We had been walking slowly up the hill, Belinda and I with a firm grip on her arms. The house came into view ahead of us. Bella started in alarm like a spooked horse and tried to back away.

“If you take me in there they’ll think I killed him,” she said.

“I thought you were so confident a few minutes ago,” I said. I looked down at the watch on the wrist I was holding. It was her right wrist. “Your sister is left-handed, like you,” I said.

“She is. So was our mum. I don’t know about our dad. He left us when I was a baby. But what’s that got to do with anything?”

“It should prove that you didn’t kill Mr. Goldman,” I said. “As it happens, the most they can cite you for is breaking and entering. You didn’t steal anything. You just played a trick on your sister.”

“You think they’ll go for that?” There was a slight tremble of hope in her voice and I realized that for all her brashness she was a frightened young woman alone in a strange country.

“I think they will believe it when a man sent over from Scotland Yard testifies that you have never committed any violent act, even when you could have done.”

“Blimey. There’s someone come over from Scotland Yard after me, is there?”

“You’ve left quite a trail of robberies behind you, including the ones on the ship,” I said.

“Only one on the ship,” she corrected. “The Indian princess.”

“What about the diamond ring?”

“I never took no diamond ring,” she said. “That must have been someone else. Or what’s the betting the passenger lied about the ring being stolen to claim on the insurance. They often do, you know.”

When I thought of the woman in question I realized this might well be true. “But you did take the princess’s ruby?”

She grinned. “That was a piece of cake. But of course I shall deny this conversation if you mention it to anyone else. They’ve absolutely nothing on me. They can’t even prove I was on the ship. I traveled on a fake passport.”

“So, the princess,” I went on, intrigued now. “How did you do it? You dressed up like your sister and pretended you’d gone to her cabin by mistake?”

“How the devil did you know that?”

“I put two and two together,” I said, feeling rather pleased with myself.

“That was just to see where she kept things and how attentive the servant was,” she said. “The good thing is that people like her never notice servants. I borrowed a stewardess’s uniform and waited until the servant was dozing and the princess was out. Then I let myself in and helped myself.”

“And how did you hide the ruby when they searched the ship?”