Chapter Sixteen

Robin woke early on Wednesday, experiencing a sensation he'd have called butterflies in his tummy when he was small. While not all the odds and ends were explicable by this new hypothesis that he, Adam, and Ryan had come up with—and it didn't necessarily identify Mark's killer—either Robin's nose or his experience was telling him they'd taken a significant step forward.

The previous evening, as soon as he'd finished talking to Adam, he'd rung Pru to put the new idea to her, because if it was totally silly she'd have told him. However, she'd thought it well worth following up. They'd subsequently met in the hotel lounge, put together a plan of action, and had rung the rest of the team to dole out jobs. If the stars aligned, they might have some initial answers before they met Foakes.

Over breakfast, Pru said that having slept on the idea, she increasingly liked it. "It could get us over the motive hurdle, if Mark had confronted whoever he thought had helped his wife con him. Assuming she did con him."

"I'm trying to keep an open mind on that, but it's not easy. I keep thinking of that Post-it. ‘Honesty. No.' could apply to Suzy if she'd deceived her husband. Maybe we'll have some proof after we've spoken to Harry Foakes."

"Maybe we'll have our killer."

Once they'd hit the road, Pru taking her turn at the wheel, Robin wasn't optimistic about hearing anything from his team until they'd got back to Abbotston, but as they reached the outskirts of Birmingham, Ben called. He was at Mark's house, where he'd gone searching for anything related to Suzy's illness. He said he'd already been on the phone to both the surgery and the hospital requesting access to her medical records, although he didn't think that would happen anytime soon and nobody was to talk to him about NHS admin or he'd pull his hair out. What he had discovered was a file labelled Suzy's medical stuff in Mark's office, tucked right at the back of a cabinet, although said file was empty apart from what appeared to be a copy of an application.

"This form says he applied after Suzy's death to get her GP and hospital records," Ben said. "If he succeeded, they're not filed with the rest, so they've either been taken or he's hidden them so well I haven't found them yet. I'll keep on the hunt. There's another folder of certificates, including the death one for Suzy. That was signed by the hospital staff and seems pretty straightforward."

"Maybe he put what he found in his case, to confront someone with, which is why it was taken," Pru suggested.

"I was thinking along those lines," Ben said, "although I wondered whether he took the stuff out of the car and carried it with him to the meeting in Kings Ride Woods. Then whoever killed him scooped it up and used the suitcase as a convenient way to dump it. Remember that first interview with Ryan, sir?"

Robin snorted. "I'm never likely to forget it. Why?"

"I'm sure he said something about Mark wishing Suzy had got help when she needed it. We assumed that meant treatment for her cancer, but what if he'd meant support for a mental health issue?"

"Could be." Another example of where they might have got here faster if Ryan hadn't droned on so much. It would be a lesson for them all.

"You're not letting on much, sir." Ben chuckled. "The rest of the team are itching to know what new lead you're following, by the way. All this Suzy medical stuff seems to have come out of the blue."

"They'll have to wait until we brief them later today. You're on right lines but it feels too much like tempting fate if I explain our thinking now, not least because it's a bit unusual. Just tell the troops that the interview with Harry Foakes could be crucial." Robin left it at that.

No sooner had they parked up at the hotel where the conference was happening than Ashok rang to say he'd confirmed the Hanleys' alibi. Robin automatically put him on speakerphone. The constable said that the chap at the café did remember the business with the old note and had said it had been awkward because they did have older people coming in who were a bit forgetful, trying to pay with out-of-date notes or not knowing their pin numbers for their cards. He'd particularly remembered Lucy's purple hair because it was so striking he'd discussed it with his mum who worked there as well, telling her not to try anything as alarming next time she was at the hairdresser. Between them, they pinned down the date and a rough time, meaning the Hanleys were at last eliminated from the enquiry.

"I've spoken to Kevin too," Ashok added. "Asked him if he could tell me anything else about how Suzy and Mark got on and whether he had any gossip on the medical front."

This was showing initiative: neither Pru nor Robin had asked the constable to do that. "What did he say?"

"That she was one of the reasons why he became more distant from his brother. Kevin didn't like Suzy and she didn't like him. She said he was bone idle, to which he admitted she probably had a point, although he'd wondered if it was really because he saw through her."

"Saw through her in what way?" Pru asked.

