After a moment he said slowly, ‘It must have been Jim Smith. He had the keys, for he opened the mill doors; Harry Randell saw him from the top of the ladder and shouted to him to stop, but it was too late. So who gave them to him?’

He turned as he heard boots on the outside steps and someone rapped on the door. He called ‘Come in’, and Kirkwood, one of the mill workers, looked straight at the desk and appeared surprised at seeing a woman there, before seeing Tannerson by the window.

‘Mr Tannerson, sir.’ He gave a half laugh. ‘Thought I’d got to ’wrong place for a minute.’ He touched his forehead to Lizzie.

‘This is my secretary and office manager, Mrs Robson,’ Tannerson told him. ‘This is Kirkwood, one of the regular mill workers,’ he said to Lizzie, and turned again to Kirkwood. ‘You might be just the fellow to solve a conundrum.’

‘I will if I can,’ Kirkwood said. ‘I just came along to ask if there’s any news about what’s happening about ’mill, cos,’ he hesitated, ‘well, I need to look for more work. And I wondered how young Jim and Harry Randell are getting on.’

Lizzie looked up at Tannerson and then at Kirkwood. Of course, no one would know; how would they without enquiring? Ellison hadn’t asked when he came unannounced.

Tannerson took a deep breath. ‘Randell is recovering well and will be out of hospital soon, but I’m sorry to say that Jim Smith has died. He was too badly injured to make a recovery.’

‘No!’ Kirkwood exclaimed. ‘Aw, that’s terrible! Terrible. Poor lad.’ He was silent for a moment, rubbing his hand across his face. ‘Did he have any family? Cos I’ll organize a whip-round among ’men, for funeral, you know?’

When Tannerson shook his head and said there was no family, Kirkwood muttered, ‘That shouldn’t surprise me, I suppose, when he and his pal practically lived on ’premises.’

‘How do you mean, lived on the premises?’ Tannerson asked. ‘And which pal ?’

Kirkwood opened and closed his mouth. ‘Erm, I thought you were privy to it, sir. Ellison told Jim that he’d clear it wi’ you when he first asked, oh, ages ago, a year at least. He slept at ’back of ’stable block, wi’ hosses,’ he added unnecessarily. ‘I suppose ’young lad stopped with him. I used to see him go out of ’gates in a morning; though come to think of it, he’d always gone afore you got in.’

Tannerson folded his arms across his chest. ‘It’s odd to think of what was going on here without my knowledge. So Jim Smith had a set of keys to lock up at night and unlock in a morning? Did he always lock the mill doors, or did Ellison do that?’