‘Nightshade,’ I repeated. ‘It’s a perfume. Our intruder last night was wearing it.’

He laughed. ‘You must be mistaken. Perhaps it was aftershave.’

‘No, I’m very familiar with the smell. Helena was wearing it yesterday and my cousin Brian sent me a bottle a couple of Christmases ago − all gone now, sadly. But I smelt it last night, just before someone hit me with the torch. And I’ll tell you something else. I can smell it in here as well.’ I nodded towards the closed door that led to the en suite. ‘Why don’t you tell her to come out?’

He laughed. ‘Tell who?’

‘Helena.’

‘Helena?’ He was shocked enough to take his hands out of his pockets. ‘Helena and Harry have gone back to Bradford.’

‘Oh, come on, Richard! It was a woman in my room last night. It was Helena, searching my flat for her bloody rings!’

‘You’re out of your mind!’ Richard laughed. ‘Or that bump on the head has affected you.’

‘We both know it was her, so why don’t you stop playing around?’

‘You’ve got it all wrong!’

‘All that money you lavished on dinner, too. And that long, long drive home, stopping to look at the stars – but you still couldn’t keep me out of the house long enough for her to burgle my place and get away safely. Of course, she had to wait for Adam and Kate to go to bed before she could creep in, which must have been frustrating for her. Is that why you decided to kiss me? Just in case she was still in there? Give her a few more minutes to get away?’

‘Juno, I can assure you—’

‘It must have given you quite a scare to see her running out of the house, even more so when she told you she’d bonked me on the head. You must have been worried sick, in case she’d killed me. You picked her up and brought her back here before you returned to the house. That’s why the poor police doggie couldn’t find any trail leading from the hedge.’

Richard rubbed a hand over his face. ‘Juno, I swear to you, Helena had nothing to do with this.’

I stood up. ‘Tell that to the police.’

He hastily stepped in front of me, barring my way. ‘Look … all right, I admit I did take you out last evening to get you out of your flat.’

I sat down again. ‘Go on.’

He flicked an undecided glance towards the door of the bathroom, then strode across and opened it. ‘You’d better come in here,’ he called sourly.