Norma was making no attempt to eat her own meal. She was jittering about on the patio, alternately trying to look relaxed and demonstrating confusion and alarm at the presence of a police detective. Unlike Thea, she was steadfastly averting her gaze from Grace Berensen. ‘This is awful,’ she was muttering. ‘I don’t know what to think.’

‘Just relax,’ Caz urged her. ‘We’ll soon have everything sorted out.’

But that was quickly shown to be over-optimistic. A man’s voice was heard approaching, calling as he went, ‘Norma! Are you there?’ Before she could respond, Richard Jackson came into view, his limp as pronounced as ever. In his wake was young Ben Harkness, looking rather pale.

Thea tried to watch all the faces at once, wondering 330where the deepest significance lay. She was the only person sitting down, which seemed to give her a useful cloak of invisibility.

Richard stopped dead at the sight of the four women. He glared round as if suspecting a conspiracy, pausing with Caz Barkley. ‘Are you a police officer?’ he demanded.

‘I am, sir, yes. This is Ms Berensen, and I think you know Mrs Slocombe.’ She put a gentle hand on Grace Berensen’s arm. ‘I believe this must be one of the Mr Jacksons,’ she said. ‘Your partner’s relative.’

‘They’re probably all her relatives.’ The woman spoke for the first time.

‘Don’t you know?’ Ben’s mind was obviously working at top speed. ‘Have you not been here with Karen to meet them?’

She looked at him, as if calculating how to take his words. Then she appeared to decide to take him at face value. After a deep breath, she started to explain. ‘She had no idea they were here. We have only lived in Banbury for a short time. As far as we could see, there is nobody in this area who carries the name of Wheelwright. All we knew was that it had once been a very large family, and that there was a valuable property being contested. Six months ago, Karen began to make enquiries – and this is the result.’ She dissolved into quiet weeping. Thea recalled Karen/Grace’s remarks about greed, and finally realised that light was dawning on the story.

The real Grace sniffed back her tears and spoke again to Ben. ‘And you? You’re another cousin, are you?’

‘I am as it happens. I’m as surprised as you are – more 331so, probably. You hadn’t reported her missing, then?’

His youth protected him, of course. Where older heads and hearts would quail before confronting someone so very newly bereaved, Ben stepped in and treated her exactly as he treated everybody else. Grace seemed to appreciate his directness. ‘What would have been the point?’ She spoke with a despair that struck Thea as utterly tragic. ‘The police don’t worry very much about healthy sane adults who drop out of sight for a few days. Besides, Karen would have been furious with me if I did that.’

‘And yet – it would have made everything so much easier if her identity had been established sooner,’ the young man continued.