"All her flirting with other men, for a start. Mark knew about the string of blokes she'd had previously, although she apparently swore she'd settled down when she married him. If Mark suspected her of lying about that, then he never mentioned it to his brother or parents, but Kevin has a feeling she could have been playing away from home. He also said it struck him that she always wanted to be the centre of attention. Overdramatized things, like when she had the miscarriage. His exact words were—" the sound of paper rustling "—‘I'm not saying she exaggerated her illnesses but she milked them for all they were worth.' She liked being the victim: the unfortunate child of weird parents, that type of thing. Does any of that help?"

"Yeah. If only to confirm what other people have said. Keep up the good work." Robin ended the call, then raised an eyebrow in Pru's direction. "Might have been useful if he'd said that when we met him last week."

Pru shrugged. "You might have ignored it, putting it down to bad blood between them. Although what Kevin said is suggestive when taken with Mark wanting access to his wife's medical history. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if he suspected she was exaggerating things. I've come up with some ideas of how she could have carried out a con, illness-wise. If she could persuade Foakes to back her up in person, it could have been relatively easy to fake letters from the hospital or medical reports. I've heard of it being done."

"Ditto. Easy to mock up documents these days given all the software available."

"Thing is, sir, I don't yet see how it connects to Mark's death. It might have been different if he'd murdered her, in a rage at discovering he'd been conned, but he didn't."

"Been there, thought of that, came to the same conclusion that if she'd died at home, it might have worked as a theory." Robin blew out his cheeks. "She catches Covid, he rubs his hands at a chance of getting rid of her, and everyone will assume it's the virus."

"Exactly. She's deep asleep, maybe doped up on cough syrup, and he sticks a pillow over her mouth, knowing it's unlikely they'll look for fibres, especially if her doctor knows she's tested positive and has maybe visited her already. I wondered all the way through the pandemic whether there weren't a few deliberate deaths hidden among all the natural ones, and people were too run off their feet to notice. Although in Suzy's case that's blown out of the water because she died in hospital and the Packers said she wasn't allowed visitors." Pru frowned. "Have we checked that? I can't imagine they'd have lied about it but even so."

"We haven't. Can you get Danielle on the case? I'm not hopeful, but we'd seem right prunes if it turned out Mark had been the one to tell them they couldn't visit while he was going in and ..." Robin still couldn't come up with a workable hypothesis, "somehow finishing her off. Once you've done that, it'll be time to grasp the nettle with Foakes and see if we're constructing a house built on stone or sand."

They met Harry Foakes in a secluded corner of the hotel lounge. Robin estimated the doctor was a little older than him and he was well-dressed, handsome, and blessed with a charming smile. If one that seemed to be a little nervous. They did the introductions, ordered coffee, and then got straight down to business.

"Can we start with you telling us what your role at Haveland and Sons involved?"

Foakes noticeably relaxed at Robin's question, evidently having anticipated a harder first question.

"Yep. If I say it was all the medical bits for the drugs they make, I don't necessarily mean the research stuff. I had a variety of responsibilities, like signing off that the packaging and inserts were accurate and the marketing material didn't claim what it shouldn't. I did works medicals and the like and also ran a surgery for staff—which was very helpful for them, especially during lockdown when it was so difficult to see a GP, and I was happy to do consultations over Zoom. I know that's unusual for companies these days, despite it being fairly standard in the past. The company my dad worked for had a permanent dentist on site, if you can believe it. Still, Haveland and Sons is quite an old-fashioned organisation when it comes to its employees." Foakes paused, maybe wondering if he'd said too much or too little.

"Thank you for clarifying that." Pru flashed him a smile. "You knew Suzy Bircher through work. Can you tell me the nature of your relationship with her?"

"We used to be an item, pre-Mark, when she was Suzy Packer. Pre-Nick as well, if you know about him."

Robin nodded. "I've met him. It was Nick who suggested we talk to you. Did that relationship with Suzy continue after her marriage?" He paused, noting the first hesitation in Foakes providing a response. "Remember we're dealing with a murder here, so we need to get to the truth. None of it will come out if it isn't relevant to Mark's death."

"Okay, we had the odd relighting of the old flame, if you get me, because Suzy wasn't really a one-man woman. Mark didn't know about it and neither does my wife. It didn't hurt anyone; probably helped both marriages by keeping things fresh." Foakes sounded like a man trying to convince himself, let alone anyone else.

"Doesn't having a patient as your lover get you in trouble with the General Medical Council?" Pru asked. "That would be a useful thing to blackmail a doctor with."

Foakes waved a hand. "We were an item before I worked at Haveland and Sons, so it's not an issue."

