“Good evening, Miss Gordon, is it? Do sit down. My housekeeper tells me you’re a friend of Caroline’s. What has my mad daughter been up to this time to drag you out into the middle of nowhere?”

“Thanks for seeing me, Mr. Barrington. Caroline hasn’t been up to anything she shouldn’t have. It’s not exactly Caroline I wanted to talk to you about, though she’s involved indirectly.”

His eyebrows shot up again in surprise. “Oh?” he said speculatively. “You do know my daughter, I take it?”

Lindsay smiled. “Oh yes, I know Caroline. She’s a remarkable girl. You must be proud of her. She’ll go far with that lively mind. But it’s more to do with the school. Last week, Pamela Overton asked me to do something related to the murder of Lorna Smith-Couper.”

Lindsay’s words seemed to hang grimly in the air. Anthony Barrington remained completely unmoved at the sound of a name that must have taken him by surprise.

“And what exactly do you imagine that has to do with me?” Lindsay found him distinctly intimidating as he towered above her.

“If I could just explain. Last week the police arrested Caroline’s housemistress for the murder. Miss Overton asked me and another friend of Miss Callaghan’s if we would make some inquiries into the matter, since she believed Paddy was innocent and she knew that I felt the same way. I don’t know how much you know about the events of the last few days?”

He studied her carefully before answering. “I read in this morning’s papers that a girl at the school had killed herself and that the police were investigating a connection between her and the murder. I rang Caroline this morning about it, since I was naturally concerned, and she told me that Sarah Cartwright confessed to the murder. As a result, Miss Callaghan has been freed. Or so the school gossip goes. I would have thought that meant an end to it. I don’t quite understand what you are doing here.”

Lindsay sighed. “I’m not completely convinced that Sarah was responsible for Lorna’s death. I know the police are satisfied, but there are nagging doubts at the back of my mind. I suppose now that Paddy’s free I should be satisfied. But I want to be sure there’s not still a killer on the loose. Forgive me if I seem melodramatic. Now, I only discovered a couple of days ago that you were about on the day of the murder and I wondered if you had noticed anything out of the ordinary?”

“What on earth can you mean by that?” he said, a note of vexation in his voice.