“Well, I don’t think that he did it,” I said. “I mean, if you were going to kill someone, would you leave your knife sticking out of his back for everyone to identify? Would you leave the body across a footpath, where it would be easily found? Jack’s pretty strong. He could have dragged the body off into the shrubbery somewhere and we wouldn’t have found it for days, by which time he could have worked out a perfect alibi.”

“I’m going to have to keep an eye on you,” Darcy said, raising an eyebrow. “You’re becoming remarkably devious.”

“Well, I’m hungry,” Belinda said. “I believe luncheon was mentioned. Can someone please show me the way to the dining room?”

“And we’d better make the most of the last good meals we’ll get in a while,” Adrian said. “It will soon be back to baked beans on toast, won’t it, boys?”

“I suppose it’s too much to hope that Ceddy might have left us something in his will?” Julian said.

“I might have hoped until yesterday,” Adrian said. “But now that nasty little minx Marcel has turned out to be his favorite all along, I think it’s highly unlikely. Besides, you heard what they’ve said. All the money is tied up in the estate and it all goes to young Jack.”

“Maybe we should start being nicer to him,” Simon said with a grin. “He’ll need friends in his hour of trial.”

“He will,” Julian agreed. “We should go and find him and let him know that we are behind him all the way.”

For some reason, I heard Darcy chuckle.

“You three should not be called the Starlings, but the Vultures,” I said and they laughed too.

“Starving artists and performers like us have to do what it takes to survive, duckie,” Adrian said. “We thought we’d fallen on our feet here with Ceddy. I mean, a real patron of the arts who was going to build his own theater and let us write plays, act, design sets . . . it was a dream come true. Too bad of him to get himself killed.” He brushed a speck from his black trousers. “Come along, boys. Let’s go and find poor Jack and take him some food. He’ll need to keep his strength up.”

They left the room together. Belinda got up, stretched like a cat and followed them

I looked at Darcy. “Shall we?” He offered me his arm.

“Do you think we could slip away for a bit?” I asked.

He looked amused. “What have you in mind?”

“Nothing like that. I’d really like you to take a look at the crime scene for yourself,” I said. “There was something seriously wrong that the inspector didn’t seem to notice.”

“But you don’t know what it was?”