Robin would need to check if that were the case, but at present he'd let it ride, not wanting Foakes to go too defensive on them. "Yet, despite all the time you were in a relationship, you didn't attend her funeral?"

"No. That could have been rather awkward, couldn't it? Mark did send me an invitation, rather out of the blue, because he said he wanted the church full for her."

And maybe he'd also wanted to engineer a confrontation. Kevin had said how Mark had gone ballistic at the funeral, ostensibly about the family history business, but had there been more to his anger?

A waiter arrived with their coffees, an eyebrow raised at the sight of Pru's notebook. Once he was well clear of them, Foakes continued. "I had to have a dental implant put in that day, thank the lord. I know I could have cancelled the appointment, but I'd already had to reschedule the procedure once and didn't want to do so again. It gave me a convenient excuse, so it wouldn't look like I was snubbing anyone by not being there. I did send flowers."

"What did Mark make of your floral tribute?" Robin asked.

Foakes shrugged. "I have no idea. I didn't get any acknowledgement of it, although there were general thanks from both him and her parents on Suzy's remembrance page so maybe nobody got a personal thank-you."

Pru took up the questioning, while Robin grabbed a swig of coffee. "Did Mark get in touch with you at all after Suzy's death?"

Foakes paused mid-drink. "Why should he? We were never anything other than acquaintances."

"So, you didn't go to meet him in Kings Ride Woods two Saturdays ago?"

"Of course not, Sergeant. What would we have had to say to each other? If he'd discovered that Suzy was being unfaithful, he'd made no effort to confront me about it."

"Sergeant Davis isn't referring to that." Robin leaned forward, cup in hand. "We're talking about him discovering that Suzy was never as ill as she'd made out she was." Robin had rarely seen a witness crumple in quite the way Foakes did. Ashen, lips pressed hard together, he'd laid down his coffee with trembling hands, spilling some into the saucer. "Can you respond to that, Dr. Foakes, or should we take your silence as agreement?"

"How did you find out?" Foakes managed to force out the words.

"By putting lots of bits of information together, like we always do." Robin wasn't going to admit that the question had been a bow drawn at a venture. "Things like discrepancies in accounts regarding her treatment and Mark having applied for her medical records. We concluded that he might have suspected that he was being duped and wanted verification, although the key question is when he began to suspect."

"I honestly can't answer that. The week before her death, Suzy rang me to say she was worried that he'd guessed, although he hadn't said anything to her directly."

The germ of an idea started to grow in Robin's mind. "Did she have cancer at all?"

Foakes heaved a sigh. "This is the ironic bit. She did, although when she first told people that she'd been diagnosed, she was actually all clear. She had been unwell, with a range of nebulous symptoms, and she'd consulted me about it. We did the usual array of blood tests—you couldn't criticise Havelands for the support they gave employees on that front—but those came up negative apart from her lacking some of the essential B vitamins. That was easily remedied with injections and tablets, but she pretended she was being treated for something very serious. Nobody's going to be the centre of attention for an easily avoided vitamin deficiency, are they?" Foakes snorted. "Anyway, about six months before she died, she asked me to examine one of her moles she was concerned about. I thought it was dodgy so I got her to see her own GP for a referral. One thing I would criticise Haveland for is that they don't have a company private-health insurance scheme, not like my present employers. Anyway, the GP got a dermatologist to give it the once-over, which was a good call because it turned out to be an early-stage melanoma. Nothing threatening if whipped off quickly, which it was, but rather than giving her the reality check she needed, it added to the story she'd been fabricating. Nobody could accuse her of lying, once she'd got a real diagnosis."

"They could, though," Pru pointed out. "If anybody discovered the truth, they weren't likely to have forgotten about all that time she'd been duping them. Or that you'd been duping them."

"Me?" Foakes flinched.

"You must have known what she was saying about her illness, because it would have been all over the work gossip network, surely?" Pru said. "I suspect that didn't shut down with lockdown."

Foakes gave no response, so she continued. "You could have put people right or at the very least given us the heads-up. Can doctor-patient confidentiality still apply if the patient's lying and those lies are hurting other people?"

Still no reply. While Robin hated stepping in, sometimes it needed another voice to jolt the witness into responding: Pru would know he wasn't playing the Answer me because I'm a man card, because she'd been the one stepping in on past occasions. "We really do need an answer, and I'm happy to sit here until we get one. Did you or did you not support Suzy's story?"

Foakes raised his hands. "All right, I did, but mainly by keeping shtum and not contradicting the tale she was putting around. That patient confidentiality you mentioned was a great excuse."

