Templeton shot Winsome a glance. “No need for you to be sarcastic as well. Don’t think I didn’t catch your tone. Are you okay with the way the super wants us to play it?”

“I’m fine.”

Templeton’s eyes narrowed. “Am I to take it you don’t-”

But before he could finish, the door opened and Calvin Soames stood there. “Police, isn’t it?” he said. “What do you want this time?”

“Just come to clear a couple of things up, Mr. Soames,” said Templeton, bringing out his best smile and offering his hand. Soames ignored it. “Is your daughter at home?”

Soames grunted.

“All right if we come in?”

“Wipe your feet.” And with that he turned back into the gloom and left them to their own devices.

After further wiping their feet on a bristly mat, they followed him into the inner recesses of the house and heard him call out, “Kelly! It’s for you.”

The girl came downstairs, and her face registered disappointment when she saw Templeton and Winsome standing there in the hallway. “You’d better come through,” she said, leading them into the kitchen, which was marginally brighter and smelled of bleach and overripe bananas. A black-and-white cat stirred lazily, jumped off its chair and sidled out of the room.

They all sat on sturdy hard-backed chairs around the table. Calvin Soames muttered something about work and headed out, but Templeton called him back. “This concerns you, too, Mr. Soames,” he said. “Please sit down.”

Soames let a moment pass, then he sat.

“What’s this all about?” asked Kelly. “I’ve told you everything already.”

“Well, that’s just it, you see,” said Templeton. “Being the untrusting detectives that we are, we don’t take anything at face value, or on first account. It’s like first impressions, see, they can so often be wrong. Any chance of a cup of tea?”

“I’ll put the kettle on,” said Kelly.

She was definitely fit, Templeton thought, as he watched her move toward the range with just the barest swinging of her hips, encased in tight jeans. Her waist was slender as a wand and she wore a jet belly-piercing, which made a nice contrast to her pale skin. Her blond hair was tied back, but a few tresses had escaped and framed her pale oval face. Her breasts moved tantalizingly under the short yellow T-shirt, and Templeton guessed that she wasn’t wearing a bra. Lucky bugger, that Barber, Templeton thought. If the last thing on earth he had done was shag Kelly Soames, then it can’t have been such a bad way to go. He began to wonder if, perhaps when they’d got this business over and done with, he might be in with a chance himself.

When the tea was served, Winsome took out her notebook and Templeton sat back in his chair. “Right,” he said. “Now, you, Mr. Soames, returned back here at about seven o’clock on Friday evening. Am I right?”

“That’s right.”

“To check if you’d turned off the gas ring?”

“It’s sometimes on so low,” he answered, “that a puff of air would blow it out. A couple of times I’ve come home and smelled gas. I thought it best to check, as I don’t live far from the Cross Keys.”

“About a five-minute drive each way, is that right?”

“About that, aye.”

“And you, Miss Soames, you were working at the Cross Keys all evening, right?”

Kelly chewed her thumbnail and nodded.

“How long have you been working there?”

“About two years now. There’s not much else to do around here.”

“Ever thought of moving to the big city?”

Kelly looked at her father and said, “No.”

“Nice place to work, is it, the Cross Keys?”

“It’s all right.”

“Good spot to meet lads?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Oh, come on, Kelly. You’re a barmaid. You must meet lots of lads, get chatted up a lot, nice-looking girl like you.”

She blushed at that, and the ghost of a smile crossed her face, Templeton noticed. Maybe he was in with a chance after all. As Calvin Soames looked on, the frown deepened on his forehead in a series of lines down to the bridge of his nose.

“Do they tell you their troubles?” Templeton went on. “How their wives don’t understand them and they’re wasted on the jobs they’re doing?”

Kelly shrugged. “Sometimes,” she said. “When it’s quiet.”

“What do you do for fun?”

“Dunno. Go out with my mates, I suppose.”

“But where do you go? There’s not exactly a lot for a young girl to do around here, is there? It can’t be very exciting.”

“There’s Eastvale.”

“Oh, yes. I’m sure you enjoy a Saturday night out in Eastvale with the lads, listening to dirty jokes, getting bladdered and puking your guts up with the rest of them around the market cross. No, I mean, a girl like you, there must be something better, something more. Surely?”

“There’s dances sometimes, and bands,” Kelly said.

“Who do you like?”

“Dunno.”

“Come on, you must have a favorite.”

She shifted in her chair. “I dunno, really. Keane. Maybe.”

“Ah, Keane.”

“You know them?”

“I’ve heard them,” said Templeton. “Nick Barber was really into bands, wasn’t he?”

Kelly seemed to tense up again. “He said he liked music,” she said.

“Didn’t he say he could get you into all the best concerts down in London?”

“I don’t think so. I’ve never been to London.”

Templeton felt Winsome’s gaze boring into the side of his head. Her legs were crossed, and one of them was twitching. She clearly didn’t like the way he was drawing the interview out, postponing the moment of glory. But he was enjoying himself. He closed in for the kill.

“Did Nick Barber promise to take you there?”

“No.” Kelly shook her head, panic showing on her face. “Why would he do that?”

“Gratitude, perhaps?”

Calvin Soames’s face darkened. “What are you saying, man?”

Templeton ignored him. “Well, Kelly?”

“I don’t know what you’re on about. I only talked to him at the bar when he ordered his drink. He was nice, polite. That’s all.”

“Oh, come off it, Kelly,” said Templeton. “We happen to know that you slept with him on two occasions.”

“What-” Calvin Soames tried to get to his feet but Templeton gently pushed him back down. “Please stay where you are, Mr. Soames.”

“What’s this all about?” Soames demanded. “What’s going on?”

“Wednesday evening and Friday afternoon,” Templeton went on. “A bit of afternoon delight. Beats the dentist’s any day, I’d say.”

Kelly was crying now and her father was fast turning purple with fury. “Is this true, Kelly?” he asked. “Is what he’s saying true?”

Kelly buried her face in her hands. “I feel sick,” she said between her fingers.

“Is this true?” her father demanded.

“Yes! All right, damn you, yes!” she said, glaring at Templeton. Then she turned to her father. “He fucked me, Daddy. I let him fuck me. I liked it.”

“You whoring slut!” Soames raised his hand to slap her but Winsome grabbed it first. “Not a good idea, Mr. Soames,” she said.

Templeton looked at Soames. “Are you telling me you didn’t already know this, Mr. Soames?” he said.

Soames bared his teeth. “If I’d’ve known I’d have…”

“You’d have what?” Templeton asked, shoving his face close to Soames’s. “Beat up your daughter? Killed Nick Barber?”

“What?”

“You heard me. Is that what you did? You found out what Kelly had been doing, and you waited until she was back working behind the bar, then you made an excuse to leave the pub for a few minutes. You went to see Barber. What happened? Did he laugh at you? Did he tell you how good she was? Or did he say she meant nothing to him, just another shag? Was the bed still warm from their lovemaking? You hit him over the head with a poker. Maybe you didn’t mean to kill him. Maybe something just snapped inside you. It happens. But there he was, dead on the floor. Is that how it happened, Calvin? If you tell us now it’ll go better for you. I’m sure a judge and jury will understand a father’s righteous anger.”