Shirley Hunter was in, which was a little surprising to Millicent. Quite apart from the question of shift patterns, Shirley had been about to move into the nurses' hostel. Obviously the murder of Simon had made the move conveniently unnecessary.
"This is Detective Constable Bright," Millicent began by way of small talk as Shirley showed them into the living room. "We wanted to check with you something that one of your neighbours said."
"Which one?" Shirley asked.
"It wouldn't be proper for me to disclose that at this stage," Millicent said, "But we have information that you went out in your own car just after twelve last Saturday."
"It was much earlier than that," Shirley said. "I did go out to the shops for about half an hour, to get things for the picnic. I was back about Elevenish. Eleven fifteen maybe. I wasn't taking any notice of the time, but it must have been about that, because it wasnt much after eleven thirty when Simon and I set off for the picnic."
"Our information is that you left about ten past or quarter past twelve and Simon followed five minutes later in the Porsche."
"By that time, my car was in the garage here." She pointed. "And we were well on our way to the picnic site."
Shirley was sounding irritated rather than worried or strident and was giving no ground to Millicent, who changed tack.
"The forensic department checked the items we found at the picnic site," Millicent said. "They said that Simon's prints were unnaturally clear for those things to have been thrown."
Shirley shrugged. "Well, they were thrown," she said
"And several of the items were also on the till slip for the shopping you and Ellen Barnes did that afternoon."
"I needed more yoghurts and more jam," Shirley said. "Simon had been throwing them around."
"Why was it diabetic jam? Are you or Simon diabetic?"
"My brother is. Simon had the jam at Bernard's and liked it, so I bought more. If Simon liked something, that was reason enough to buy it."
Millicent was thinking that she was getting nowhere with the interview and that perhaps it would be better to have Shirley in and confront her with the evidence. She wondered whether either Shields or Leverett would be able identify the woman. Perhaps it would be worth having a go at Knowles again, see if he could be persuaded to change his story.
"Thank you Mrs. Hunter," Millicent said, getting up. "I think that's all for the moment."
Outside in the crescent DS Gibbs observed as they go into the car. "She's lying."
"What makes you say that? Millicent wondered.
"What Mrs. Hunter said and what Mr. and Mrs. Hutchins said can't both be true, and the time difference is too great for it to be a simple error. The Hutchins have no reason to lie, ergo it must be a deliberate lie on the part of Mrs. Hunter."
"I agree with you," Millicent, "but we have to prove it and I'm curious to know why she's lying. What really happened? Let's get back to headquarters and have some lunch."