I’ll bet, thought Paul. Howard knew that if she confessed at the very least he’d probably get a heavy prison sentence as accessory before the deed. It was all too obvious that even if he had not asked her explicitly to poison his wife he had planted the idea firmly in her head by dangling marriage before her, showing her the poisons and explaining which ones were the most suitable. So he had nothing to lose by standing trial. No wonder he appeared confident. He knew that if he were found guilty the love-crazed girl would own up in time and he would be saved.

‘But how could you have convinced the authorities that you had killed Mrs Howard?’

‘I kept the poison bottle.’

‘Why did you do that?’

‘At first I thought I’d leave it beside the water bottle so that they’d think she had emptied it. Then I thought he might be blamed. So I kept it.’

‘What did you do with it?’

‘I hid it. In a safe place.’

‘Where did you hide it, Mary?’

‘In my bedroom. There’s a loose floorboard. I put it under it.’

‘I see. I suppose you got rid of it after the trial?’

‘No.’

‘You mean it was – it is still there?’

‘Yes.’

To Paul it seemed that all the listeners caught the extraordinary implications of this statement at the same time. According to the records this was the last day of Mary Rolfe’s life. If she was telling the truth – Paul shook himself mentally – that is if this entity claiming to be Mary Rolfe was actually giving them the truth, then when Mary Rolfe died, the poison bottle was still concealed under the floorboard.

‘Does Mr Howard know you still have the bottle?’

‘No. I just said I’d confess if he was found guilty.’

‘Which bedroom did – do you have?’

‘One upstairs. On the servants’ floor.’

‘Is it the one next to the tower-room?’

‘No. It’s the next one.’

‘The middle one.’

‘Yes.’

‘Where is the floorboard?’

‘Under the bed.’

‘When you’ve just entered the room is it to the left of the window?’

‘Yes.’

‘Is it near the left-hand wall?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good. Now, Mary, I want you to rest for a while. Rest.’

Bourne straightened up and looked at the others.

‘Discussion?’ he suggested. Meredith nodded.

‘Then I’ll bring her out of it.’

And as before he brought Ann Parish back to herself and wakened her. A minute or so later, she and Carol left the lounge to begin preparations for lunch.

They looked at each other for a moment. Hunt was patently pleased by the turn of events.

‘You’re going to search, aren’t you?’