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– was taken from the mantelpiece in the room. The murderer wiped his fingermarks off it afterwards and left it there. Which means—?’
    ‘An amateur,’ said Gascoyne. ‘A professional would have taken the weapon away with him.’
    ‘A professional would have brought his own weapon with him in the first place,’ Norma pointed out, ‘not relied on finding something when he got there.’
    ‘Unless it was spur of the moment,’ Atherton said. ‘He came to see the victim for some other reason and just did it when the overpowering emotion arose. Crime passionelle . Don’t you think that sounds like a fruity blancmange?’
    ‘Or,’ said Slider, ‘he’d been there before, and made a mental note that the statuette would do the job. However, the fact that he didn’t put on gloves does suggest a degree of lack of planning.’
    ‘Maybe there wasn’t time,’ Norma said reasonably. ‘Maybe moments when Bygod was sitting down with his back turned didn’t come all that often.’
    ‘I’ll take that one,’ said Connolly. ‘Sure, if your visitor starts puttin’ on the marigolds while you’re chattin’ about the weather, you might cop on that he’s up to something.’
    ‘Speaking of marigolds,’ Atherton said, looking at Slider, ‘you do realize the prime suspect has got to be the housekeeper, the angelic Mrs Kroll? She has a key, she has every right to be there, she can wander in and out of his room pretty much at will and pick her time. Any noises she makes behind him he’ll be programmed to ignore. We don’t know exactly what time he was killed, and we’ve only got her word that he went out that morning and wasn’t back before she left. She had the perfect excuse to have his blood on her clothes – and if she’s left any fingermarks anywhere, so what?’
    ‘All true,’ said Slider. ‘Except that she also had the perfect excuse to be wearing gloves and not to have to wipe fingermarks off the statue.’
    ‘She didn’t wear them for housework,’ Atherton said, but his face showed he immediately saw the problem.
    ‘Again, we only have her word for that,’ said Slider.
    ‘Well, she’s still the prime suspect,’ Atherton said.
    ‘I don’t disagree. We should look into her background and movements. See if we can find any evidence of when she actually did leave yesterday. Did you get a look at her husband?’
    ‘Very tasty. Big, butch, and angry,’ said Atherton.
    ‘Other lines of enquiry, guv?’ Hollis asked, making a note of the Krolls.
    ‘I’m not sure the local canvass is going to yield anything – people pass up and down the street all the time, in and out of the shops – but you never know. CCTVs – McLaren, see if any of the shops have got one that shows people passing. I know we haven’t got an exact time of death, but for now start collating from two o’clock yesterday afternoon. Fathom, see what London Transport’s got. Their buses have cameras that may have caught something.’
    ‘Right, guv.’
    ‘And forensic may have something to tell us. We should get some fingermarks, at least.’
    ‘If he did have a lot of ex-cons visiting him, that might prove interesting,’ Atherton said.
    ‘Otherwise – find out more about Bygod, obviously,’ Slider went on. ‘Basic background search. Was he retired? What did he do before that? Who were his friends? If he did go out to lunch yesterday, who with? There’s a diary and an address book coming over when forensic have finished with it. Connolly, that’s yours. Also the chequebook – Norma, see if there’s anything interesting in that. And look into his financial position. Was he, in fact, wealthy, and if so, where did the money come from and where did he keep it?’
    ‘When are we going to get a look at the contents of that document safe?’ Atherton asked.
    ‘When forensic have finished with it.’
    ‘Guv, I’ve been thinking,’ said McLaren.
    ‘The first time’s always the worst,’ Slider comforted him.
    ‘He was