“It’s fine by me. At least it’s a home match, so you won’t have to travel with the girls,” Chris replied. She quickly filled Cordelia in on her duties at the hockey match and turned to Lindsay. “What exactly are we going to do?”

“I’ll tell you when we meet,” said Lindsay. “It’s vital that you keep this to yourself. The murderer mustn’t know what we’re up to. I’ll see you at about quarter past ten in Paddy’s rooms.”

Chris agreed to this arrangement, so Lindsay and Cordelia left her alone as they went off to obtain information from the school secretary. As they walked down the corridor, Cordelia spluttered with good-natured grumbles.

“That was some bloody stroke you pulled on me,” she complained. “Umpiring a bloody hockey match while you have all the fun. I could kill you, Gordon. You just better cover all the angles, that’s all I can say.”

In the secretary’s office they were lucky again. The files produced a weekday and weekend address for Anthony Barrington, complete with phone numbers. They were about to leave when the other door to the office opened and they found themselves confronted by Pamela Overton who ushered them into her office and asked them to sit down. Like mesmerized first-formers, they sat.

“It has been almost a week now since the murder, and Miss Callaghan is still unjustly imprisoned. Have your inquiries borne fruit so far?”

Cordelia shifted uncomfortably in her seat and gazed at Lindsay with mute appeal. Lindsay pulled herself together, trying desperately to feel like a mature adult instead of a naughty schoolgirl caught doing unspeakable things behind the bike sheds.

“We’ve made a certain amount of progress,” she said. “We drew up an initial list of people we felt might have some possible motive for killing Lorna. We’ve managed to eliminate several people on that list. Right now we’re taking some steps which we hope will produce results within the next forty-eight hours. We believe we’ll be able to establish Paddy’s innocence beyond question. I’m bound to say that the way things look at the moment, the criminal is neither a pupil nor a member of staff. We’ll do our very best to let you know the results before the police are informed, if that’s possible.”