“There’s nothing to connect the three, Macalvie, certainly not geography: Bryher, Northampton, Exeter. And if you check around, I bet you find a few more shootings in the same time frame.”

“I did. Six. Five men and an old gran shot in a break-in.”

“And?”

“Just grab Tom Brownell and get over here.”

“Why in hell would he want to go to all the way to Exeter?”

“Because he’s Tom Brownell.” Macalvie rang off.

Jury stared at the dead mobile and looked up.

Only to be targeted by four pairs of eyes around the window-seat table. Staring.

“What?” he said.

15

“You just missed him,” said Melrose in answer to Jury’s question about the whereabouts of Tom Brownell. “He left for the farm not ten minutes ago.”

“Hell,” said Jury. “Did he go with Sydney?”

“No. She’s still here.”

“Why weren’t you in your usual chair at the Jack and Hammer?”

He sighed. “Me, I’m really worried about Flora Flood.”

“Well, Trueblood’s theory might worry you even more.”

“It worries me that Trueblood has a theory. What is it?”

“That she was the target, not her ex-husband.”

That made Melrose’s eyes widen and got him to put down his glass. “How does he come up with that?”

Jury explained the relative positions of the two, including Mrs. Withersby’s part in the little drama.

Melrose laughed in spite of himself, said, “Does this make it even more baffling?”

“Could it be? I got a call from Brian Macalvie.” He told Melrose about that.

“The cathedral?”

Jury nodded. “I expect I’ll be going to Exeter tomorrow.”

“But Richard … you don’t really think there’s something to this theory?”

“No. Except Macalvie thinks there’s some connection.”

“But this depends on Marshall’s being right about Flora as the real target. I hate to think that. Did Macalvie come up with any motive in this cathedral shooting?”

Jury shook his head. “Not yet.”

Melrose slid down in his chair. “Oh, surely these are three random shootings. ‘Serial killer’? Cornwall, Devon and—over three hundred kilometers away—Northants? There’s got to be some other connection—if there’s any connection at all—between these three shootings. I mean, just look at the difficulty of access to two of them: the island of Bryher can be reached only by boat, and Watermeadows is a private estate outside of a little village in Northamptonshire. It makes no sense unless the three people were specifically targeted. And that still isn’t to say whether one of the three was Tony Servino or Flora Flood.”

“I agree. All the same, this new shooting does make me wonder.”

“Wonder away. But don’t go to Exeter to do it.”

“Did Tom leave any number? I don’t have his mobile number.”

Melrose frowned. “Why?”

“Because I want to call him, obviously.”

Melrose’s frown deepened as he rose and grasped the silk bellpull near the mantel.