‘Are the police involved at all?’ he asked.

‘They were called but they decided it was suicide. Or a terrible accident. The case is closed.’

‘So just give it time,’ he said. ‘It’ll blow over. People will soon find something else to talk about.’ He was already planning his trip home.

‘I can’t stand it. Please, Jimmy.’

A door swung open and he saw that two children had cleared a space at the kitchen table. There was a girl who looked like Sarah and had her head stuck in a book. A boy was playing with a huge box of Lego.

‘Two days,’ he said. ‘I can’t give you more time than that.’ He paused. ‘Tell me about the woman who died.’ Jimmy Perez could never turn down a plea for help. It was almost an illness with him.

Sarah led him through to a living room at the back of the house, where two sofas sat close to the fire. Again, everything was tasteful and tidy. She drew the curtains. ‘The dead woman was called Anna Blackwell and she was a teacher at the village school. In her twenties. A single mum. In a place like this, that caused gossip enough.’

‘How did she die?’

‘An overdose. Antidepressants.’

‘And Tom was her doctor? He prescribed the medicine?’

Sarah nodded.

‘It’s a long jump from that to saying he was a killer. Was anything else going on?’

The room was quiet. Outside in the dark an owl hooted in the trees behind the house.

‘They’re saying he was having an affair with her.’ She spoke quickly, as if she couldn’t bear to have the words in her mouth. As if she wanted to spit them out.

‘And what does Tom say?’

‘I don’t know,’ Sarah said. ‘He won’t talk about it.’

‘But you have asked him?’

‘How can I?’ Her voice was shrill. ‘It would be like accusing him of murder.’

There was another moment of silence. ‘Does Tom know that you’ve asked me to help?’

‘No! He’s a proud man. He’d hate to think I’d asked you to sort it out. He’d see it as meddling.’

‘I see it as meddling,’ Perez said. ‘And I’m not sure that I can sort it out.’

But Sarah seemed not to hear. ‘Anna lived in one of the ex-council houses at the edge of the village. I expect her neighbours will tell you all about her. Perhaps there was another man. Or you can find out why she might have wanted to kill herself. Even if nobody else is charged with her murder, that might be enough to stop people thinking it was Tom. He won’t talk about it but it’s making him ill. He doesn’t sleep. And he’s grown so thin.’

There was another minute of silence, then Perez stood up. ‘I’d better make a start then.’

‘Yes, yes. You should go before Tom comes home.’ It was almost as if she was scared of her husband.

She opened the door to let Jimmy out. He stood for a moment on the path, looking in at the kitchen and the well-behaved children at the table. Sarah was stirring something in a pan on the stove. It all looked too good to be true.