"But why would you do such a thing?" Robin asked.

"Because she threatened me. If I didn't help her, she'd tell my wife that I'd been unfaithful and she'd also stir up shit with the GMC. Although I should have known that once I'd initially agreed not to dob her in, Suzy's hold over me would increase." He ran his hands through his hair. "She was very persuasive, saying that Mark was losing interest in her and she wanted some means to get his attention back. Like an idiot, I fell for it."

"You don't think that was true?" Pru asked, not unkindly.

"I don't know. You'll have realised how much she liked weaving stories around herself, but she wasn't only living in a dream world. I think she had a hard-nosed, vindictive streak, one I wasn't aware of until it was too late. She liked manipulating people."

The puzzle pieces were slipping into place. "Did that hard-nosed streak include forging documents to support her story?

"Yes, although I refused to be involved in any of that. She didn't need me anyway, because she kept gloating about how easy it had been." Foakes paused, thoughts having clearly run ahead. "She definitely died from sepsis, probably caused by Covid, though. I know one of the doctors on the ward where she was admitted, and she told me that Suzy was proper poorly and they'd known from the start she might not make it."

"It couldn't have been cancer weakening her ability to fight it off though, could it?" Pru pointed out. "Unless the melanoma was more advanced than you're telling us."

"It wasn't. But the stupid bint refused to have the vaccine, so she had no protection. Damned lucky not to have contracted Covid before, to be honest, and I kept telling her that being young was no guarantee of getting over the thing quickly. I've known seventy-year-olds who caught it and had barely a snivel while younger patients were flat on their backs."

Robin barely registered the last bit, still reeling from the information about Suzy's lack of vaccination. "Why on earth didn't she get the jab?"

"Apparently her parents persuaded her not to. Said there were too many risks involved." Foakes rolled his eyes. "If you'd met them, you'd understand."

"I have," Robin said. "And they told me they believed in vaccinations—tetanus, coronavirus, the lot. Are you sure it was them behind it?"

"Not from the horses' mouths." Foakes paused, light evidently dawning. "It sounds like I was Suzy's dupe, as well."

"That wouldn't be a surprise." Robin smiled sympathetically. "Tell us all you know about her death. We think it's relevant to our enquiries."

"I can't say much, really. I got a text from her the day she came down with it and tested positive, saying she felt like crap and how long would it go on for? I gave her the same advice as I've given anyone with the virus about when to get extra help. She replied straight away, saying she was worried that Mark would ring the hospital about why she wasn't getting specialist care immediately, given her supposed medical condition. If he did so, the game would be up. I don't know if he did so."

"Perhaps he already had a good idea that she was lying so didn't waste his breath?" Pru suggested.

"You could be right. I've always wondered if he cottoned on when she had her melanoma diagnosis. He wasn't daft, so if he'd done some reading around and there was a mismatch between the genuine treatment she was getting and what she should have been having if she was as ill with leukaemia as she said ..." Foakes shrugged. "Getting back to your question, I had another, rather garbled, message from her the next day, saying her cough was getting worse and she felt like shite but Mark had gone all quiet on her. I told her he might be full of worry but to get him to ring for an ambulance if she didn't feel better soon, and he must have done so because she was admitted that night. I didn't hear from her again, I'm afraid."

There was no mistaking that the man was truly upset at Suzy's death. Upset enough to take revenge if he believed Mark had been neglectful?

Foakes drank the rest of his coffee, although it must have been cold. "If I tell you something weird, I'm not deflecting attention from me, honest."

"Go ahead," Robin said, knowing it was likely he was doing just that.

"Ever since Suzy died, I've wondered whether her catching Covid and then developing sepsis on top was nice and convenient for Mark. Given that he might have been right royally hacked off with her because of the cancer nonsense, if she'd died at home, I might have had a quiet word with someone about doing a postmortem. You know the sort of things to look for—marks on the face or fibres up the nose from a pillow over the mouth, and the rest. But it can't apply, though, because she died in hospital, and I can't fathom how he could have killed her there without raising suspicion."

"Can you give somebody sepsis? Sorry if that's a stupid question," Pru said.

"Not stupid at all. Theoretically, I suppose it's possible, although I doubt Mark could have done it. People can develop septic shock off the back of a nasty lung infection—although it's not common, thank God—and nobody was suspicious about her death." Foakes shrugged. "Anyway, I know that Mark couldn't have been on the ward because the friend I mentioned earlier told me it was sad that desperately ill people couldn't have their loved ones visiting. Hospital management had decided they couldn't risk people bringing the virus in afresh. There'd been an outbreak among staff, and the place was on its knees. So, Mark had no opportunity, even if he had motive. Unless he'd been very clever and spectacularly lucky. Mark's dead though, so even if he hastened Suzy's end, he's beyond facing justice."

