“Your stupidity is staggering,” Dart groaned. “That corpse upstairs is a bloody monument to your stupidity. I suppose it never occurred to you to come to us with your information? If you’d done that, I can guarantee Sarah Cartwright would still be alive. Instead, you have to do things your way, and now she’s just a lump of dead flesh. You say the girl lied in her statement. She admits that in her confession. If, instead of phoning to put the frighteners on her, you’d come to me, she’d still be alive. I’ve known that girl since she was in her pram. Now I’ve got to go and tell her father that not only was his daughter a murderer but that because of the sheer stupidity of a couple of so-called amateur detectives, she’s dead.” He shook his head. “Congratulations, ladies. It looks like you’ve got your friend off the hook. I just hope you can live with the price.” He got to his feet and walked to the door. Before he left, he turned to them and said, “Don’t leave the area before the inquest. I think I’ll be wanting you to tell your story to the coroner.”

The policemen left the two women alone. Lindsay stared unseeingly out of the window. After a few minutes, Cordelia got up and put her arms round her. Lindsay half-smiled and said, “One of us better ring Gillian and get her to set the wheels in motion to get Paddy freed. Why don’t you do it? I don’t think I can face it right now. I should have listened to you.

“I’m really sorry about all of this. I’ve not done you any favors, have I? Not to mention that poor, tortured kid. Me and my big ideas. I’ve made a right balls-up of this from start to finish.”

Cordelia kissed her forehead. “Don’t blame yourself. She chose to kill Lorna. You didn’t make her. Everybody seems to be forgetting that side of the story. And she chose to kill herself rather than face up to the consequences. She’d have sat back and let Paddy be destroyed if you hadn’t acted. And in spite of what Dart said, I’m not so sure they’d have taken you seriously if you’d gone to them. They’d probably have accused you of wasting police time. So don’t go blaming yourself.”

Lindsay sighed deeply and turned her face away. “I can’t help feeling responsible for the way things have turned out. That’s clearly what Pamela Overton thinks as well as Dart. And Cartwright. How’s he going to feel? She was all he had. Oh shit . . . why does everything have to be such a mess?”

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