He couldn’t see it at first, but then all of the cars and vans were blanketed in a thick layer of snow, disguising their colour and shape somewhat.

Crouching down, he dodged from car to car, seeking the colour and number plate he was looking for. He found it eventually, on the far left-hand side of the lot, and his heart lifted. It couldn’t have been better placed, he realised with a quick lift of his heart, being furthest from the office, and at a kitty-corner to the cabin. This meant that anyone who happened to be in the office would be unlikely to crane their neck so far around that they’d see him, if they just happened to be walking past the window.

He reached into his pocket for the set of master keys he had taken from the office – and which could be used on almost any make of car they sold – and began searching for the right one that would fit the Riley.

He found it after only a few tries, and carefully inched the door open. It screeched, for the front of the Riley was bent and folded a little out of shape from the impact with the tree and snow, and the sound made him flinch then freeze.

He shot a quick look around the icy, dismal yard, and heard and saw nothing. Reassured, he reached forward and shuffled awkwardly until he was crouched down in the passenger seat.

He reached in and opened the glove box.

And that was when a heavy hand descended on his shoulder and made him yelp in fear.

‘Hello, sir,’ a heavy, rather ironic voice boomed from outside the car. ‘Care to tell me what you’re doing? Because if you’re trying to steal a car, I think you could have found a better car and you most certainly could have found a safer place to pinch it from.’

*

As Geoffrey Thorpe was being arrested by a very alert – and rather amused – police constable, in the warmth and much more pleasant surroundings of the library, Vincent had just finished his task of looking through the Oxford newspaper archives that Trudy hadn’t yet had time to finish. He’d duly noted anything that seemed to relate to the victim or any of their main suspects in any way, but his pickings were meagre indeed.