‘This can’t go on, Tom. Two patients refused to see you today, even though it meant waiting nearly a week to get an appointment with another doctor.’ That was the woman. Her voice was clear, rather shrill, and easy to hear.

Perez thought she was most likely a doctor too. She had the confidence that doctors seem to carry round with them. He assumed that both the strangers were Tom King’s colleagues. They must have come to the hotel to discuss the aftermath of Anna’s death.

‘I’m not sure what you expect me to do.’ Tom King sounded drained, almost desperate. ‘The police have closed the case. I’ve been cleared of any misconduct.’

‘You must put all these rumours to rest, Tom.’ It was the woman again. She sounded like a parent telling off a naughty boy. ‘I don’t care how you do it. Can’t you get Sarah to help? I’ve always seen her as a pillar of the village. Surely she can persuade these gossips to stop?’

‘I don’t think there’s anything anyone can do,’ Tom said. ‘We just have to hope that it all blows over and the village finds another target for its malice.’