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cast and crew and some of the staff begin at six but the office doesn’t open until eight thirty.’
    â€˜Were there a lot of people going in and out this morning? Did you see Angie go in?’
    Jane shook her head. ‘But she’d been in. I knew that. She’d taken her post. She and Mr Wade and Mr Ford all have their own keys, so they can get in at any time. And there’s the gate of course.’
    There was. There were also the open windows in Roger Ford’s office. ‘Is Mr Ford’s office the only one on the ground floor?’ I asked her.
    â€˜Yes. There’s a waiting room of sorts across the entrance hall, but no one used it this morning. Mr Wade’s and his wife’s are on the first floor, both overlooking the garden.’
    â€˜Is that her regular office?’ It seemed strange to me because she was a consultant on the film, and so technically an outsider and not part of Oxley Productions.
    Jane pulled a face. ‘She made a fuss and so she got it.’ Then realizing these were ambiguous words, she burst into tears and Louise comforted her. ‘I’m sorry,’ Jane wailed. ‘It’s the shock. Did she . . . did she die while I was there or earlier?’
    â€˜I don’t know,’ I said again. I had found Angie at about twenty to ten, and the blood, I recalled, was congealed. I comforted Jane by reminding her that the side gate was open when I found it, albeit that for all she knew I had pulled it open myself before asking her to guard it.
    â€˜Were there a lot of visitors this morning?’ Louise repeated my question.
    â€˜You, Miss Shaw. Mr Ford came in and out, and so did Mr Wade.’
    â€˜Did they stay in their offices long?’
    â€˜I don’t know about Mr Ford, but Mr Wade never does. Not on a shooting day.’ Jane looked dismayed at yet another ambiguity.
    â€˜Filming usually begins at six thirty,’ Louise explained hurriedly. ‘It takes a bit of time for us to get costumed, and the crew to sort themselves out so we tend to arrive here about five forty-five when the gates officially open. From about six fifteen or so, Bill is usually on set continuously.’
    â€˜Was he today?’
    She looked at me stonily. ‘I don’t know. I wasn’t on call until eight. And if it’s relevant I don’t know about Roger Ford either.’
    I had to persist. ‘He must have been in his office at some point, Jane, because the windows were already open when Bill and I went through them at twenty to ten. Was the rear door to the house locked? If it was, perhaps that’s why Angie went through the patio doors. Or perhaps she was with him when you arrived at eight thirty?’
    A step too far. Much too far. Jane closed down. ‘I unlocked that door like I do every day when I come in. Other than that, I really couldn’t say.’
    Louise stepped in. ‘I’m sure Jane would support me, Jack, and indeed everyone at Stour Studios, when I tell you there’s no way Bill or Roger would have been involved in Angie’s death. Bill adored her. He was a lion to everyone else but a pussy cat where she was concerned.’
    â€˜Even when she effectively threatened his film?’
    â€˜They would sort it out between them. Murder wouldn’t come into it. Angie was sharp. She knew there was a line she couldn’t cross and she rarely did.’
    â€˜She seems to have done over Tom Hopkins. He was sacked yesterday.’
    Louise hesitated. ‘That’s true.’
    â€˜Tom,’ Jane said, ‘is
never
sacked. I saw him around this morning just as usual.’
    Had she indeed, I thought. Then why hadn’t we seen him since Angie’s body had been discovered?
    My second and more formal interview with Brandon was unexpectedly straightforward. He had established himself in one of the front ground-floor offices in the production building, and the whole of the farmhouse was