To which end Malcolm now sat waiting in her VW campervan while she gathered her kit together. Alone in the office, she picked up the brick from the shelf where it had been safely stowed.

She’d called the police the moment Val had been dispatched to hospital. But as soon as they’d established no one had been seriously hurt, and despite Jo’s protestations that they couldn’t be sure until Val’s head injury had been assessed, they seemed to be remarkably uninterested in the afternoon’s events. There wasn’t even a perceptible increase in interest when Jo had insisted on telling them that a member of staff had thought they recognised the perpetrator and given them Sheila Foggarty’s name.

The voice on the end of the phone had dutifully issued Jo with a crime reference number – ‘You’ll need it for your insurance claim.’ But when Jo had asked when they’d be sending someone round and should she wait to clear up, she’d been told to go ahead and make the place secure – they’d email details of the officer who’d been assigned in due course.

Jo got the distinct impression they weren’t likely to receive a visitation from the police any time soon. But, even if they weren’t interested, she wanted to know what was on that piece of brown paper. She placed the brick on the desk and slipped the brown paper carefully out from under the string. There were large red blotches of what looked like marker pen bleeding through from the other side. She turned the paper over to see just two words scrawled across its reverse: ‘GET OUT!’

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Clare turned towards Margaret. ‘Well, when I called you and you said you’d meet me in the Pitt Rivers Museum, I didn’t realise that we’d have company.’

The two women were standing alone in front of a glass case displaying a collection of shrunken human heads – or, as the label called them, tsantsas – which apparently originated on the border between Ecuador and Peru. Clare had called ahead to arrange to see Margaret on her way back to Bailsgrove. She was in need of a clear head and some dispassionate advice, two things she knew she could always rely on Margaret to provide.