Egg smiled. He had a surprisingly warm smile. “Nothing happened but he started it?” he repeated.

“That’s right.”

“And when did this nothing happen,” Eyebrow said, wandering into the room from the kitchen, “that he started?” She sat down next to her colleague on the ugly pleather two-seater sofa. Side by side, they looked ridiculous—little and large, him long and lean, Lurch to her fat little Fester. Laura smirked.

Eyebrow didn’t like that; her face darkened as she snapped: “Is something funny? Do you think there’s something amusing about this situation, Laura?”

Laura shook her head. “Fester,” she said, smiling. “You’re like Uncle Fester, but with hair. Has anyone ever told you that?”

The woman opened her mouth to speak but Egg, deadpan, cut her off. “Daniel Sutherland,” he said again, louder this time, “didn’t tell us anything about you. We came to speak to you because we lifted two sets of fingerprints from a glass which we found in Daniel’s boat, and the set that wasn’t his, was yours.”

Laura suddenly felt cold. She rubbed her clavicle with her fingers, clearing her throat. “You lifted... what? You liftedfingerprints? What’s going on?”

“Can you tell us about your relationship with Mr. Sutherland, Laura?” Eyebrow said.

“Relationship?” Laura laughed despite herself. “That’s a bit strong. I fucked him twice, Friday night. Wouldn’t really call it arelationship.”

Eyebrow shook her head, in disapproval or disbelief. “And how did you meet him?”

Laura swallowed hard. “I met him, because, you know, sometimes I help out this lady, Irene, she lives on Hayward’s Place, you know, just over by the church there, on the way to the little Tesco. I met her a few months back, and like I say I help her out from time to time because she’s old and a bit arthritic and forgetful and she had a bit of a fall a while back, twisted her ankle or something, she can’t always get to the shops. I don’t do it for money or anything, although she does tend to bung me a fiver every now and again, just for my time, you know, she’s nice like that.... Anyway. Yeah, Dan—Daniel Sutherland—he used to live next door, he hasn’t done for ages but his mother still lived there, at least until she died, which was when we met.”

“You met him when his mother died?”

“After,” Laura said. “I wasn’t actually in the room when she croaked.”

Eyebrow glanced at her colleague, but he wasn’t looking at her; he was looking at the family portrait again, a sad expression on his face.

“Okay,” Eyebrow said, “okay. You were with Mr. Sutherland on Friday, is that right?”

Laura nodded. “We went on adate,” she said, “which for him meant two drinks in a bar in Shoreditch and then back to his crappy boat for a shag.”

“And... and he hurt you? Or... pressured you into something?What did hestart?” Egg asked, leaning forward, his attention fully focused on Laura now. “You said he started something. What was that?”

Laura blinked hard. She had a memory, startlingly clear, of the look of surprise on his face as she went for him. “Everything was fine,” she said, “we had a nice time. I thought we had a good time.” Out of nowhere, she blushed; she felt an intense burst of heat spreading from her chest to her neck and up to her cheeks. “And then, he’s suddenly all like, cold or whatever, like he doesn’t even want me there. He was... offensive.” She looked down at her bum leg, sighed. “I have a condition. I’m a vulnerable adult. I know you said I wasn’t but I am. Vulnerable.”

“So you argued with him?” Eyebrow asked.

Laura nodded. She was looking at her feet. “Yeah, you could say that.”

“Did you fight? Was it physical?”

There was a stain on her trainer, right above the little toe of her left foot. A dark brown stain. She hooked her left foot behind her right ankle. “No, not... well. Notseriously.”

“So, there was violence, but not what you would term serious violence?”

Laura moved her left foot against the back of her right calf. “It was nothing,” she said. “It was just... handbags.”

She looked up at Egg, who was rubbing his forefinger over his thin lips. He in turn looked over at Eyebrow and she back at him, and something passed between them, wordless. An agreement. “Miss Kilbride, Daniel Sutherland’s body was discovered in his home on Sunday morning. Can you tell us exactly when you saw him last?”

Laura’s mouth was suddenly painfully dry, she couldn’t swallow, she heard a roaring in her ears, she squeezed her eyes tight shut. “Hang on...” She got to her feet, steadying herself on the table; shefelt the world tip. She sat down again. “Hang on,” she said again. “Hisbody? Are you saying...?”

“That Mr. Sutherland is dead,” Egg said, his voice quiet and even.

“But... he’s not, is he?” Laura heard her own voice crack. Egg nodded, slowly. “Sunday morning? You said Sunday morning?”

“That’s right,” Egg replied. “Mr. Sutherland was discovered on Sunday morning.”

“But”—Laura could feel her pulse in her throat—“but I saw him on Friday night, I left Saturday morning. I left on Saturday morning. Seven, maybe, maybe even earlier than that.Saturday morning,” she repeated, one last time, for emphasis.