“Surely the fact that he was planning to sell the island would suggest that the Todds weren’t prepared to give in to the blackmail. He still needed the money.”

“I suppose so. It’s all conjecture.”

“But how would Charlie know of their business fiddles, if he never went near the family?”

“That had occurred to me. Maybe Nicholas Mardle talked to Charlie. He could have passed on staff gossip, and Charlie might have investigated it, and saved it for future use.”

“Do you think that the policeman will tell you if he finds anything suspect in Todd Leisure?”

“Oh, I think so. Just to humour me. It won’t mean anything to them.”

They washed the dishes.

“I think,” George said, “that we’ll both go to the mainland tomorrow.”

As they went to bed, early, they heard the sound of sobbing from the flat. They could not tell whether John or Elizabeth was crying.

Chapter Fourteen

Elizabeth drove them both across to the mainland the next morning. At breakfast John had been carefully affectionate. He had not asked her where she was going and he had not touched her. She had been gentle with him, but she had given nothing away.

It was another clear and sunny day, but there was a wind, which had blown the sand into hard ridges so that the Land Rover jolted and rattled across. Elizabeth did not speak to them. Molly was never very aware of what people were wearing, but she noticed that Elizabeth looked smart. On the island the girl usually wore jeans, long shirts, John’s jerseys. Now, in a skirt and a jacket, wearing shoes instead of trainers, with a handbag by her side, she seemed to Molly sophisticated, frightening. Even driving the Land Rover across the shore she was an elegant professional woman. It was not the new image itself, but the ability to change so dramatically that intimidated. It seemed to Molly that she was a different woman. John must have noticed that she had dressed up, Molly thought. How can he have felt? She wished, almost, that she had stayed on the island, so that he would have had something else to think about. He would have felt obliged to entertain her. The thought of him there, lonely and jealous, imagining Elizabeth’s betrayals, moved her. She passed no judgement on Elizabeth’s behaviour, but she wished that things had worked out differently.

At the quay George got out quickly and drove away in his van.

“He has some business in Gillicombe,” Molly said in explanation. “I thought I’d take my car to explore. Do a bit of sightseeing.”

“Yes,” Elizabeth said vaguely. “It is very pretty.”

Molly pretended to fumble with her car keys while Elizabeth drove off. In the country lanes that led from the quay the Land Rover was easy to follow. It was high enough to show above the hedges and the lane was so winding that Molly could stay close to it without being seen. As the road widened and they approached Gillicombe, Molly allowed three cars to overtake her, but the Land Rover was still visible ahead of her. It drove along the Promenade, turned into the High Street and parked neatly outside the office of Todd Leisure Enterprises. Molly turned into a side street and parked. She had presumed that Elizabeth had intended to go into the Todds’ office, and was surprised, when she walked into the High Street, to see that the girl was still there. She was standing on the kerb at a zebra crossing, waiting for the traffic to stop. Luckily she seemed to be daydreaming. Certainly she did not see Molly. A car driver had to sound his horn before she started over the crossing, and she gave a wave of apology to him as she ran across the street.