Georgia comes to the office door and smiles, without a trace of the grumpiness of the last twenty-four hours. ‘Yes, please. I suffer from vertigo so I’ve never been up there.’

‘Sorry. I didn’t know.’

‘Why would you?’ Georgia pulls her phone out of her pocket and holds it out to Tess. ‘I wonder if you might be able to make a video. I can decide what to do after I’ve seen what’s up there.’

Tess feels her heart sink to her feet. ‘On your phone?’

‘Yes. It’s quite easy, I can show you if you aren’t sure.’

‘Is there a ladder?’ Tess decides it’s probably better to get the task over and done with. ‘I could go up now, while dinner is cooking.’

‘I have Keith’s decorating ladders. They are quite old now, but still perfectly safe. Annie just about laid an egg every time he went up there. I don’t want you to fetch anything down, though. Not yet, anyway. I just want to know what there is. It shouldn’t take long.’

*

Tess looks up at the hatch on the ceiling of the first-floor landing and pushes it upwards and out of the way with the end of the ladder.

‘I wish I could do it myself but my legs just go to jelly if I do more than stand on a chair.’ Georgia is positively chatty. ‘Some of the houses around here have three storeys instead of two. You’ve probably noticed the pair across the road. Apparently, when they were being built you could choose what you wanted the insides to be like. Some people continued the big staircase up for another storey and had dormer windows. The maids in those houses quickly looked for fresh appointments because their workload was immense, poor things.’

‘When was anyone last up in the attic?’

‘I’m not sure; when I had the insulation put in about ten years ago, I suppose.’

Tess rests the ladder on the edge of the hatch. To her surprise, it feels solid.

‘You’ll be fine. Keith was meticulous about maintenance.’

‘He sounds like a sensible man.’

‘He was, most definitely. Right, you’ll need this.’ She hands over her phone. ‘I’ve set the camera up to record so just press the red button and it will do it all for you.’

Tess feels the familiar shape in her hand. ‘It’s OK, I know how to use it. Is there a passcode on it, so I can unlock it if it turns itself off?’

‘One nine one one.’

Tess isn’t bothered by the height. She climbs confidently, steps off the ladder at the top and turns on the torch app. ‘Is there a light up here?’

‘There’s a switch on the left, I think.’

A square of brightness appears at the hatch. ‘Got it.’

‘Can you see anything?’