So I stayed and listened to the rain drumming on the roof and rattling down the closed casements and thought that, sharing Silver’s bed apart, how much nicer it was to sleep up here in the heights than at old Mrs. Fisherton’s. But I slept less than well. I kept worrying about the window I had left open for Mabel and wondering if instead of her the rain was coming in and flooding the place. Although I hadn’t said a word about it to Silver, he read my thoughts and said in his sleep, or half-sleep, “Don’t worry, Clo, sweetheart. Worrying never helps.”

I heard Wim’s footsteps going downstairs and much later Jonny’s footsteps coming up. The police had let him go after hours and hours, though they said they’d want to see him again. They had talked about searching the Silvermans’ house because they hadn’t yet recovered the money and the jewelry taken from Sandra Furbank’s houseboat.

“They’ll have to get a search warrant,” said practical Silver. “They’re not coming in here without one.”

I must be an optimist because I was sure they wouldn’t come back. Perhaps, rather, it was because I found it hard to imagine the police attributing any dishonesty to Silver and his parents. But that is not the way they think. It’s only in detective mysteries that policemen study human character and rely on psychology in their investigations. In life circumstantial evidence is the main thing and they must have had some, for they returned with that warrant, not to search the entirety of 15 Russia Road, but only Silver’s flat. And to ask Silver about an alibi for Jonny.

While they were there Wim came in through the window from the roofs. Feet in black trainers came in first, of course, as he swung himself from the lintel of the dormer. He was dressed in black tracksuit pants and dark green sweatshirt and might just have passed for a roofer, which was how, with his usual presence of mind, Silver presented him. Clearing out the gutters after the rain, Silver said, and neither of the policemen seemed to find anything odd. It would have been a different matter if it had been Jonny.