By the time she’d taken and neatly typed up the girl’s statement, and got her to sign it, Trudy’s head was reeling. Was it only that morning that she’d wondered just how much she could realistically expect to happen in just a day?

Realising the outrageousness of Patsy Arles’s testimony would test Inspector Jennings’s patience to the limit, she prudently asked them all to wait, and sent a note to be given to the sergeant that something urgent had come up that needed his immediate attention.

He duly abandoned the Vander twins and the moment he sat down at her desk, shot a questioning glance at Trudy.

Both Clement and Vincent enormously enjoyed watching the usually phlegmatic sergeant’s face as he read Patsy’s statement.

*

Half an hour later, Trudy, Clement and Vincent were sitting in Clement’s kitchen, drinking hot chocolate. After the sergeant had gone into the inspector’s office with Miss Arles, and they’d heard the subsequent roar from Jennings as he’d been given the latest developments, all three of them had deemed it prudent to leave.

‘After all, the inspector has ordered me to do something useful,’ she’d pointed out reasonably as they’d scarpered through the door. ‘And reviewing the case so far is fairly useful, yes?’

Now that they’d discussed the day’s events at length, they set about trying to make sense of the various strands.

‘The twins and Patsy were trying to set up Terrence Parker in some sort of love-sting,’ Vincent recapped. ‘This Phyllis woman – presumably a past or jilted lover or something of the sort – was probably trying to put the bite on him, given her love of acquiring money. His current fiancée or lady-love, who was actually hosting the party, was likely suspicious and curious about her mystery guest, whilst the victim himself must have been desperate to keep them apart. Oh yes, and by the way, one of them, somehow, sometime, managed to slip a heavy dose of sleeping powder into his champagne? Now that’s what I call a party!’ he finished with a wry grin.

Clement and Trudy had to laugh, although neither of them felt much like celebrating.

It was Trudy who put their malaise into words. ‘Well, it’s not our problem any longer. It’s Sergeant O’Grady’s.’

‘So that’s it? We’re off the case?’ Vincent asked, scandalised, looking and sounding as disappointed as the others.

‘Afraid so. Now it’s all got so complicated and convoluted, and it’s clear that we’re dealing with murder …’ Trudy sighed heavily and shrugged. ‘A mere WPC won’t get a look-in anymore.’

‘Or a semi-official outsider like me,’ Clement added heavily.