She walked back down the corridor toward the hall. Just before she re-emerged into the public gaze, she paused and took out her notebook. She leaned on the window ledge to scribble down the headmistress’s words before her memory of them became inaccurate. For reasons which she didn’t understand at all, she was more determined than usual to be completely precise in quoting the headmistress. Then she stared briefly out into the night. The last thing she had expected was to find herself caught up in a murder and part of her resented the personal inconvenience. She was also aware of her own callous selfishness as she thought to herself, “Well, this is really going to screw up any chance I might have had with Cordelia.”

Then Lindsay pulled herself together, gave herself a mental ticking-off for her self-indulgence, reminded herself that as sole reporter on the spot she stood to make a bob or two, and resolutely shoved the vision of the dead musician to the back of her mind. There would be time later to examine her personal feelings. She glanced up at the gallery, but Cordelia and Paddy were no longer there. Lindsay looked around her for a face she recognized and spotted Caroline halfway up the hail. She went over to her and asked to be shown the way to Miss Overton’s study. Caroline nodded and set off at a healthy pace. Halfway down the stairs, she turned and said conversationally, “I say, not wishing to talk out of turn and all that, but what has happened to the Smith-Couper person? I mean, everyone staff-wise is running around in circles like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. What’s all the fuss in aid of? And why are the police coming?”

“Sorry, Caroline, it’s not for me to say. I’d like to tell you, but I’d be breaking a confidence.”

“Oh, I see, grown-up conspiracies, eh? Anything to protect the kiddiewinks,” the girl retorted, smiling.

Lindsay laughed in spite of herself. “Not quite. It’s just that it’s not right for me to pass on what I’ve been told in confidence.” A little white lie, she thought, and that’s not going to fool Caroline.