“So,” Pru said, holding up a hand to silence Rachel, “we’re all going to be in this secret room, right. Matt’s out there, making a mess on deck. We hear a guy spot the boat. The guy runs off to go call the police. We sit tight. And we may have to sit tight for bloody hours. We wait for a window. The police or ambulance or whatever will take Matt away, and then they’ll be back soon enough to set up a crime scene. That is the window.

“Matt gets taken, and by the time police realize that six people had gone in and only one has come out, and what’s more, two of those missing are bloody Claypaths, we’ll have scarpered. We have to be very careful there are no witnesses when we finally come out of the boat, and we all know there’s no cameras or anything round there. We pop out and I flick my switch. And the extra rooms disappear, and what’s more, the hatch we use to get to the secret room is closed up.”

“Okay. All joking aside, I don’t actually get that bit,” Rachel said.

Pru smiled like she knew something no one else did, and she was very clearly relishing that fact. “I’ve made it so the hatch is the same dimensions as the cupboard under the bed in Edmund’s uncle’s narrow boat so if any joint is visible then it’ll look natural.”

“Okay. That is clever,” Rachel said. “You’ve earned your demonstration.”

“Thank you,” Pru said dutifully. “Check this out.” She held up a switch, and gestured down to the boat. Everyone watched it. It had settled on top of the water. The “secret” room was underwater. Pru pressed the button. “Watch carefully,” she said. “Now you see me...” The secret room started to shrink—the water flowing out of it, spurting back into the wider body of water. When it was impossibly small, they saw the pieces of metal that were the walls and floor break off and sink to the bottom of the bucket. What was left was the original narrow boat. “Now you don’t.” Pru smiled, clearly happy with herself. “The bits of metal float to the bottom of the canal, and seem just like some leftover rubbish. Boo-yaa!”

There was curt applause and Pru took her bowl of water and put it on the floor.

“Great,” Tim said. “So we’re all okay with the plan.”

“I will stay behind,” Amber said. “Someone needs to be your eyes and ears in Marsden. Someone needs to guard The Hamlet. I am honored to do this for you.”

“Us or just Tim?” Robert mumbled.

Tim slammed his hand down on the table. “Robert, do you have something you would like to share?”

Robert shook his head.