“Unless things have gone very Jonathan Creek,” she explained, “we can assume that Mr Belloc really was shot when we, y’know, heard him get shot. And that makes our suspect list for his murder much shorter.”

Hanna nodded. “It can’t be you or me or—much as I hate to admit it—Ruby, and we met Reverend Lincoln and Professor Worth on the way to the loch, so unless they moved very fast …”

“And found a way to walk over snow without leaving footprints,” added Liza.

“Then it wasn’t either of them,” concluded Hanna. “Or Sir Richard or Lady Tabitha either.”

“Which leaves the colonel, Vivien Ackroyd, Emmeline White, Mr Burgh, or—you know,”—Liza’s nose wrinkled with embarrassment—”there’s actually a fair few other staff here whose names I don’t even know.”

“Yeah that’s a pretty big flaw in the investigation.”

“Hey.” Liza put her hands in the air. “I’ve been busy. And besides, Ruby thought that if Mr B or his agent were here, they’d be someone new.”

Hanna gave a mostly mock scowl. “You mean Ruby who freely admits to being a thief and a liar?”

“Yes.” For a moment Liza looked thoughtful. There was a conclusion to be reached here, but it was taking a moment. “But doesn’t that work either way? If she can be trusted, she’s probably right we shouldn’t be looking at the staff. If she can’t be trusted, we still shouldn’t be looking at the staff because we should be looking at her.”

Something about that seemed to please Hanna. “I suppose so. Kind of a blessed-if-you-don’t, blessed-if-you-do situation.”

They rearranged the papers to account for people’s whereabouts during Belloc’s death and annotated them accordingly. “Of course,” said Liza, “there’s also the gun to be thinking about.”

Hanna ripped another sheet off the notepad and wrote “gun” on it.

“We know it went missing sometime between ten on the Friday and the Saturday morning,” Liza continued. “Which rules out … well, nobody.”

“But we also know it was locked in a gun cabinet and the key for that cabinet was in a safe. Which means … I don’t know what that means.”

Rifling through the papers, Liza pulled out the sheets for Mr Burgh, Reverend Lincoln, and Ruby. “Well, he had the key.” She pointed at Burgh. “And the other two might have the skills necessary to crack a safe or be able to get somebody to tell them the combination.”

Hanna shuffled through what was left and sorted out the notes they’d made about the two previous murders. “And we can rule out the vicar for Belloc because he came down to the woods with us.”