‘There’s nothing here. I can’t see Ezra Harrington’s name mentioned. Or Iqbal Kassam. Or Stefan Dunwoody, or Andy Bishop for that matter. It’s got nothing to do with anything or anyone.’

‘And that’s where you’re wrong!’ Judith said as she went over to her sideboard, returning moments later with her copy of Ezra’s will. ‘Because I was like you to start off with. I couldn’t work out why Andy Bishop would have wanted to shred this one page from a school magazine. But the thing is, he did shred it. So there had to be a reason. I just had to puzzle it out. Work at it from all angles. And it was when I looked at our copy of Ezra’s will that I realised what was going on. Have a look at the names of the two people who witnessed it.’

Judith opened Ezra’s will so the others could see the signatures at the end of the document. The two witnesses were listed as Spencer Chapman and Faye Kerr. Their addresses and occupations, a horse breeder and teacher respectively, were also listed.

Suzie realised what the link was first.

‘No way!’ she said, returning to the page from the Borlasian.

She ran her finger down the column of names listed in the obituaries.

‘Spencer Chapman and Faye Kerr died last year!’

‘Got it in one,’ Judith said, delighted that her friend had worked it out.

‘Are you serious?’ Suzie said. ‘They’ve both died since they witnessed Ezra’s will? What happened to them?’

‘Oh, it’s so much better than that. Look at the dates they died.’

Suzie looked back at the page in her hand.

‘Spencer died last year in March, and so did Faye. They both died in March.’

‘Now look at the date of Ezra’s will.’

Becks looked at the dates that had been written under the signatures.

‘It says here, May the fifth last year,’ she said. ‘Hang on, that doesn’t make sense.’

‘Oh, it makes perfect sense,’ Judith said.

‘But how did these two manage to witness Ezra’s signature a month after they’d died?’

‘Because they didn’t, did they?’ Suzie said, now realising what must have happened. ‘Those aren’t their real signatures. Andy Bishop forged them.’

‘Exactly!’ Judith said. ‘But he couldn’t risk choosing the names of people who might later stand up in court and say they’d never witnessed the will. So he got two people who’d recently died. And faked their signatures.’

‘Which is why he needed to shred this page after he saw you,’ Suzie said, finally understanding. ‘He was worried you’d find out.’

‘But how did he manage to trick Ezra?’ Becks asked.