When it was Belinda’s turn, she stared at her hands in disgust. “How horrid,” she said. “You know, I think it was a silly mistake to have come here in the first place, and it’s clearly going to be no fun with the police all over the place. I may just toddle off back to London, darling.”

She thinks that Jack is guilty, I thought, but didn’t say it out loud. And she did have a point. He appeared to have a perfect motive, and the opportunity and skill to carry it out.

She turned to the police constable. “Now that you have ruined my fingers with that nasty black stuff, I presume I’m free to leave. There really is no reason for my staying here any longer, you know. I only came to return a lost shoe to Lady Georgiana, and I have absolutely no connections to this family.”

“What do you mean?” Edwina’s voice boomed down the Long Gallery. “Have you forgotten your great-aunt Primrose? We are related, are we not, through your great-aunt? Besides, I should have thought that your friendship with Cedric might provide most valuable information to the police. The rest of us know nothing about his life in London. You may be able to shed light on who might have had a genuine motive to want Cedric dead. So please sit down again.”

She was so forceful in her delivery that Belinda sat. I couldn’t resist sneaking a glance and giving her a grin. It wasn’t often that one saw Belinda unable to talk herself out of an awkward situation. I must say, I was rather enjoying her discomfort. She had become too used to gaining entry under false pretenses. Maybe this would teach her a lesson.

Darcy was obviously thinking along the same lines. “The rats are trying to leave the sinking ship,” he muttered to me under his breath.

I nodded. Silence resumed as the police constable gathered up his fingerprint kit and left, his big boots echoing loudly across the parquet floor.

I leaned close to Darcy and whispered, “I need to talk to you. Something doesn’t make sense.”

“What doesn’t?”

“A lot of things, but especially that knife left in Cedric’s back. I suppose there’s no chance that you can go and take a look at the body for yourself, is there?”

“I can hardly go out there now with the police milling around, can I? Besides, what would I see that you haven’t already seen?”

“I’d just like confirmation that something wasn’t right,” I said. “There was something about the way he was lying that didn’t add up—apart from his coat being draped over his body, I mean.”