“I was left with a few possibilities. Firstly, there was a journalist whose career Alison had damaged. They’d had an affair, and when he cooled off, she spread a rumor that he had raped her. As a result, he lost his job. As long as Alison was alive, he lived with the constant fear that she might tell her lies to his wife. I checked out his alibi for the time of the crime and found it was very weak.” Lindsay looked around the room. Ruth was staring into her lap where her hands were shredding a tissue. Antonis was leaning back in his chair with a look of superiority on his handsome face. Claire and Cordelia were studying Lindsay with matching looks of concentration and interest. Jim Carstairs was busily making notes.

She took a deep breath and continued. “Secondly, there was a surgeon whose career and marriage she could have wrecked. She started an affair with him shortly after he performed a minor operation on her, something which I’m sure the General Medical Council would have been interested to hear about, not to mention his wife. Again, when I made inquiries, it became clear that he could equally well have committed the crime.

“And thirdly, there was Antonis, who stood to lose everything if she turned on him . . .”

Before Lindsay could say more, Antonis had leapt to his feet. “That is a filthy lie,” he shouted.

“How dare you suggest me! Alison was our friend. I would never betray my wife with her!” He took a step toward Lindsay. “Take that back!” he roared.

To everyone’s astonishment, Ruth piped up quietly but firmly. “Sit down, Antonis. There’s no need to make a fool of yourself. I know all about it. It’s all right. I know you didn’t kill Alison.”

Antonis turned to face her, dumbfounded. Ruth patted the seat next to her. “Sit down, my love,” she said softly. Blindly, he obeyed and slumped into the sofa, head in his hands. Ruth put a hand on his shoulder and gazed hatred at Lindsay.

Lindsay discovered she’d been holding her breath and slowly let it out. She’d been right about one thing. Please God, she’d be right about the rest. “There were, of course, other possibilities,” she continued. “Even though Claire hired me, it was well within the bounds of possibility that she was engaged in a risky double bluff to mask the fact that she had in fact killed Alison.”

Claire shook her head wearily. “You really can be most absurd, Lindsay,” she remarked. “Trying to pin a murder on me simply because I’m living with your ex-girlfriend is very tacky. Not worthy of you at all.”

“Bear with me, please,” Lindsay said.

“I really don’t see why we should,” Cordelia said belligerently.