“Not too bad, my love. Chest still a little dicky, but all in all can’t complain. Come on in and I’ll put the kettle on.” He went ahead to a tiny, neat kitchen, filled the kettle then turned back to me. “So, out with it. What brings you to my neck of the woods?”

“Do I need an excuse to visit my favorite grandfather?” I asked, smiling at him fondly.

“No, but when you come to see me, you usually want ’elp with some problem or other.”

“You’re quite right. I do want your advice,” I said. I perched on the kitchen stool and told him the whole story while he made the tea. As he handed me a cup he looked up at me. “I don’t quite know why you came to see me,” he said. “It sounds like the police are doing their job.”

“I’m worried that Chief Inspector Fairbotham isn’t very bright,” I said. “He may jump to the wrong conclusion.”

“I don’t know what you think I can do, ducks,” he said.

“I thought you might come down to Eynsford and take a look for yourself.”

He gave a chuckle, which turned into a chesty cough. “Me? Come down to a stately ’ome? Don’t be daft. You couldn’t introduce me as your grandfather, could you? And I’m not sneaking in pretending to be a servant. Besides, it wouldn’t be right for me to poke my nose in. Nor you either. You mind your own business and stay well out of it. That’s my advice.”

“But it doesn’t look good for poor Jack, does it? Lots of things adding up against him.”

My grandfather’s head cocked on one side, like a bird. “Did it cross your mind that he might have done it?”

“What for?” I demanded. “He doesn’t want to be a duke. He doesn’t like it here. He hardly knew Cedric, and had no reason to kill him.”

Granddad was watching my face, which had changed as I said the words. “You’ve thought of a reason, haven’t you?”

“He did insult Jack’s mother, but people don’t stab someone for insulting their mother.”

“In Italy they do it all the time, so I’ve heard,” he said. “So I suppose the question is who had a better reason to want this here duke dead?”

I thought. “The most likely in my opinion is William, the young man they now have in custody. He had been dismissed from his position in the household, and Cedric was going to pull down his parents’ cottage. And he was seen on the grounds that morning.”

“There you are then. Sounds perfect. Case solved.”

“Except that the murderer used Jack’s knife. How would William have found it? He wouldn’t be poking around in the tack room. That sounds to me like a deliberate attempt to incriminate Jack.”