As we trooped down the stairs again we were greeted by the doctor. “Ah, there you are, Sheriff,” he said. “I hope one of your men can run me home. I’ve concluded my preliminary investigation,” he said. “My initial observation is that Mr. Goldman died of trauma to the head, struck with a blunt instrument which one had to conclude was the candlestick, now lying beside him on the floor.”

“That was obvious to even the most stupid among us,” the sheriff said.

“Hold on a minute,” the doctor said. “I have yet to autopsy the victim. We don’t know, for example, whether he might have been knocked out in some other way first—poison perhaps, and then finished off with the blow to the head.”

“Hardly likely,” Darcy said. “We were all talking and laughing with him fifteen minutes before he died.”

“And this was clearly a spontaneous act when the thief was interrupted in the middle of a robbery,” the sheriff added. “One of the candlesticks was taken. Presumably the thief meant to take both of them but then couldn’t bring himself or herself to take the candlestick matted with hair and blood.”

“That would prove he didn’t die of poisoning or some other means first, wouldn’t it?” I blurted out, finding this whole thing rather silly. “I mean, there was an awful lot of blood all over the floor and if he was already dead, he would have stopped bleeding.”

They stared at me as if I were a newly arrived Martian.

“And how would you know that, little lady?” the doctor asked.

“I’ve been involved in a couple of murders in my life,” I said.

“She’s helped to solve them,” Darcy added, moving closer to my side. “She’s quite a whiz, if you want to know.”

“Holy cow,” the doctor said.

“So let’s hear it, then.” The sheriff turned to me with a sarcastic smile on his thick lips. “Who did it? We’re all dying to know and then we can go home.”

“Of course I have no idea who did it yet,” I said. “But I really have to suspect that someone was trying to frame Miss Brightwell. I mean why hide the candlestick where it would so easily be found? She knows her way around this house. If she was planning to hide something, there must be hundreds of out-of-the-way corners and cupboards where nobody would ever look. She could even stash it inside a suit of armor—”