“They’re all in a bit of a state, my clippings. Irene finks I’m bonkers, me and my newspapers,” she added, wrist-deep in the contents of the drawer. “She’s never been much for the news or politics or any of that, but I’ve always saved interesting bits and pieces, you know: medical fings, and I won’t lie, I do like a story on the royals and…”

She began tugging on what looked like the corner of a cardboard folder.

“… and Irene can fink it’s strange all she likes, but I don’t see what’s wrong—with saving—the story of…”

The folder came free.

“… a life,” said Janice, walking on her knees to the coffee table. “Why’s that morbid? No worse’n keeping a photo.”

She flipped open the folder and began looking through the clippings, some of them yellow with age.

“See? I saved that for ’er, for Irene,” said Janice, holding up an art-icle about holy basil. “Supposed to ’elp with digestive problems, I fort Eddie could plant some in the garden for ’er. She takes too many pills for ’er bowels, they do as much ’arm as good, but Irene’s one of those ’oo, if it doesn’t come in a tablet, she don’t wanna know…

“Princess Diana,” said Janice with a sigh, flashing a commemorative front page at Strike. “I was a fan…”

“May I?” asked Strike, reaching for a couple of pieces of newsprint.

“’Elp yourself,” said Janice, looking over her spectacles at the pieces of paper in Strike’s hand. “That article on diabetes is very interesting. Care’s changed so much since I retired. My godson’s Type One. I like to keep up with it all… and that’ll be the fing about the kid ’oo died of peritonitis, in your other ’and, is it?”

“Yes,” said Strike, looking at the clipping, which was brown with age.

“Yeah,” said Janice darkly, still turning over bits of newspaper, “’e’s the reason I’m a nurse. That’s what put the idea in me ’ead. ’E lived two doors down from me when I was a kid. I cut that out an’ kept it, only photo I was ever gonna ’ave… bawled my bloody eyes out. The doctor,” said Janice, with a hint of steel, “was called out and ’e never bloody turned up. ’E would’ve come out for a middle-class kid, we all knew that, but little Johnny Marks from Bethnal Green, ’oo cared… and the doctor was criticized, but never struck off… If there’s one thing I ’ate, it’s treating people diff’rent because of where they were born.”

With no apparent sense of irony, she shifted more pictures of the royals out of the way, looking puzzled.

“Where’s Dr. Brenner’s thing?” she muttered.

Still clutching several clippings, she walked on her knees back toward the open drawer and rummaged in there again.

“No, it really isn’t ’ere,” said Janice, returning to the coffee table. “That’s very odd…”

“You don’t think Oakden took it, do you?” Strike suggested.

Janice looked up.

“That cheeky sod,” she said slowly. “’E could of bloody asked.”

She swept her clippings back into their folder, returned it to her drawer, used the mantelpiece to pull herself back up, knees clicking loudly again, then sat back down on the sofa with a sigh of relief and said,

“You know, ’e was always light-fingered, that boy.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Money went missing, back at the practice.”

“Really?” said Strike.

“Yeah. It all come to ’an ’ead after Margot disappeared. Little bits of money kept going missing and they fort it was Wilma, the cleaner—ev’ryone except me. I always fort it was Carl. ’E used to drop in after school, and in the school ’olidays. I dropped a word in Dr. Gupta’s ear, but I dunno, probably ’e didn’t want to upset Dorothy, and it was easier to push Wilma out. True, there were ovver issues wiv Wilma… she drank,” said Janice, “and ’er cleaning wasn’t the best. She couldn’t prove she never nicked it, and after there was a staff meeting about it, she resigned. She could see the way it was going.”

“And did the thefts stop?”

“Yeah,” said Janice, “but so what? Carl might’ve thought ’e’d better give it rest, after nearly being found out.”

Strike, who tended to agree, said,

“Just a couple more questions. The first’s about a woman called Joanna Hammond.”

“I should know ’oo that is, should I?”

“She was Steve Douthwaite’s—”

“—girlfriend, ’oo killed ’erself,” said Janice. “Oh yeah.”

“Can you remember whether she was registered with the St. John’s practice?”

