“We’re not charging him,” Claire Bingham said. “ We’ve no proof that he falsified the environmental impact assessment which allowed the development of Rashwood Hall. There might be a way of proving that Barnes passed considerable sums of money into his account, but Barnes was good at covering his tracks. Greg Franks was the only person who knew that Rashwood Park was better for wildlife than Duncan James reported, and he’s not here to give evidence.”

“It was Duncan James who threw all Franks’ gear overboard when he was missing on the Jessie Ellen,” George said. “ That’s why Duncan took so long when he went to tell Greg about the petrel. He knew that Greg had kept records of all the birds he had seen at Rashwood. He didn’t have time to look through the papers and notebooks properly, so he threw everything away.

“And he won’t be prosecuted?” Molly said. “ Nothing will happen to him?”

“I think he’ll have to resign from the Nature Conservancy Council,” George said. “He’ll have lost his credibility, though I’m sure he’s been so frightened that he would never do anything similar again. Brian Barnes phoned him, you know, on the day Jane Pym died. Barnes said he was having problems with Rosco, and he expected Duncan to sort him out. As if a man like that would have a chance against Rosco. Duncan was terrified. Barnes made threats against his wife and children, and by then the phone lines were down, so Duncan couldn’t check that they were safe.” George remembered James’ hysterical confession on the day of the storm. It had distracted him from his watch on the shore cottage and had almost caused another tragedy. “ Duncan will have to live with himself.” he said. “And with that monstrous development almost on his doorstep.”

There was another pause.

“I don’t understand why Jane Pym showed her hand.” Berry spoke quietly. He had taken so little part in the conversation that the words surprised them. “Why did she go to Rosco’s on the day of the storm? If she’d kept quiet, no one could have proved her guilt.”

“Rosco was at the hostel at the same time as Franks,” George said, “though he was so wrapped up in his plans for the Jessie Ellen that he didn’t notice Greg or Jane Pym. He was there on the night of the fire. When we suspected that Jane had killed Greg Franks, I asked Rosco to write to her. The letter said he recognised her as the warden of the hostel, so he knew why Greg had died. She presumed that Rosco was blackmailing her and was so distraught by then that she decided to confront him about it.”

“But what could she hope to do?” Claire Bingham said. “She couldn’t expect to kill him, too.”