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with no illusions about the great charmer. If they were in the market for a quick shag, fine, but they’d have known there wasn’t any more to it than that. You ask me, he was content to stay married to Tina.’
    ‘Why did she put up with him?’
    ‘Why do so many women put up with unsatisfactory men?’
    Hannah shrugged. Good question.
    ‘Christ knows how long the marriage would have lasted once their children left home. Why resort to murder? Charlie wondered about Kirsty Howe, before he decided that his prime suspect wasn’t female at all, but her brotherSam. As far as most of us were concerned, that as good as ruled the boy out of contention. Poor old Charlie, he had a reverse Midas touch.’
    Legend had it that Clueless Charlie’s final promotion to the heady rank of detective superintendent was intended to keep him out of harm’s way, far from the sharp end of detective work carried out by the humble foot-soldiers. By a bitter irony, he hadn’t been smart enough to draw the fat pension earned by dint of fabled incompetence. He’d made the ultimate bad career move in succumbing to the charms of a voluptuous civilian worker from police HQ. Her voracious sexual demands had taxed his portly frame once too often. Result: a massive coronary and a funeral where his widow wept for more than one reason.
    ‘How about Sam as a father-killer?’
    ‘If every kid who ever had a set-to with his dad turned to murder, the world would soon be an empty place. In any case, I told you that Sam’s sister and mother alibied him. That trip up the Hardknott was convenient for all three of them.’
    ‘Too convenient?’
    ‘I was reluctant to believe it. Sam was supposed to have been helping his father in Roz Gleave’s garden, but he cried off at the last minute. Our difficulty was, they had their story and they stuck to it. Word perfect.’
    ‘Suspicious in itself, then.’
    ‘Yes, but who was covering up for whom?’ The careful grammar struck Hannah as a clue to Nick’s character. His instinct was always to obey the rules. ‘Tina may have been guilty, but we never found any buttons to press that would have prompted Kirsty or Sam to grass up their mum. To lose one parent is a misfortune, as Lady Bracknell said; to lose two…’
    ‘You know what statistics tell us. Most murder victims know their killers.’
    ‘And most of the killers are lovers or partners, past or present. But that didn’t narrow the field of suspects much in this particular case.’
    ‘So we’re wasting our time if we follow up the tip-off?’
    ‘You’re the boss.’
    ‘I’m asking your opinion.’
    ‘You said yourself, the likelihood is that someone’s trying to settle a score with Tina. This note doesn’t offer any corroborative evidence. Not a sliver.’
    Hannah glanced again at the photograph of Warren Howe, taken by the woman accused of slashing him to pieces. Despite the smile, his blue eyes were watchful and she saw a challenge in the bared teeth. He was daring her to solve the mystery of his death.
    ‘Once I’ve read through the file, I might drive out to Old Sawrey, get the feel of the place. I’ve never been further than Hill Top.’
    Nick took a breath. ‘If we start turning over stones, who knows what we’ll find? Plenty of worms, but maybe nothing to do with the crimes we’re investigating.’
    ‘Such is life.’
    ‘That’s the danger, don’t you see? It’s a risk with all the cases in our too-difficult file. If we don’t solve the crime, we can cause more harm than good. Hurt people who don’t deserve it. Didn’t someone once call it ordeal by innocence?’
     
    Hannah had never visited Old Sawrey before. The Lake District was full of tucked-away spots known by dedicated walkers to the last blade of grass, but ignored by most of Cumbria’s natives. You never check out what’s on your own doorstep.
    Should she commit resources to reopening the Warren Howe inquiry or go along with Nick and let this particular sleeping