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puzzled frown.
    ‘I saw them, same as you.’
    ‘So the van could have been stationary when the Porsche went into it?’
    The old man shook his head. ‘I can’t see how that could be possible.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Well, given the extent of the damage – I suppose I just assumed both vehicles had been moving. I mean, I don’t see how one car could have accelerated to such a speed over such a short distance to do that amount of damage.’
    A s they walked back to the car, they considered what the witness had told them.
    ‘He seemed to know the van wasn’t stationary, even though he claimed he wasn’t there at the time,’ Sam said.
    ‘Yes. But then again, he’s spent a lifetime driving. I suppose he must have a pretty shrewd understanding of what’s likely in a collision.’
    They agreed it was far-fetched to suppose the white-haired taxi driver could have been involved in the car crash, even though, by his own admission, he and his fare had been the only other people present.
    ‘T here might have been someone else there. Hallam must’ve been preoccupied by the sight of the crash, no doubt in a bit of a tizz. The other driver could have slipped away without Hallam noticing,’ Sam said. ‘He might have been hiding in the back of the van until the coast was clear.’
    Geraldine shook her head in frustration. ‘No one could have survived the crash intact. It’s impossible that anyone could have been behind the wheel.’
    Equally, it didn’t make sense that the van driver could have survived to leave the scene without being spotted.
    ‘Is it possible Bernard Hallam could have been driving the van himself?’ Sam suggested.
    ‘I don’t see how he could have been. He was in his taxi.’
    ‘That’s what he told us. But what if that’s not the whole story?’
    T hey sat in the car and Sam outlined her theory. But she had to agree it was impossible for him to have left his taxi nearby, set the van off in the direction of the Porsche, then somehow jumped out before it really got up speed. He would have had to run off to collect his taxi and driven back round the corner to the scene of the accident in time to be first back on the scene to call the police. The theory would explain his presence at the scene, and account for any traces of his DNA in the van. All the same, it was impossible to believe the old man capable of achieving so superhuman a feat.
    ‘And why?’ Geraldine concluded. ‘Why on earth would he have done it? And could he really have jumped out of a speeding van? I mean, really?’
    ‘Could anyone? But apparently someone did.’
    A sergeant had been investigating Bernard Hallam. They called the station to ask if he had anything to add to what they knew. He hadn’t discovered any connection between the victim and the witness who had a clean record, and appeared to have been happily married for over forty years. Apart from the impossibility of his driving the van, he was an unlikely suspect.
    A s Geraldine was dismissing the theory as groundless, Sam latched onto it with enthusiasm.
    ‘Perhaps he was stalking her.’
    ‘Stalking her?’
    ‘Yes! She was a well known TV actress, wasn’t she? In Down and Out. The cast of these shows always have people stalking them, and his wife died less than a year ago, after a long marriage. He might have been suffering some sort of grief-crazed obsession with Anna as a reaction to his wife’s death.’
    Sam was getting excited about her theory. Geraldine thought about it for a few minutes, but it didn’t seem possible.
    ‘You were the one who didn’t think Piers was guilty,’ Sam reminded her. ‘Someone must have been driving that van.’
    G eraldine thought it quite likely someone had used Piers’ van to throw the police off the scent by casting suspicion on its owner. With Piers so obvious a suspect, there would be no need for the police to look elsewhere for the other driver. Meanwhile, Piers had been alone at home, with no alibi.
    ‘It’s