‘There was no way I could anticipate this murder,’ protested Harry. ‘Mrs Trumpington was a suspect. . . I’m sorry, Jerry.’

‘It’s all right,’ he said gloomily. ‘If she hadn’t been murdered and left me as the prime suspect I would be celebrating, and there’s no use pretending otherwise. She wasn’t always like that, you know. When I married her, she was a pretty little slip of a thing and I thought myself the luckiest man in England. Don’t get married, Harry. They all turn out the same.’

‘I beg your pardon,’ said Lady Glensheil frostily. ‘I am married.’

‘But Glensheil’s never around, is he?’ said Mr Jerry, made tactless in his distress.

‘Never mind that. Captain Harry, you must do something about this dreadful business before we are all murdered in our beds.’

‘I will do my best. Kerridge is a brilliant policeman.’

‘Nonsense, the man’s as thick as two planks.’

‘His manner and appearance are deceptive.’

The butler entered. ‘The police wish to interview you now, my lady. They are in the estate office, as you wished.’

‘Very well.’ She rose majestically to her feet and adjusted her hat. After having given her lady’s maid a row over the waxed-fruit disaster, Lady Glensheil had changed all her clothes, feeling that a new outfit was called for in such distressing circumstances. Lady Glensheil never went hatless during the day. She was wearing a broad-brimmed felt hat decorated with a stuffed seagull with small ruby eyes.

She turned in the doorway and glared at Harry. ‘Do something,’ she snapped. ‘You’re a detective, so detect!’

After she had gone, Harry turned to Mr Jerry. ‘Have you the slightest idea what your wife could have been up to that would make her the target of blackmail?’

‘Can’t think.’

‘Could she have been having an affair?’

‘I don’t know. I was in India last year for a few months. Maybe then. But who would want her?’

‘It’s the evidence that Freddy had. Did the murderer find it? Or did Freddy have it hidden somewhere?’

‘Blessed if I know. Wait a bit. We put valuables in safe-deposit boxes at the bank.’

‘Surely the police thought of that when they were going through his bank accounts.’

‘Might have come under a different department at the bank.’

‘I’ll use the phone. Blast! There isn’t one, and its Sunday anyway. I’d better see Kerridge.’

Harry nearly collided with Lady Glensheil as she emerged from the estate office.

‘Have you done anything yet?’ she demanded.

‘Give me time,’ said Harry patiently.

He went into the office. Kerridge was seated behind a desk, with Inspector Judd, stationed in a corner, holding a large notebook on his knee.

‘I’ve just had an idea,’ said Harry. ‘Look, Pomfret may have put any blackmail evidence in a safe-deposit box at the bank.’

‘Lady Rose Summer,’ announced the policeman who was on duty outside the door.