Lady Helena leaned forward and looked me in the eye.

‘Did my daughter at any point physically strike another human being?’

Which answered my and Nightingale’s first question – did the mother know about the magic?

‘Assault doesn’t actually require physical contact,’ I said.

‘So how exactly did my daughter assault a policeman?’ she asked. ‘Was it you, by the way?’

‘Your daughter gave your house in Montgomeryshire as her home address,’ I said. ‘Does she still live with you?’

Lady Helena settled back in her chair. ‘That’s children these days,’ she said. ‘They don’t ever seem to want to fly the nest. I blame the parents.’

‘How about the rest of your kids?’

‘Why do you want to know?’ she asked.

The other five members of the ‘menagerie’ had all shown different addresses on the DVLA.

‘They all moved out, didn’t they?’

‘I raised them to be independent.’

‘But not Caroline?’

‘Caroline is joining the family business,’ she said.

‘And what is the family business?’ I asked.

‘Helping people,’ she said. ‘We run a retreat for those who need to rebalance their lives.’

‘Rebalance in what way?’ I asked.

She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes before answering.

‘Mind, body and spirit,’ said Lady Helena. ‘For a person to be healthy each must be in balance with itself and with the others. We help people restore those balances.’

‘And how do you do that?’

‘Mostly by providing them with a bit of peace and quiet,’ she said and then shrugged. ‘And charging them vast sums of money – the money is an important part of the process. People don’t appreciate things they don’t pay for.’

I asked whether Christina Chorley had ever attended her clinic, but she said she didn’t recognise the name. I ran through the names of the attendees at the ill-fated party and threw Reynard’s name casually in the middle. She denied knowing any of them but there was definitely a response at Reynard’s name – a twitch of her eyes to the side.

My phone buzzed against my leg.

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘I’m just going to get myself a cup of coffee. Would you like one? Anything else?’

‘Would you recommend the coffee?’ asked Lady Helena.

‘Only as a last resort.’

She declined and I popped out into the corridor where Nightingale met me with a cup of coffee. Guleed and Stephanopoulos hurried to join us.

I sipped the coffee – I hadn’t been kidding, it was terrible.