‘Carter. Violet Carter. I can see you’re busy, so I won’t keep you, but I just had to ask if what you said to Johnny about last night being too late to help was right, or if you were just being kind?’

‘No, I wasn’t being kind. We’ll have to wait for an expert to confirm a more precise time of death, but I’m as sure as I can be that Mrs Soper died much earlier in the day.’

‘Thank God,’ she said, looking relieved. ‘It was me that held us up, you see. Johnny would have been hell-bent on getting there last night, but I talked him into booking us in here. We didn’t always get on, me and his mother, so I wasn’t in a hurry to get over there. Now I feel awful about it, but you know what it’s like. Families at Christmas …’

He smiled. ‘How well did you know Mrs Soper?’

‘Not very well at all. We’d only met a couple of times, but that was enough to remind me that no girl will ever be good enough for a boy’s mother.’ She shrugged. ‘It wasn’t personal, but Johnny meant the world to her. He wasn’t as close to his father – always said his dad never really wanted to take him in.’

‘Take him in?’

‘Yes. Johnny was farmed out when he was a baby.’

‘And his real family?’

‘He doesn’t know, and he’s never wanted to. I’d be curious, but perhaps that’s a woman’s thing. He’s not bothered.’

‘Do you know Mrs Soper’s maiden name?’ Penrose asked, wondering if it had been an informal adoption within the family or something more official.

‘No, sorry.’ She glanced back to the bar, where her fiancé was sitting silently with Trannack and Mathews. ‘He wants to go back to the Mount with you. Will that be all right?’

‘Yes, of course.’ 243

‘They look after each other over there, don’t they?’ she said, and he couldn’t tell from her tone if she meant it as a blessing or a curse. ‘What an awful thing to happen. I bet that other woman’s pleased she missed it now.’ She noticed his bemused expression, and added: ‘One of the guests who was booked in at the Mount. She was here last night when we arrived.’

‘Mrs Carmichael?’ Penrose asked, remembering Hilaria’s missing guest.

‘I don’t remember her name, but she signed in just before we did. She said she was here as a surprise for someone.’

That was strange, Penrose thought; Hilaria hadn’t said anything about a surprise. He wondered which guest the late arrival was connected with, and looked round for the hotelier to see if there was any information he could add, but he was far too busy in the dining room with a Christmas pudding and a bottle of brandy. Violet thanked him again and returned to the bar, and Penrose went back to the telephone but it rang before he got there. ‘What have you got for me, Bill?’ he demanded, much to the surprise of the woman on the other end who was calling about a last-minute room for the night. ‘I’m sorry, you’ll have to call back later,’ he said, replacing the receiver. It rang again immediately. ‘We’re fully booked,’ he barked down the telephone.