“That’s a better sort of idea,” I said. “Servants are very susceptible to the palace ghosts, particularly those who don’t normally work there. If one of them saw her, at least we’ll know what sort of time she came there and whether she actually went into the courtyard, and for what reason.”

“Good,” he said. “So I’ll leave that to you then.”

“Very well.” I nodded, my brain still racing as I tried to process everything he’d told me. “But surely one of the first things to do is to find out where she gave birth and if she named the father on the birth certificate,” I said.

“Yes, we’ll certainly try to do that. It wouldn’t have been a public hospital, obviously. She couldn’t risk being recognized even if she checked in under a phony name. One of those fancy private clinics where ladies go for vague and undetermined female illnesses, nervous cures, and no questions asked.”

“It could have been abroad,” I said. “I hear some women go to France or Switzerland for such things.”

“It’s not going to be easy, that’s for sure,” he said.

“What about her maid?” I asked as the thought occurred to me. “What does she have to say? She must know where her mistress went. She may have been sworn to secrecy but she can be frightened into telling the police.”

He gave a long and heavy sigh, stroking at his fawn-colored mustache. “The young lady was apparently one of the modern set who has no maid. There is a woman who comes in to clean but I’m sure she’ll know nothing.”

“And her family? Do we know anything about them? Did she go home to give birth, maybe?”

“There doesn’t seem to be a family. Of course, Carrington might not be her real name.” He looked glum. “But she had friends. She was always photographed in the middle of a group of people. She attended parties and nightclubs with her chums. She would have told at least one of them the truth. Women always find someone to confide in, in my experience. She might well have told the father.” He paused, sucking air in through his teeth. “Again, it’s going to be tricky questioning people who knew her and finding out what they knew without giving away that she’s dead.”

I nodded agreement.

“We certainly have a good motive for murder,” he went on. “Whoever the father was might have a lot to lose if the news was made public.”

“Gosh, you’re not suggesting that Prince George might have been involved in her murder?” I stammered out the words, because it was impossible to think of my likeable cousin as a murderer.

“He’s a royal, isn’t he? They get someone else to do their dirty work.”