‘So yes, my guess is that Elliot was in a foul mood when you all met up for dinner that night. And I’m sure he added that, as far as he was concerned, Stefan deserved to die. So what happened next?

‘Well, I imagine it was Andy who chipped in next. Because he had problems of his own. Although I bet he dressed them up to look less criminal than they were. I’m sure he spun you a tale of how he’d looked after his client Ezra as he slowly died of cancer. And how, just before his death, Ezra had left his estate to his trusty solicitor. All a lie, of course, as Ezra had left everything to his wonderful neighbour, Iqbal. But I bet Andy told you that, as Ezra was so close to death, he’d not been capable of signing his new will, so he’d had no choice but to forge the signatures of the witnesses.

‘And I’m sure Andy stuck the boot into Iqbal, the interfering neighbour. How Iqbal had discovered that the witnesses’ names were old pupils from Borlase’s Grammar School who’d died before the will was signed. And how Iqbal had even had the gall to send him the proof in the form of a page of obituaries from the Borlasian magazine he’d torn out.

‘In fact, Andy was in considerably more hot water even than Elliot. He’d committed a massive fraud. He was off to prison if he couldn’t silence Iqbal. And if Elliot wasn’t the first person to say that Stefan deserved to die, I’m sure that that’s what Andy said about Iqbal. Someone should kill Iqbal.

‘But how do you even commit murder? Well, if you own an auction house, I can’t imagine it’s too hard to lay your hands on a vintage weapon like a Second World War Luger. Not if you know a few dodgy dealers, as I’m sure Elliot must have done. But still, how do you do it and get away with it? I wonder if that’s when you confessed that you wanted your wife dead as well? After all, sometimes it’s easier to speak the truth to a relative stranger than to someone you know well, isn’t it? Because, if Liz died, you’d inherit the land the rowing centre is built on. You’d be able to sell it and become a multimillionaire.’

‘And once you’d confessed your darkest secrets to the others, the idea occurred to the three of you that you could each commit murder for the person to your left, as it were. Using the same gun, to make it look like it was only one person. And with a false trail of antique Masonic medallions, no doubt supplied by Andy Bishop, to make it look as though the same person was carrying out each murder.’