“No, she weren’t. I fink they lived over in Hoxton.”

“So Margot wouldn’t have been involved with the coroner, or had any other professional connection with her death?”

“No, she’ll ’ave been same as me: never knew the woman existed till she was already dead and Steve come looking for ’elp. I bet I know why you’re asking, though,” said Janice. “Talbot was dead set on Steve being the Essex Butcher, wasn’t ’e? On and on about Steve, in all those interviews I ’ad with ’im. But honestly, Steve Douthwaite was a gentle soul. I grew up wiv a couple of proper violent men. Me father was one. I know the type, and Steve definitely weren’t it.”

Remembering how endearing some women had found the apparent vulnerability of Dennis Creed, Strike merely nodded.

“Talbot asked wevver I’d ever visited that Joanna, as a nurse. I told ’im she wasn’t a St. John’s patient, but that didn’t put ’im off. Did I think there was anything fishy about ’er death, even so? I kept saying, ‘I never met the woman. ’Ow do I know?’ I was getting worn down wiv it all by then, honestly, being treated like I was Gypsy bloody Rose Lee. I told Talbot, go see what the coroner said!”

“And you don’t know whether there was a death Margot was worried about?” Strike asked. “A death that was maybe categorized as natural, or accidental, but where she thought there might have been foul play?”

“What makes you ask that?” said Janice.

“Just trying to clear up something Talbot left in his notes. He seemed to think Margot might’ve had suspicions about the way somebody died. You were mentioned in connection with the death.”

Janice’s round blue eyes widened behind her glasses.

“Mentioned as having witnessed something, or perhaps been present,” Strike elaborated. “There was no hint of accusation.”

“I should bloody well ’ope not!” said Janice. “No, I never witnessed nothing. I’d’ve said if I ’ad, wouldn’t I?”

There was a short pause, which Strike judged it prudent not to break, and sure enough, Janice piped up again.

“Look, I can’t speak for Margot forty years on. She’s gone, i’n’t she? It isn’t fair on either of us. I don’t wanna be casting suspicion round, all these years later.”

“I’m just trying to eliminate possible lines of inquiry,” said Strike.

There was a longer pause. Janice’s eyes drifted over the tea tray and on to the picture of her late partner, with his stained teeth and his kind, sleepy eyes. Finally, she sighed and said,

“All right, but I want you to write down that this was Margot’s idea, not mine, all right? I’m not accusing no one.”

“Fair enough,” said Strike, pen poised over his notebook.

“All right then, well—it was very sensitive, because of us working wiv ’er—Dorothy, I mean.

“Dorothy and Carl lived wiv Dorothy’s mother. ’Er name was Maud, though I wouldn’t remember that if Carl ’adn’t been ’ere the ovver day. We were talking and I mentioned ’is gran, and ’e called ’er ‘bloody Maud,’ not ‘Grandma’ or nothing.

“Anyway, Maud ’ad an infection on ’er leg, a sore what was taking its time ’ealing. It needed dressing and looking after, so I was visiting the ’ouse a lot. Ev’ry time I was in there, she told me she owned the ’ouse, not Dorothy. She was letting ’er daughter and grandson live wiv ’er. She liked saying it, you know. Feeling the power.

“I wouldn’t say she’d be much fun to live with. Sour old lady. Nothing ever right for ’er. She moaned a lot about ’er grandson being spoiled—but like I said, ’e was an ’oly terror when ’e was younger, so I can’t blame ’er there.

“Anyway,” said Janice, “before the sore on ’er leg was ’ealed, she died, after falling downstairs. Now, ’er walking wasn’t great, because she’d been laid up for a bit with this sore leg, and she needed a stick. People do fall downstairs, and if you’re elderly, obviously that can ’ave serious consequences, but…

“Well, a week afterward, Margot asked me into ’er consulting room for a word, and… well, yeah, I got the impression Margot was maybe a bit uneasy about it. She never said anyfing outright, just asked me what I fort. I knew what she was saying… but what could we do? We weren’t there when she fell and the family said they was downstairs and just ’eard ’er take the tumble, and there she was at the bottom of the stairs, knocked out cold, and she died two nights later in ’ospital.