George Palmer-Jones spoke very calmly and quietly: “If what you say is true, she must have been dead for a very short time when you found her. Did you see anyone?”

“It was dark.” Nicholas Mardle’s voice was still high-pitched. “I left the candle with Mark. I didn’t see anyone in the corridor, but someone could have been there. I wouldn’t have been able to tell. If her room had been dark I wouldn’t have gone in, but I could see the light. The door wasn’t properly shut.”

“Did you knock?”

“Yes, but only quietly. I didn’t want anyone else to know that I was there. Then I just looked in.”

He took a deep breath.

“Did Mark know where you were going?”

“No. He wasn’t there. He’d gone to the bathroom.”

“Did you start screaming as soon as you’d got there?”

“I don’t know.” He was crying, quietly. “ I don’t know.”

“When did you last have your knife?”

“I had it last night when I was ringing. Sometimes, if a bird gets very tangled, you have to cut it out of the net. I expect I left it in the ringing room. I don’t remember having it today.”

Palmer-Jones looked at Martindale, inviting him to put a question. The young policeman spoke awkwardly.

“Why did you touch the knife?” he asked. “ It must have been obvious that she was dead.”

Mardle’s eyes flickered towards him before he answered. “You don’t understand,” he said. “I wasn’t acting logically. I wasn’t thinking rationally. It was so horrible there. The knife had hurt her? It just seemed that if I took it out it might make her better. It seems insane now, but perhaps I was insane.”

“When we found you, you said that you didn’t mean to do it. Why did you say that if you didn’t kill her?”

“No.” Nick was shouting again. “I didn’t say that. I said I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean the threats. I hadn’t meant that I wanted them all to die.”

They sat in silence. In the distance there was the faint rumble of the Land Rover. It approached like thunder. Then there was the flash of torch light and Savage arrived in the room. Outside they could hear the sound of heavy boots on the stairs.

“Can we get any proper light in here?” Savage asked cheerfully as soon as he entered. “ They’ll need it upstairs.”

“I’ll go and put the generator on,” Palmer-Jones said, relieved to have an excuse to leave. Savage was looking at Nicholas with an air of triumph and success. If George stayed he would feel tempted to interfere.

When he returned Martindale and Nick were alone again in the ringing room. Savage had gone to Pamela Marshall’s room.

Martindale was talking quietly to Nick: “ You understand what the superintendent said, don’t you? He wants to take you to the police station to talk to you.”

“I understand,” Nick said. “ I’ll be helping the police with their inquiries. Is he going to charge me?”