A nice blaze, I thought. Consuming all evidence. Had he noticed there were things other than leaves in the pile? Or was it possible . . .

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Trevor, ma’am,” he said.

“Have you worked here long?”

“Two years now.”

“Your family lives nearby, I suppose?”

He nodded. “They do, miss. My dad’s a fisherman but the catch hasn’t been too good these days. So it’s up to me and Elsie to help support our mum and the little ones.”

“Elsie? She’s a maid here?”

He nodded again. “That’s right. Mr. Summers took us both on a couple of years ago. He got rid of the old staff and said he wanted to modernize the place with new young people. Had lots of grand ideas, he had, more’s the pity.” He threw on another shovelful of leaves. “That Mannering woman is a bit of a pain, if you’ll pardon my saying so, but otherwise we’re treated well here. And the pay’s good.”

I couldn’t think of anything else to say. All I knew was that what I’d seen now seemed to confirm that Tony Summers had been wearing a robe, or had a towel wrapped around him, and that someone must have thrown it out of the window where it was later retrieved and hidden in the bonfire. But why? Was it because Tony had not really been stabbed on that bed but killed elsewhere and brought to Belinda’s room? But the inspector had said he was sure Tony had not been killed elsewhere. So why throw the robe out of the window and hide it on a bonfire if it didn’t have telltale bloodstains on it?

I was deep in thought when I came back into the house to hear voices coming from the hallway upstairs.

“No, I’m sure it will be lovely,” said a woman’s voice I couldn’t recognize.

“Are you sure, Mummy? We have much nicer rooms. I don’t know why Mrs. Mannering chose that room for you.”

“I thought your mother would like to be close to you, Mrs. Summers. I had suggested the blue room but on consideration I thought she would feel more at home in a smaller room, since she is not used to houses of this size.”

“Please don’t get upset, Rose. I shall be quite happy here. Honestly. I’ll just unpack, shall I?”

There was an awkward silence.

“I have laid tea in the salon,” Mrs. Mannering said in her calm, cold voice. “Please take your mother downstairs, Mrs. Summers. I will have Elsie unpack your mother’s things.”