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afraid not.’
    ‘I think that’ll do for the time being, Sharon,’ I said. ‘Now perhaps you’d carefully read the statement that Inspector Ebdon has taken down. You can make any changes you want to, and then perhaps you’d sign it.’
    Kate handed over the several sheets of paper and a pen. ‘Put in your date of birth at the top of the form, Sharon. You’ll see a space for it.’
    ‘Do I have to?’ Sharon Gregory fluttered her eyelashes and once again assumed a coy expression. She seemed to be very good at coy expressions.
    ‘Yes, please,’ said Kate firmly, unmoved by the woman’s shrinking-violet artifice.
    Sharon Gregory took a few minutes to read the statement. ‘I’m not sure about the bit where I said that I came up here first to get my robe. I think perhaps I was wandering around in the nude …’ She glanced at me as she said that, and smiled.
    ‘Let me get this straight. Are you now saying that you were walking around the house with your male neighbour, but you don’t think you had any clothes on?’ asked Kate sharply.
    ‘I can’t really remember. As I said, I was confused and frightened.’ Sharon shot another shy smile in my direction.
    Kate took back the statement and made the necessary alteration. ‘There we are. Now perhaps you’d sign it at the bottom of each page, Sharon.’ She handed the woman the sheaf of forms and proffered a pen.
    Without another word, Sharon scribbled her signature in the places Kate had indicated.
    ‘We’ll undoubtedly have to talk to you again soon, Sharon,’ I said.
    ‘Yes, I suppose so,’ said the woman, but I got the impression that she was not relishing the prospect of another interview.
    ‘When are you next due on duty?’ I asked.
    ‘Not until Wednesday afternoon.’
    ‘One other thing, Sharon,’ said Kate, as we stood up to leave. ‘Would you mind just pulling up your sleeves?’
    Sharon didn’t query this request and did as she was asked.
    ‘And now your ankles.’ Kate stepped closer and examined the woman’s wrists and ankles. ‘Thank you, Sharon,’ she said. ‘I should get some rest now, if I were you. Can I get someone to bring you a cup of tea?’
    ‘That would be nice, thank you. Then I think I’ll try to get some sleep.’
    ‘Tell me, Sharon, was your husband’s life insured?’ asked Kate. It was the sort of barbed question that she was very good at posing, and she asked it almost as a throwaway query. As though it were of no real importance.
    ‘Yes, thank goodness, but unfortunately it’s only for twenty thousand pounds. Cliff took it out when we were married and I don’t think he bothered to increase the amount. I’ve always left the financial side of things to him. He’s very good at it, being an accountant. Still,’ continued Sharon, ‘this house is worth quite a bit and I’ll probably have to sell it now. I really don’t know what I’m going to do.’ Her last statement was accompanied by a suitably sad expression.
    We left it at that, but I determined that I’d get DS Flynn, who had previously served on the Fraud Squad, to look into the Gregorys’ financial affairs.
    I was unhappy about the statement that Kate had just taken. Somehow it didn’t seem to hang together, and I began to wonder if we were dealing with something more complex than a straightforward break-in that ended up as a murder. The possibility that was foremost in my mind was that the so-called intruder was actually an accomplice and that he and Sharon had arranged the whole thing. But we had a long way to go before we could prove that.

FOUR
    D ownstairs in the hall, Kate sought out the woman PC who had earlier been sitting with Sharon Gregory. ‘Get a cup of tea organized for Mrs Gregory and take it up to her, would you, please?’ she said.
    ‘Yes, ma’am,’ said the WPC, and turned to go. If she thought that making cups of tea wasn’t included in her job description, she had yet to learn that care of victims was an important part of