‘I think that’s enough for tonight,’ said William.

‘No, Daddy!’ screamed Artemisia and Peter in unison. ‘More!’

‘All right, just a couple of pages,’ said William, with an exaggerated sigh. ‘The other three policemen quickly surrounded the van while PC Plod opened the passenger door and took out the cardboard box. He opened it to find it was full of oyster shells, and when he prised one open, he found a pearl in it. Plod knew that pearls were normally found at the bottom of the ocean and not in cardboard boxes.’

The phone in the corridor began to ring. William put down the book and said, ‘Can you take that, Beth, Mr Plod is about to arrest the real criminal?’ He looked back at the children and continued, ‘He immediately arrested Mr Nettles and told two of the constables to escort him back to the local police station, along with the evidence. “What shall I say when Inspector Watchit asks me what you’re up to?” asked one of the constables. “Tell him I will be paying a visit to the manor house and arresting the real culprit,” said Plod. “And he may be surprised who …”’ William was about to continue when Beth poked her head around the door.

‘It’s James on the phone,’ she said.

‘James?’

‘James Buchanan, he’s calling from New York.’

‘Mum will carry on reading,’ said William, ‘while I take the call.’

‘But then you won’t discover who Mr Plod arrests,’ said Artemisia.

‘I feel sure Mum will tell me later,’ William replied, as he climbed off the bed, left the room and exchanged a book for a telephone. ‘What a pleasant surprise,’ he said, before James had been given the chance to speak.

‘You may not feel so, when I tell you the reason I’m calling,’ said James, ‘because I need to seek your advice on an embarrassing situation.’

‘I’m at your disposal,’ said William calmly.

‘I’ve recently discovered that my closest friend at Choate got someone else to sit his entrance exam papers for Harvard.’

‘Proof?’ said William.

‘He asked me first, and I refused. However, when the names of the successful candidates were announced, to my surprise my friend was among the top half a dozen on the list.’

‘In which case, someone else must have failed, someone who everyone else in your class would have expected to be offered a place.’

‘You’re right, and I can even tell you his name. He’s a scholarship boy from a one-parent family, who’s always short of money.’

‘And you want to know,’ said William, ‘whether you should pass on your suspicions to a higher authority.’

‘Yes. I was curious to find out what you would do, if you faced the same dilemma.’

William remained silent for so long that James eventually said, ‘Are you still there, sir?’

‘Yes, I am,’ said William. ‘I confess that I faced almost the same problem when I was at school. I caught a friend, not my best friend, stealing from the school tuck shop once too often.’