“Well, I missed completely, and she didn’t shoot me back—I guess all that flirting paid off. Then they did arrest her for killing the reverend, but then the whole case went dark. I think she probably cut some kind of deal for testimony against Professor Worth. But that trial is going to take forever because it has a lot of moving parts. I’ve given the police all the evidence I had—he’d kept my laptop, it turned out—but, yeah, it turns out the prof was the real deal. Or seems like it … I mean, innocent until proven guilty and all that. But some of the stuff he’s accused of is—yeah, it’s nasty. Listeners might remember our episode on Jonathan Wild, and he’s really the best comparison I can make. Upstanding citizen by day, criminal mastermind by night.”

“Of course, in Wild’s case, he was sort of both by night because most thief-taking happened after dark as well,” added Rachel.

“True.”

“And you were right about all the rest? The Ackroyds and Lady Tabitha and that lot?”

“More or less.” Liza took a sip of wine. “The police agreed with me about Malcom and Belloc, but since Vivien was dead there couldn’t be a trial. I think she’s got a brother who’s trying to clear her name, but since she hasn’t been formally convicted there’s technically nothing to clear. As for Lady Tabitha, the cops found traces of her blood on one of Sir Richard’s shirts, and he was found guilty a couple of months ago, but he’s appealing the verdict.”

“And the colonel?”

Liza laughed again, a little nervously this time. “Listeners, pause now if you want to play along at home. Or you could listen to the podcast again and see if you spot the thing I missed.”

“They’re not going to do that, Liz.”

“Just trying to build suspense. Actually, we could go to an ad read now if you wanted?”

Rachael poured another glass of wine. “That noise you hear,” she told the listeners, “is me getting Liza another drink, because she apparently needs to be bribed.”

“Okay.” Liza took the wine gratefully. “So, I was right: it was Emmeline White, although you probably already know that because TV Chef on Trial for Murder is kind of a big story. The thing I’d missed—that I eventually remembered, but not for weeks—is that she’d had a go at the colonel after he’d mentioned knowing a guy named White in the army. Turns out she’d had a brother, the brother had got killed, and she blamed his commanding officer.”

“Colonel Coleman?”

“Exactly.”