Lindsay swallowed hard. The moment had come, and her bottle had nearly gone. Giving a silent prayer, she said, “One more thing. There’s no pleasant and polite way to ask this, Claire, but I hope you won’t take it the wrong way. Even though you’re paying me to carry out this inquiry, I still have to be impartial. And if I was a police officer, I’d have to ask you this.” Claire looked puzzled, but Lindsay struggled on. “What were you doing at the time of Alison’s murder?”

Claire looked furious, two bright spots of color rising on her pale cheeks. Then quickly she saw the funny side and laughed, tossing her fine hair back. “Well done, Lindsay. Hang on just a minute, would you?” She buzzed her intercom and said, “Mrs. Cox, would you bring me in my diary for last year, please?” Then she turned back to Lindsay and said, “As far as I can remember, I was in a meeting all afternoon. I left the office about half past five and I was at home when Jackie arrived.” She broke off as her secretary walked in with a large leather-bound desk diary. Claire quickly flicked through the pages then pushed it across to Lindsay. “There you are. 3:30. Meeting with Colin Amis, Duncan Mclver, David Milne. I can give you their phone numbers if you want to check.”

Lindsay was forced to smile in spite of her suspicions. “But you’ve no alibi for the crucial time, have you?”

Claire returned her smile. “It doesn’t appear so. But I’d have had to have been incredibly lucky not to have been spotted by someone if I’d been running to such a tight schedule. Besides, I had no motive for killing Alison. Jackie and I had settled our differences. As far as I was concerned, her visit to Alison’s flat was for the sole purpose of ending their liaison. If I’d been going to kill Alison, I’d have done it either before then or after. Not at that particular point. And why on earth would I hire you to investigate if I was the murderer?”

“It’s a good double bluff,” Lindsay retorted.

This time, Claire’s smile had a hint of steel in it. “I’m sure if you really want Cordelia back, there are easier ways of going about it than trying to implicate me in a murder. Now, if there’s nothing else?”