Robin suddenly saw a possible scenario, as clear as if it were currently being acted on a stage in front of him. What if Mark hadn't murdered his wife directly but had stopped her getting medical help when she needed it? She'd said he'd "gone quiet" on her, which might have indicated suppressed anger. Robin could imagine Mark delaying calling an ambulance despite the terrible state Suzy was in, maybe taunting her that she was getting a taste of her own medicine. She'd been spreading a story about treatment being delayed until it was too late—well, now she'd know how it felt in reality.

He'd need to discuss this with Pru, to see if it fitted together, but that could wait until later. For now, Robin kept to, "Perhaps you're not the only one who's been speculating about what went on between Mark and Suzy. Irrespective of what happened concerning her death, which might give someone a motive to harm him, the fact she'd told lies gave Mark a motive to get into a row with anybody he'd felt had helped her keep up the deception. You, for example."

"I know." Foakes, wincing, stared at his hands. "I guess it's going to be worse for me if I don't come entirely clean. You're bound to check back through phone records and things. Mark must have wanted to talk, because somehow he'd got hold of my number—maybe off Suzy's phone or from wherever he got my address—and rang me. That was ages ago."

"What do you mean by ‘ages'?" Pru asked.

"A few weeks after Suzy's funeral. I told him exactly what I told you, that I had nothing to say to him. He pestered me about letters and reports she'd shown him, and I could say in all conscience that if such things existed, I'd never seen them and had nothing to do with them. I also told him that my involvement with Suzy's health was around her Vitamin B deficiency and the melanoma diagnosis." Foakes looked up at last. "I was hoping he'd leave it there. He wouldn't. He asked the same sorts of questions as you had. Was Suzy really as ill as she'd made out? What part had I played if she wasn't? I ended the call and blocked his number."

Pru stuck out her lip, clearly not believing him. "And he didn't try to get in contact again? From a different number?"

Foakes raised his right hand. "I swear he didn't. Like I'd swear the same thing if I had a Bible in my hand."

Perhaps he'd need to do exactly that if they ever got this case into court. Robin pressed on. "The fact remains of Suzy's proven duplicity—both in terms of romance and medical history. That would provide motive enough for Mark not only to ask questions but to scatter accusations around, concerning anyone he felt had helped her." Robin leaned forwards, hands together between his knees. "So, you can guess exactly what question we're going to ask next, although let me clarify something first. When we spoke on the phone on Monday evening, you made a quip about us asking about your movements on the day Mark died."

"Did I? I'm afraid I'd already been on the sauce so the exact details escape me."

"Let me refresh your memory. I remember every word, because the time you mentioned when you joked about me asking for your alibi—twelve fifteen—was pretty specific. It's also remarkably close to Mark's time of death, as best we can narrow it down."

"Is it?" Foakes ran his hands through his hair again: the neat coiffure had become quite a mess. "That was a lucky stab in the dark. Or maybe an unlucky one for me if I got so close. I genuinely just plucked a time out of the air because I was being a bit of a smart alec. Anyway, it wouldn't matter what time you're interested in if we're talking the middle of that Saturday, because I couldn't have been there killing him. From about half eleven in the morning to around half past six I was at my in-laws' house for their wedding anniversary do."

"Isn't that an abnormally long lunch?" Pru asked, evidently thinking they weren't getting the truth.

"It wasn't all taken up with lunch. Sal—that's my wife—and I got there early so we could chip in with the preparations and then stayed to help clear up. Otherwise, it's unfair if the people celebrating have to do all the work. So yes, that spans half eleven to half six and there are at least a dozen people who can verify all or part of that time. The only occasions I was on my own was when I went to the loo and a couple of those times I'm covered if you'd take the word of their cat, who wouldn't leave me alone." He raised a hand in apology. "Sorry. This is no matter for flippancy, is it? All joking aside, I hope you get whoever did this, because murder's a foul business and I have nothing against Mark, so I promise it wasn't me." Foakes paused as Pru noted everything he'd said. "Do you really think his death is connected to Suzy lying about her condition?" His face was drawn, as though he'd been mulling things over and come to an unpleasant conclusion.

Robin said, "We can't rule anything out at present. It's a serious business, playing on people's emotions as she did, and it's not likely to be the kind of thing people forget about now she's dead. Hurts linger."

