‘I’m not so sure it would be as hard as you might think,’ Clement interposed, feeling like a bit of a spoilsport. He hated to ruin their fun. ‘Don’t forget, it was a New Year’s Eve party. At midnight, or just before, I imagine Mrs Vander topped up the champagne glasses for the traditional toast. After which, I think the killer could be fairly sure that most of the guests, given the snow and conditions, would all leave pretty soon. Including our victim. Hence … an ideal time to slip the dose into his champagne glass. The bubbles would also have helped to disperse the drug quickly.’

‘Oh yes, that makes sense,’ Vincent said, a little deflated.

‘I still say it sounds a bit risky to me,’ Trudy said mutinously. ‘What if they’d been seen? Or if Terry had simply decided to stay longer?’

‘Hmmm, you’re right of course,’ Clement said. ‘It sounds as if we’re dealing with an opportunistic killer, rather than a meticulous planner.’

‘So, we’re saying then,’ Trudy summarised, ‘that Terry was killed by someone at the party. This someone put a dose of sleeping powder in his glass sometime around midnight and … what … just hoped that he’d crash the car and either die of his injuries or freeze to death before he managed to get himself home?’

‘Putting it like that, it does sound a bit half-hearted, doesn’t it?’ Vincent asked. ‘Are you sure we haven’t got that wrong, and it was all very carefully thought out and planned after all? And we’re just not seeing it?’

‘You’ve been reading too many Sexton Blake or Sherlock Holmes novels, my boy,’ Clement reproved, grinning at him. ‘You want us to be up against a veritable Moriarty or a criminal mastermind. The truth is bound to be a lot more prosaic, and probably sad and pathetic than that. Real life often is.’

‘There is the question of the sleeping dose though,’ Trudy said. ‘I mean, if it wasn’t premeditated, why did the killer bring the drug to the party in the first place?’

Clement sighed and rubbed a hand across his forehead. ‘Yes. It’s a bit of a puzzler, either way you look at it, isn’t it?’ he admitted, and grinned widely. He couldn’t help it. As much as he might like to be the voice of reason and adult caution, he was as intrigued and gung-ho as the youngsters.

Trudy and Vincent glanced at each other, similar smiles on their own faces.

He looks a lot more handsome now that’s he stopped being so disagreeable, Trudy thought.

She’s really quite something, this police constable. I can see why Dad likes her so much, Vincent thought.

‘OK what’s our first move?’ Trudy asked, turning back to the coroner.

‘I think we have to go back to the beginning,’ Clement said. ‘We need to talk to Millicent Vander again.’

Chapter 21