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Annie sat at the scarred wooden table opposite Whitman, and a uniformed guard stood by the door. Whitman hadn’t asked for a solicitor yet, so no one else was present.
    “I hope you realize this is absurd,” said Whitman. “I haven’t murdered anyone.”
    “Mr. Whitman,” Annie said, “when DCI Banks and I talked to you this afternoon, you told us you spent yesterday evening at home watching
A Touch of Frost
.”
    “It’s true. I did. What’s wrong with that?”
    “Nothing at all,” said Annie, “except that
A Touch of Frost
was pulled from the air because of a real live hostage taking. ITV showed an old
Inspector Morse
instead.”
    Whitman’s mouth flapped open and shut like a dying fish’s. “I … They … I … ”
    “It’s an easy mistake,” Annie went on. “Happens sometimes, but not often. Just unlucky this time.”
    “But I –”
    “Yes, Mr. Whitman?” said Banks, leaning towards him. “You want to confess? The murder of Victor Vancalm? What were you looking for? Money? Or did he have something on you? Something incriminating? Or perhaps it was something else entirely? Mrs. Vancalm, for example. Had you been having an affair? Did the two of you plan this together?”
    “No!”
    “No to which question, Colin?” Annie asked.
    “All of them. I told you, I was at home all evening.”
    “But you were lying,” said Banks. “At least, you were lying about
A Touch of Frost
, and if you were lying about that … well, there goes your alibi.”
    “Look, I didn’t know I’d need an alibi, did I?”
    “Not unless you murdered Mr. Vancalm you didn’t.”
    “I didn’t murder anybody!”
    “You say you didn’t, but yet when we asked you where you were around the time he died, you gave us a pack of lies. Why?”
    “I … It just sounded so weak.”
    “What did?”
    “That I just stopped in by myself.”
    “Hang on a minute,” said Banks. “You’re telling us that you thought it sounded weak saying you stopped in by yourself and ate some leftover Chinese take-away, but it somehow sounded more believable that you did this while watching
A Touch of Frost
?”
    “Well, I must admit, put like that it sounds rather silly – but yes.”
    Banks looked at Annie, who rolled her eyes.
    “What?” said Whitman.
    “I really think we’d better start at the beginning,” said Annie. “And the truth this time.”
    “But it
was
the truth.”
    “Apart from
A Touch of Frost
?”
    “Yes. I didn’t watch television.”
    “What did you do?” Banks asked.
    “I just sat there thinking, did a little work. I often have work to take home with me.”
    Banks shook his head. “I still don’t get it. Why lie to us about watching television if all you were doing was work?”
    “Like I said, it sounds silly now, I realize. I don’t want people to think I’m a workaholic. I do have a life.”
    “Watching
A Touch of Frost
and eating warmed-up take-away is a life?” Even as he spoke, Banks was aware that that was exactly what he had done, or would have done if he hadn’t caught Whitman in a lie about his alibi.
Sad
, he told himself. Note to self: Must get out more.
    “Well, when you put it like that, as I said, it does sound rather silly.”
    “Not really,” said Banks. “I don’t think it’s silly at all. Do you, Annie?”
    “Not at all,” Annie agreed.
    “I think it was very clever of you,” Banks went on. “You came home, got changed, went out and waited for Mr. Vancalm to return from Berlin, then you killed him. You knew he was away and when he’d be coming back. You also knew the layout of his study, and, I would imagine, the ins and outs of the security system and the wall safe. You didn’t want too elaborate an alibi, because you knew we’d be suspicious. Let’s face it, most people, when questioned by the police, don’t have alibis any better than yours was. It makes perfect sense to me. You were just unlucky, that’s all. It only took a simple twist of fate.”
    Annie gave