‘In that case you can be Johnnie, and I’ll boss you around,’ Jane quickly retorted, making Nick laugh.

‘Do you like soup?’ she asked, deciding she’d have a go at Father Chris’s widow’s soup recipe.

‘What’s in it?’

‘If I told you, it would spoil the surprise.’

Nick followed Jane into the house to get his drawing book. They kissed briefly and he walked back to his car. Standing at the front door, Jane saw Gerry walking around Nick’s Jaguar and looking inside. She watched as the two men had a brief conversation and then Gerry got in the passenger seat.

Nick waved. ‘I’m going to take your neighbour for a quick spin. See you tomorrow.’

Jane waved back as they drove off. After spending time in Nick’s company and then making love with him, everything felt natural and easy between them. She knew she had strong feelings for him, which he had reciprocated. ‘Could he finally be Mr Right?’ she asked herself.

Jane put her house keys in the bowl next to the hallway telephone, then noticed the notepad with Jack the mortuary technician’s phone number on it. She was in two minds about calling Jack but decided it might be better to do it now, as he would probably be busy on Monday morning. She dialled the number and he answered.

‘Hi, Jack. It’s DS Tennison here. I was told you wanted to speak to me about another priest visiting the nun.’

‘Oh yes, thanks for calling me back, sergeant. It may be something and nothing, but it was quite distressing at the time, so I thought I should let you know about it. Anyway, yesterday morning I was doing a suicide post-mortem with Professor Martin. Poor chap jumped off his balcony on the tenth floor of a tower block. He was quite a mess, I can tell you—’

Jane interrupted, sensing it was going to be a long-winded account. ‘DC Lyons mentioned the bishop had sent another priest down to say a prayer for the nun. In fairness, the bishop didn’t know Father Floridia had already done it, so there’s actually nothing to worry about.’

‘I wasn’t worried, sergeant. But I thought the priest’s behaviour was a bit bizarre when he was alone with the nun’s body in the chapel of rest. It was very different to the way Father Floridia behaved.’

‘I guess they all have different ways of praying,’ Jane said, losing interest.

‘I’ve seen many priests and vicars say a prayer for the dead at the mortuary,’ Jack continued, ‘but this was the first time I saw one get down on his knees and cry.’

Jane was suddenly interested again, and wanted more detail. ‘And you actually witnessed this?’

‘He didn’t know I was watching. I forgot to close the curtain on the door window. The priest had his back to me.’