Cox fell silent. He was clearly considering his options. But he could see that there was only one way forward. ‘Well, if you must know,’ he began, ‘Melissa James had changed her mind. It seems she had accepted a better offer. It is, of course, unprofessional behaviour, but that is what you must expect, working with an actress. I was angry. She had lied to me and she had wasted my time. But it was not a matter of great importance to me. There were many other actresses I could approach. After all, she had not made anything for five years. She was not quite the star that she believed herself to be.’

He had been speaking rapidly and it took Miss Cain a few moments to catch up. Pünd heard the scratch of her nib on the page as she underlined his last words.

‘You then followed her out of the hotel,’ Hare muttered. He had already interviewed Cox and he was quite put out that, under Pünd’s questioning, he had come up with a quite different version of events.

‘I left shortly after she did. I did not follow her out.’

‘So where did you go?’

‘I told you.’ The glint was back in Simon Cox’s eye. ‘I had been in the car for many hours. I’d come straight to my room in the hotel. I needed a walk and to see something of the area, and fortunately the rain had stopped.’

‘You went over to Appledore,’ Hare said.

‘This I also told you.’

‘You said you walked along the beach.’

‘I walked for about an hour, yes. The beach was called Gray Sands.’

‘And you didn’t meet anybody. Nobody saw you.’

Cox turned to Pünd as if he expected him to take his side. ‘I have already explained to the detective inspector. It was late in the afternoon, a quarter to six. It was a grey sky and it was damp after the rain. I was alone! In the distance I saw a man with a dog but he was too far away and he will not have been able to recognise me. In fact, I wanted to be alone! I had to consider what I would do next and it was helpful to me to find myself with nobody else nearby.’

Hare shook his head doubtfully. ‘You do see, sir, that it makes it very difficult for us to confirm your story.’

‘That is your problem, Detective Inspector. It is not mine.’

There was a long silence and Hare thought that the interview must be over when suddenly Miss Cain spoke. She had contributed so little to either meeting that it came as a surprise to hear her voice. ‘Excuse me, Mr Pünd. I wonder if I might say something?’

‘Of course, Miss Cain.’

‘Well, I’m sure it’s wrong of me to intrude, but the fact is that I was brought up in Appledore. I actually lived there until I was fifteen and my parents moved to London. But the thing is, I know the coast around here like the back of my hand, and with all respect to the gentleman, it would have been impossible to walk along Gray Sands, not after five o’clock, not at the end of April.’

‘And why is that?’

‘Because of the spring tide. At four o’clock every afternoon it comes right up to the cliff and for the next four or five hours there’s no beach at all. You can walk along the cliff edge but even that is quite dangerous. There are warning signs everywhere. We actually had a couple of people drown once. They got caught halfway.’

There was another silence. Detective Chief Inspector Hare turned accusingly to Simon Cox. ‘What do you have to say to that, sir?’

‘I … I … ’ Cox couldn’t find the right words.

‘You didn’t walk on Gray Sands?’

‘I walked on a beach. Maybe … maybe I got the name wrong.’

‘Then can you describe which beach you actually visited?’

‘No! I don’t remember. You’re confusing me.’ He buried his face in his hands.

‘I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to come into Exeter with me, Mr Cox. We’re going to continue this interview under caution and with another officer present. You can consider yourself under arrest.’

‘Wait!’ All the colour had drained out of Simon Cox’s face. His mouth was opening and closing as he fought for breath. None of them would have been surprised if he had succumbed to a serious heart attack. ‘I’d like a glass of water,’ he gasped.

‘I’ll get it for you,’ Miss Cain said cheerfully. She got up and left the room, returning a few moments later with a glass and a jug.

Cox drank greedily. Miss Cain picked up her notebook. Pünd and the detective chief inspector waited for him to speak. ‘All right!’ he said at last. ‘I lied to you. But I had no choice. This whole business has been a nightmare.’

‘It was a nightmare for Melissa James,’ Hare said, showing no sympathy. ‘And for everyone who knew her. Her killer could still be out there. He could strike again. Has that never occurred to you? Or did you kill her? Did you follow her home? Is that what happened?’

‘I did go after her.’ Cox refilled his glass and drank more water. ‘You have no idea how bad it was for me, her decision. It will ruin me! I owe thousands of pounds. The Queen’s Ransom! Ha! That is exactly what it is!’

‘So you went to her house,’ Pünd said.

‘I went to her house. If I had told you this, of course you would think that I murdered her and maybe you would be right. I could have. There was so much anger in my heart. She had broken her promises. She had lied to me. And she had dismissed me without a single thought because I am a nobody, because in her eyes I am a Latvian peasant and I had only my good faith and my entire heart to give to her. Yes, I could well have strangled her. I admit it. But I didn’t. I did not speak to her again.’

‘So what happened?’

‘I found Clarence Keep. It is less than a mile from the hotel and it took me only a few minutes to drive there. I thought that Melissa would have arrived ahead of me so I was surprised that I could not see the Bentley outside. I had certainly not overtaken her so I assumed that she must have gone another way and that she would arrive very soon.’

‘Where were you parked?’

‘I was on the edge of the road, close to some trees that concealed me. I did not want to be seen by her when she returned. I thought she would only drive away again.’

‘When did she arrive?’

‘A little after six o’clock.’

‘So where had she been for the past twenty minutes?’

Hare had addressed the question to himself as much as to anyone else, but Cox answered anyway. ‘I have no idea. She drove past me without seeing me and entered the driveway. I saw her get out of the car and enter the house.’

‘What happened next?’

‘I waited a few minutes, trying to think what I would say to her. I was beginning to regret coming there. I knew that she had made up her mind and that there was nothing I could do. Even so, I got out of the car and walked up the drive. I got to the front door, but before I could ring the bell I heard a voice coming from a window that was open a little bit, on the side. It was a woman – not Melissa. She was older and she was angry with someone. She said they were disgusting. She was accusing them.’

‘Phyllis Chandler and her son,’ Hare said. ‘They must have been in the kitchen.’

‘I don’t know who it was. I couldn’t see them.’

‘Did you hear what she said?’

‘Some of it … yes. But not the exact words. She said something about the Moonflower being crooked and that she’d seen through it.’ He took a breath. ‘And then she said that if Melissa found the truth, they would have to kill her.’

There was a long silence. Hare was staring at the producer. ‘They threatened to kill her. She’s been strangled. And you chose not to tell us?’

Cox looked completely wretched. ‘I already explained to you, Detective Inspector. I couldn’t see who was in the room and who she was talking to. And I still don’t know what I heard. Not exactly … ’

‘But you heard her say they’d kill her!’

‘I think so.’ Cox took out a handkerchief and wiped his face. There was a sheen of sweat on his upper lip. ‘They didn’t want Melissa to find the truth.’

‘What did you do next?’ Pünd asked, a little more gently.

‘I left the house. I had decided it was a mistake to have driven there in the first place. It was useless. Melissa wouldn’t see me. Why should I humiliate myself again?’

‘What time did you arrive back at the hotel?’ Hare asked.

‘It was a short while later. I cannot tell you the time exactly and nobody saw me arrive – I’m sorry. The young lady was no longer behind the reception. I went up to my room to have a shower and to change before supper. I came down again at a quarter to seven, when I met Mrs Gardner, the wife of the manager.’

‘Did you really have to make up such an elaborate story?’ Hare demanded. ‘A long walk on Gray Sands! From what you’ve just told us, you were only away from the hotel for about half an hour. If you were going to lie to me, you could have just told me you’d stayed in your room.’