Sir Richard looked down his nose at her. “‘Fraid not. What I noticed was that his wife not being in the room at the time made ‘accident’ a much less probable explanation.”

“So when you say one or two things,” Hanna pointed out, “you mean one?”

“Well, yes.” Sir Richard had the grace to look suitably abashed. “You know, you’re supposed to ask me why I think that.”

Liza could have, but actually, she was beginning to think she knew. “It’s because if he was going to fall off the balcony by chance, it could have been at any time. But if he was pushed, either his wife did it then ran, or somebody waited for his wife to leave and then came in and did it.”

Now Sir Richard was looking genuinely crestfallen. “You know, between the two of you, you’re almost taking all the fun out of this.”

“Out of the dead man?” Hanna clarified.

Another shrug from Sir Richard, one that could practically be described as insouciant. “It’s not like he’ll get any less dead if I sit around looking dreary. Besides, Belloc’s poking around—why shouldn’t I? Come to think of it, why shouldn’t we?” A sly grin spread across his face. “Tell you what, how about a small wager? Let’s take the weekend to work out what really happened to old Ackroyd, and then when the snow lets up and the police arrive, we can—”

“No.” Hanna had shifted from mild disapproval to firm denial.

Sir Richard gave her a disappointed look “Oh, come—”

“No. We aren’t betting on the death of somebody whose actual corpse we saw in the snow less than twenty-four hours ago. That’s not charmingly detached; it’s genuinely callous.”

Liza hadn’t been that tempted to take the bet, but being told she couldn’t rankled. “This isn’t a bet.”

“Well, it sort of is,” replied Sir Richard, half-apologetic.

But Liza was adamant. “It’s a professional opportunity. I’m a true crime reporter; this is a true crime.”

“You know what, fine. I’m going back to the room, and when you’re done with whatever this is you can come find me. Or not, if you’d rather chase murderers.” Pulling out of Liza’s arms, Hanna started trudging up the hill and back to the hotel.