‘But that’s outrageous!’ Barbara argued. ‘What will my father say? You can’t keep us here against our will.’

‘Actually I can, Miss Penhaligon, but even if I couldn’t, I think you’ll find there’s little point in arguing when the tides are running in my favour. Now, it would save us all a lot of time if you co-operated with these inquiries rather than obstructed them. I’m sure your father would give you exactly the same advice, and I’m more than happy to check with him as soon as the telephones are working again. In the meantime, perhaps you’d be kind enough to give me the benefit of the doubt and tell me where you were late last night and in the early hours of this morning?’

‘In bed, of course, like everyone else.’

‘Except two people, at least. So you went straight to bed after leaving the drawing room?’

‘That’s right.’

‘And you didn’t leave your room again until this morning?’

‘Only once, to go to the bathroom.’

‘Thank you.’

Marlene spoke next, repeating everything that she had told them earlier. ‘Did he say something or someone from his past?’ Archie asked when she had finished.

‘I don’t know that he was specific. If he was, I don’t remember.’ 195

‘Did you bring any Christmas decorations here with you?’

The change of subject came from nowhere, and Marlene looked at him curiously. ‘No, of course not.’

‘Not even something small and sentimental? A toy you’ve had for a long time, or something to remind you of your daughter?’

Most of the people round the table were looking at Archie as if he had lost his wits. ‘No, nothing like that,’ Marlene insisted. ‘I have a lucky doll called Zola, and she travels with me everywhere, but she is not a Christmas decoration.’

Archie nodded, apparently satisfied with her answer. ‘I need to talk to all of you now about last night, and please be as detailed as you can in the information you give me, even if it seems irrelevant to Reverend Hartley’s death.’ Josephine half expected him to lead them off into separate rooms, just like the dull middle section of a country house murder mystery, but either he was pressed for time or he wanted to see how the guests would react to each other’s evidence. She answered his questions like everyone else, telling him about her late-night encounter with Mrs Hartley but omitting to mention that she had been on her way to Marta’s room at the time; she could come clean privately later, she thought, justifying the deception by telling herself that it could hardly be of importance and that he probably knew already. Marta was next on Archie’s list, declaring truthfully that she had not strayed from her bed all night.

After the content of their very first conversation, Josephine expected Gerald Lancaster to be in his element while taking part in a real life criminal investigation, and she wondered if he would offer Archie the same sort of guidance and criticism that he had bestowed on her own 196Inspector Grant, but Lancaster seemed increasingly nervous as the questioning went on, and looked at Archie with barely disguised hostility when his own turn came. ‘You left the party early last night, Mr Lancaster,’ Archie said. ‘You didn’t come with us to the drawing room when we went to join the ladies, and I didn’t see you again. Where did you go?’