‘That door’s locked too,’ Stephen said, returning to the bedroom. ‘Work that out, if you can!’

‘The door locked?’ Joseph said blankly. ‘Are you sure, Stephen?’

‘Of course I’m sure!’

Ford came back into the room. ‘The doctor will be round immediately, sir. And Miss Paula’s coming up, sir. I couldn’t stop her. Well, I didn’t rightly know what to say, Mr Joseph.’

‘Stephen, this is no sight for a woman!’ Joseph exclaimed. ‘She mustn’t come in!’

Stephen threw him a contemptuous glance, and made no movement to intercept his sister’s entrance.

Paula came in in her usual tempestuous way, saying: ‘What is it? Why don’t you come down? What is all the mystery?’

‘That will be a puzzle for the police,’ replied Stephen.

She saw Nathaniel’s body, and her eyes narrowed. She stood staring down at it for a moment, growing a little pale, and then asked in a tight voice: ‘Is he dead?’

‘Oh yes!’ Stephen answered.

‘What killed him?’

‘You have the wrong word. Not what: who.’

She looked at him, something hard and anxious in her eyes. ‘Was he murdered, then?’

‘Stabbed in the back.’

She shuddered. ‘How horrible! How horrible!’

There was a silence. Joseph broke it. ‘You oughtn’t to be here, Paula,’ he said feebly.

‘Why not?’

‘Dewy girlhood,’ Stephen explained.

‘Oh!’ She hunched a scornful shoulder. ‘What are we to do?’

‘I suppose we ought to notify the police. In fact, I may as well do so at once,’ Stephen said, moving to the door.

‘On Christmas Eve!’ Joseph groaned, as though he found this an added torture. ‘Oh, Paula, Paula!’

She flashed round upon him. ‘Why do you say that? Do you suppose I had anything to do with this?’

‘Oh, my dear, no!’ he said, shocked. ‘Of course you didn’t!’

‘Who did? Have you any idea?’

‘I can’t think, my dear. It’s too hideous! I try to realise it, to pull myself together –’

‘This house! This wicked, horrible house!’ She burst out, looking wildly round. ‘You laughed at me when I told you it was evil!’

‘My dear, you’re overwrought!’ he said, looking somewhat taken aback. ‘The house can’t have killed poor Nat!’

‘Its influence! Acting on us all, impelling one of us –’

‘Hush, Paula, hush!’ he said. ‘That’s nonsense! There, my poor child, there! Come away! It isn’t fit for you to be here.’ He put his arm round her, and felt how tense she was, yet trembling a little.

‘It wasn’t one of us,’ she said, speaking with difficulty. ‘It couldn’t have been. Someone through the window – robbery, perhaps. The door was locked!’

‘Paula dear, did Ford tell you that?’

‘I knew it! I tried to get in, before I went downstairs! He wouldn’t answer when I knocked.’

‘Oh, Paula, why didn’t you tell us?’ he exclaimed.

‘I didn’t think anything of it. Only that he was sulking. We’d had a row. You know what he was! Besides, I did tell you, when you asked me to go up and call him.’