‘I don’t like the word séance,’ Elizabeth said. ‘It’s been used too much in popular culture and it reeks of Harry Houdini and Noël Coward. I don’t do table-rapping and I don’t turn out the lights and hold hands or anything like that. But if after dinner you would like to meet with me – just the four of us – then it’s possible that I’ll be able to find a contact, a friend on the other side of the mirror who may agree to help us.’

Get rid of her! I was silently pleading with Hawthorne. I refused to believe that he would take her at her word. He was cleverer than that. He was one of the most cynical people I’d ever met.

‘That’s very kind of you,’ he said. ‘Would ten o’clock be too late?’

‘Not at all.’ She made a gesture and Sid helped her get to her feet. ‘They have a private screening room in the hotel. I can ask the reception to reserve it for us.’

‘Ten o’clock, then.’

I watched them leave. They were barely out of the room before I turned on Hawthorne. ‘Are you serious?’ I exclaimed. I wasn’t just thinking how stupid the idea was. If he actually went through with it, I’d have to describe it and I wasn’t sure how I’d find the words. ‘This is all just part of her act! She doesn’t call them ghosts or spirits. She calls them reflections. And she doesn’t say they’re séances – that’s too Noël Coward – so she invites us to go to the other side of the mirror, like Alice in Wonderland.’

‘Actually, that’s not Alice in Wonderland. That’s Alice Through the Looking-Glass.’

‘Hawthorne . . . !’

He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. ‘Let’s talk about it at dinner, mate. It’s a tricky case. You said it yourself. A dozen people wanted to kill Charles le Mesurier, so maybe we should use any help we can get. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. But if you do decide to show up . . .’

‘Yes?’

Hawthorne beamed at me. ‘I wonder if you’d pop into the kitchen and get me a box of cling film?’

14

Some Thoughts

As I reached the door of my hotel room, I heard my telephone ringing. I quickly went in and snatched up the receiver. ‘Yes?’

‘This is reception.’ I had walked past only moments ago. ‘We have a call for you. A Mr McKinley.’

The name meant nothing to me. ‘Do you know what he wants?’

‘He asked to speak to Mr Hawthorne, but he’s not in his room so he asked to speak to you.’