The teacup

Margaret Oddie had known Harold Dunstan for thirty years and had never once seen him wash up. His shop in Micklegate was full of Georgian silver and Victorian china, and his little kitchen at the back was always full of dirty cups. So when the police let her in to identify the body, the first thing she noticed was the clean teacup on the draining board.

It was one of the good ones, Coalport, with a gold rim. It had been washed, dried and turned upside down on a folded tea towel. Harold had not turned a cup upside down in his life.