“Paddy is not a member of the music staff and wasn’t directly involved in the plans for the concert. Indeed, if she hadn’t been asked by Pamela Overton to look after Lorna, she could reasonably have expected to spend the entire evening sitting with you and me. And there would have been no opportunity for her to go sailing off and commit murder. Also, I think we can rule out any conspiracy theory between Paddy and Pamela Overton. No, if Paddy had been planning to have a go at Lorna, she would have picked a different time and place. She’d have made sure she had some kind of alibi. But this way, she’d have had to go ahead with it knowing she’d be the prime suspect. And Paddy’s not daft enough for that.” Cordelia slowly nodded agreement.

Lindsay went on. “The same argument really applies to you. There is no reason why you should have imagined that any opportunity would arise that evening to kill Lorna. So it’s highly unlikely that you’d be wandering around with a garrot stuffed down your cleavage on the off-chance. Now, I know you’re very fit, but I don’t think you’d have had time to run to Longnor House and back and still get to the music room in time to kill Lorna. Anyway, in both your case and Paddy’s, why go all the way back to Longnor when there were dozens of coats in the doakrooms in this building, amongst which there must have been the odd duffel coat?”

Lindsay broke off and loaded dhal into her mouth with a chunk of naan bread. Cordelia tasted the lamb curry suspiciously and said grudgingly, “Not bad, this. Okay, then, Sherlock. Let’s have the rest of your reasoning.”

Between mouthfuls, Lindsay continued. “Up to now, we’ve rather been looking at this crime as if it had been a completely opportunist exercise. In reality, I think quite a bit of foreknowledge and forward planning was involved. On that basis alone, I’m prepared to exclude you and Paddy. Of the others, I feel strongly that Margaret Macdonald is out of the running. It would have been a completely unnecessary crime for her. As she said to us, her life wouldn’t have been destroyed by any revelation Lorna could have made.