Lindsay began to feel faint stirrings of disquiet. The girl hadn’t explained how the window catches could easily be opened. It was Lindsay herself who had fleshed out the method of the crime to the police; ironically that would render Sarah’s “confession“ all the more credible to them. Also, of all the people who had fallen under Lindsay’s suspicion, Sarah was one of the least likely to know how long Lorna was to spend in the music room before she went on stage, for she had no involvement with the musical life of the school.

Supposing Sarah hadn’t killed Lorna, Lindsay speculated. Supposing she believed her father had killed Lorna—leaving aside for the moment whether he had or not. If she had reasons for thinking he was guilty, and that he was close to being discovered, would she have killed herself to protect him? That was the sixty-four-thousand dollar question, Lindsay realized. Considering what she knew of the girl’s character, from her own observation and from the comments of others, she thought it was a distinct possibility. The girl worshiped her father. The only other anchor in her life was the school and her relationship with her fellow pupils, which had been dealt a hard blow by events at the craft fair. Most girls would have shrugged the matter off then and there, but Sarah had reacted rather extremely. She seemed, by choice, to be a very isolated girl. So it might well have been that she would rather have sacrificed herself than see her father arrested for murder.

Lindsay sighed deeply. Part of her said, drop it, leave it be. Paddy was free, free and cleared. But the other part of her refused to let go. Her newspaper training had heightened the tenacious determination in her to get to the bottom of things and not to be fobbed off with half an answer. Now doubts had wormed their way into her head and she was afraid they were going to give her no peace.

She shook her head vigorously, like a dog emerging from a stream, crushed her cigarette out, and walked briskly back to Longnor, hoping that diving back into the celebrations would drive her doubts away. Pamela Overton had gone by the time she returned, and Gillian Markham was standing by the door with her coat on.

She turned to Lindsay and smiled. “I’m glad you’re back,” she said. “I’m off now to let you get on with your celebrations, but I wanted to thank you for all the work you’ve done on Paddy’s behalf. I know this business has been pretty terrible; on the positive side, however, Paddy’s name has been cleared, and that’s largely due to the efforts of you and Cordelia.”