It was another common belief that no-commenting one’s way through an interview would somehow absolve them of guilt. On the contrary, when cases reached court, judges tended to look unfavourably on uncooperative defendants.

‘Okay, let’s try something else,’ Caroline said. ‘You told us in your first interview that you had no real connection or relationship with any of the Clifton family, and that you knew them only through the church. Do you want to change anything there?’

Walsh shook his head. ‘No.’

‘I’d like you to take a look at this photo.’ Caroline passed Walsh a printout of the photo she’d taken of him and Alice Clifton outside Orbis. ‘Do you recognise the people in this photo?’

Walsh’s jaw tensed. ‘No comment.’

‘Is the male you?’

‘No comment.’

‘I think it looks quite a lot like you.’

‘No comment.’

‘In fact, I think it is you. Do you recognise the female?’

‘No. No comment.’

‘I hate to burst your bubble, Patrick, but that is a comment. Is the female Alice Clifton?’ Walsh didn’t answer. ‘That’s you and Alice Clifton, isn’t it, Patrick? What are you both doing in this picture?’ Although it was blindingly obvious what they were doing, Caroline was keen to lead him into answering, as opposed to putting everything in front of him at once. ‘Are you and Alice Clifton in a relationship? How long has that relationship been going on? Did you kill Roger Clifton because you wanted to be with his wife?’

‘No. I didn’t kill Roger.’

This was the first time Patrick had explicitly denied his involvement in the murder. Caroline pushed harder.

‘It looks to me a lot like you did. Here you are, captured on camera, kissing Alice Clifton. Your phone indicates you were in the vicinity of Normanton Church at the time her husband was murdered. It’s not looking great, is it?’

‘I wasn’t in Normanton. I was in Empingham.’

There was silence in the interview room for a second or two. Caroline glanced down at the cell site map she’d been given, and sensed Dexter doing the same. It was true. The highlighted area showing the possible locations of Patrick’s phone did include Empingham. Walsh knew they had cell site data, but he hadn’t seen the map so would have had no way of knowing how wide the radius was. He had no way of knowing it included Empingham. It would have been one hell of a gamble on his part, so Caroline’s assumption had to be that he was telling the truth.

‘Empingham? Why’s that?’

Walsh let out a huge sigh. ‘I was with Alice.’

‘Alice Clifton?’

‘Yes.’

‘What for?’

Walsh looked up and made eye contact with Caroline. ‘What do you think?’

‘I don’t know. You tell me.’

‘Put it this way: I stayed overnight.’