As it happened, I could have stayed every night at Silver’s and Max would never have known. It was to be Liv’s money that was my undoing. But that was awhile ahead. On that night in June I felt perfectly secure, especially as I had been into college several times since the talk with Caroline Bodmer, the canal bank being open again a few days after the murder, and I had a feeling, which later proved true, that Dr. Bodmer kept Max informed of my movements.

To find a hiding place for the money I braved old Mrs. Fisherton’s horrible green dining room. It was no gloomier by night than by day since almost no more light penetrated at noon than at midnight. The wallpaper and the green carpet gave it a subaqueous look, as if the room were part of an old wrecked ship. I was very uncomfortable in that room. I not only felt I was in a trap but also that the place was growing smaller while I looked for somewhere to stash the money. In the tea trolley had been my first idea, inside a kind of hotplate with a lid, and then I thought, suppose Beryl switches the thing on by mistake when she’s hoovering.

Mabel came dancing in after I had turned my attention to the rest of the furniture. She seemed surprised that the door to the dining room was open and I inside, as well she might be, and pleased, she leapt onto the top of the sideboard and rubbed her face against my arm.