Foakes nodded. "What about me? Am I likely to face charges?"

Robin had been assessing that question, at the back of his mind, through the interview. "It's hard to say. If you've told us the truth, and nothing but, I doubt there'll be a criminal case. I'm going to feel duty bound to report what I've learned through the proper channels. You might get off with a knuckle-rapping."

"Surely it can't help anyone to rake this all up now? Suzy's parents would be devastated to discover the truth. What's the point?"

Robin wondered how many times such an argument had been used, resulting in no further action being taken. Feeling his hackles rise, he took a deep breath before replying, but Pru got in first.

"Can you imagine how people would react if they discovered a serving member of the Met Police had used that reasoning to try to cover up one of their misdemeanours? Especially if no action was taken as a result?"

"You're quite right, Sergeant." Foakes appeared suitably chided. "I sowed the wind, as they say, so I should expect whatever harvest comes my way."

"Dr. Foakes, I think you should count yourself lucky if the only harvest you reap is a warning from the GMC. Mark's dead and it's possible that whoever killed him did so because of Suzy. Maybe they thought he was involved in her death, or perhaps they believed he connived in her leukaemia sham." The latter possibility had occurred to Robin as he spoke. "It's conceivable the murderer could come to the same conclusion we did, assessing what they knew and deciding you must have been involved."

Foakes exhaled loudly. "Don't think I haven't had a similar thought while we've been talking. I'll be watching the news day and night to see if you've caught the killer, because I don't want to be their next target."

"Do you really think Foakes is at risk from Mark's murderer?" Pru asked as soon as they were back in the car. "Assuming he isn't the killer himself."

"I think we'll end up ruling him out. Easy to get your wife or parents to cover for you but a whole bunch of people stretches credulity." Robin manoeuvred the pool car's seat into position for him to drive the next stint. "As for being in danger, we shouldn't discount the idea."

"And what about the idea of Mark conniving in her medical fraud?" Pru grinned. "That blindsided me."

"Sorry about that. The thought came out of nowhere. The reality doesn't square with him trying to access her medical records, but I was more interested in what other people might think. They might find it unbelievable that he didn't know what was going on. If you share a bed with someone, surely you'd notice their body changing?"

Pru shrugged. "Unless that had all stopped because she said she was too ill. It's a possible motive for killing Mark, though. Foakes went through the same reasoning process as we did, about whether Mark could have contributed to Suzy's death, so other folk could have too."

"Conversely, you've got that strong chance of Mark getting into an argument with somebody he felt had helped her con him, even if he had no proof they'd done so." Not Foakes, though, if his story was factual. "We've got some options for our elusive motive, and they could equally be applied to an argument that turned fatally violent and a cold-blooded, planned killing."

"Foakes did admit speaking to Mark, after initially denying it," Pru pointed out. "It clearly got heated."

"True, but I suspect our pal the doctor coming clean about Mark ringing him almost counts in his favour. If he really does have an unshakeable alibi, then it can't hurt to tell the truth. Especially if he's suddenly realised he could be somebody's next target so has an incentive to help us all he can."

"Got a name in mind for this ‘somebody'? I can't think of any other medical professionals we've run across over the last week or so. He might have suspected her GP, I suppose."

"Or maybe a friend, one who'd consistently backed up her tale or whom Mark suspected helped fabricate documents. Whether they actually did so or not." Revenge for perceived slights could be equally virulent as for actual ones. "I had another idea, in there." Robin, who'd still not started the car, jerked his thumb towards the hotel.

"Don't keep it to yourself, then."

"There's no way I can prove this, although we could follow a timeline of Suzy texting Foakes and comparing that to when Mark rang for an ambulance." Robin drummed the dashboard. "What if he left off doing it until the last possible moment. Making her suffer as she'd made him suffer?"

"I think you may have something there. Perhaps it wasn't simply that he wanted to hurt her. If he knew about the fake cancer, then he might have thought she was exaggerating again. Putting on a cough and reporting symptoms she didn't have. Until she became so genuinely ill he had to act." The sergeant paused. "I wonder who else she texted when she was feeling like crap and whether they realised there was a discrepancy between the time they were sent and when she was admitted."

"My thoughts entirely." Robin turned the ignition key. "When the chips are down, it's your nearest and dearest you usually turn to, despite what's gone on between you in the past."

A nearest and dearest who were just about the only people they'd interviewed who hadn't been able to furnish themselves with an alibi.