She could hear the whisper of the pencil on paper as the other PC recorded her words. It made her feel nervous. PC Morgan simply looked at her. That too was unnerving.

“Would that be Johnny Robsart who is the brother of Amelia Lester?” PC Morgan asked after what felt like several minutes.

“Yes,” Lizzie said. She felt panic tighten its claws in her chest again. She wanted to blurt out all the stuff she had already told the police; that she knew nothing about Amelia and Dudley’s quarrels, that she had had nothing to do with Amelia’s death, that it was all just a coincidence and an ongoing nightmare... She kept her lips tightly pressed together.

“Are you a friend of Mr Robsart?” PC Morgan asked. “Only he was here a couple of days ago, wasn’t he, demanding to see you, and you had him thrown out.”

“No, I didn’t!” Lizzie moderated her tone at once when PC Morgan raised her brows. “I mean, yes, he did ask to see me and there was some trouble with the security people here but I didn’t tell them to eject him... It wasn’t my fault—” She stopped. “Johnny’s brother came and took him away,” she said. “I would have been happy to talk to Johnny then just as I was tonight.”

“Did you contact him to invite him here?” PC Morgan asked sharply.

“No,” Lizzie said. “He contacted me.”

PC Morgan nodded as though Lizzie had just said exactly what she expected her to say. “Our colleagues are checking whether Johnny has been in touch with his family since he left you,” she said. “Hopefully he will have arrived safely home...” She let the phrase hang. Lizzie resolutely held her gaze and said nothing.

“Did you also see Dudley Lester this evening?” PC Morgan said after a moment.

The hairs on the back of Lizzie’s neck prickled. When the police had interviewed her in the aftermath of Amelia’s death they had focussed heavily on her relationship with Dudley and it was impossible to escape the feeling that they thought she and Dudley had cooked up an accident for Amelia so they could be together. Lizzie had told herself at the time that she was being paranoid but now she felt anxious all over again. Was PC Morgan implying that she and Dudley had conspired to get rid of Johnny too because he knew something that incriminated them both in the death of his sister? Lizzie told herself to get a grip. Her imagination was running away with her.

“No,” she said. “I haven’t seen Dudley Lester today.”

“We’ll check the CCTV,” PC Morgan said, and it sounded like a threat.

“Of course,” Lizzie said. She wondered whether there was also CCTV footage from down on the Embankment and if so, what it would show. She was aware she had been somewhat economical with her description of what had happened with Johnny, but talk of psychic powers and psychometry was unlikely to help the police view her any less suspiciously.