Needless to say, Ricky and Morris found all this hilarious. Unfortunately, I was booked to work for them the day after the newspaper came out, so there was no dodging the issue, if you’ll forgive the pun. After an hour or so of remorseless roasting, I threatened to go home if they didn’t shut up. They promised to be good and I sorted out returned School for Scandal costumes, unmolested, until it was time for tea, when the subject of the murder inevitably came up again.

‘Did you ring your solicitor,’ Morris called out to me, as I dumped an armful of frilly shirts that needed washing into the laundry hamper, ‘about who witnessed Nick’s will?’

‘Yes,’ I replied, sitting at the breakfast-room table. ‘I tried Mr Young again on Monday. It was Albert Evans.’ It seemed quite weird to me, that Bert Evans had known that Nick had left his property to me long before I did. Perhaps that’s why he had wanted to find out about me from the Smithsons: he fancied pursuing a woman of property. The thought made my stomach churn.

‘And who else, did he say?’ Morris asked, passing a cup to me. ‘There must have been a second witness.’

‘Ooh. I hadn’t thought of that!’ Ricky declared, excited. ‘You mean another suspect, someone who didn’t like the fact that Nick was leaving the place to Juno.’

‘Well, who was it?’ Morris asked, a biscuit poised halfway to his parted lips.

I beckoned them closer, lowering my voice to a confidential whisper. ‘Mr Singh.’

They both burst out laughing.

‘Can you imagine it?’ Ricky demanded. ‘Nick, ringing poor old Mr Singh, asking him to pop round with a packet of biscuits and would he mind witnessing a signature while he was there.’

I could. Poor, dear Mr Singh. I imagined that is exactly what happened.

‘Well, there you are,’ Ricky went on, eyes dancing. ‘Mr Singh, he’s obviously the murderer.’

‘Never!’

‘When you have eliminated the impossible,’ Ricky quoted Conan Doyle, miming having a pipe to his mouth, ‘whatever remains, however improbable, must be the—’

‘Oh, belt up, Sherlock!’ Morris advised him.

‘Mr Young did mention one thing I found interesting.’

They both looked at me.

‘He told me the date the will was witnessed. I worked out it wasn’t long after Richard had last visited his father, which made me wonder if they had quarrelled. If that was the reason Nick had decided to alter his will in my favour.’

‘Which made you wonder if Richard killed his father,’ Ricky said. ‘Except that Richard has an alibi.’

‘I know,’ I sighed. ‘I just keep going round in circles.’

‘You know, darling,’ Morris took my hand, his round face serious. ‘Sometimes we never find out the answer to things. Sometimes we just have to accept that we’ll never know.’

Ricky nodded in agreement. ‘You should stop tormenting yourself about the murder, sweetheart. Let it go.’