“But Pamela was there.”

“Yes. Yes, I see. Of course, Pamela was on the island.”

He was blinking again, very nervously. His lashes were fine and fair.

“And I understand from Marie that Pamela came in to see you yesterday morning.”

Marie was their secretary.

“Was she asking for money again?”

Laurence looked uneasy.

“How much did she want?”

“She wasn’t specific,” Laurence said, “but I gather that it was a substantial amount. She said something about school fees. Sian’s not getting on very well at the local school, and they were hoping to send her somewhere with smaller classes.”

“What did you tell her?”

“That it wasn’t my decision. That I would have to discuss the matter with Father. And with you. I told her that it was unlikely that we would be able to help.”

“I should say that it’s unlikely. We pay that solicitor husband of hers a fortune in legal fees, and we’ve put a lot more business his way. He does criminal work too, and Helen says that there’s always someone from his firm in the domestic court. But that’s not the point. The point is, should we tell the police that she has been asking us for money?”

“Oh no.” Laurence spoke very quickly. He sounded shocked. “Oh I don’t think so. It was a private conversation. I haven’t discussed it with anyone. Not even with Father yet.”

“Nor have I. I’d better have a word with Marie. Tell her not to mention it. I’ll call in to her home on the way to the police station.”

He winked unpleasantly and went out. The wind caught the door and banged it behind him. Laurence Todd turned back to the computer, but after staring at it blankly, turned it off. He picked up the railway magazine, and only as he became engrossed in an article about a narrowgauge railway in Shropshire did the nervous blinking stop and his face become calm.

Sian Marshall sat at the kitchen table, surrounded by dog-eared text books, and willed herself to concentrate on irregular French verbs.

“I think I must be dyslexic,” she said out loud, watching the words on the page, hoping that she would realize how the conjugations worked with a miraculous flash of insight. “ Or just dim,” as no miracle occurred.

There was no one to hear her. Her father was playing golf and Edward was in town with some of his friends. Edward always finished his homework on Friday nights.

With a sudden gesture of freedom Sian pushed the books back into her satchel and called to her dog, Tramp, to come out to play. Mummy would be back tomorrow night to help her. Mummy had promised.

Mrs. Derbyshire did not know about the tragedy on Gillibry. She did not take a daily paper or listen to the local radio station, and her husband had not telephoned her. She did not know that there had been a murder on the island, but she was obsessively worried. She could only allow herself to be worried when Paul was away. When he was at home all her energy was taken with meeting his needs, caring for him. Worry had become an almost pleasant indulgence, the only way she had now of asserting her own personality.