Zoe flinched. “She’s dead.”

“You told me about her,” said Zillah.

“Be quiet, Zillah!” Then to Jury, she said, “Yes, I remember her.”

“What about the woman from the beach. Do you remember her?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes you do. You’re the one who got her to the beach.”

Zoe tossed her hair. “How’d I do that? I didn’t even know her.”

“But you knew who she was because I’ll bet you read the letter she’d written Mrs. Noyes in which she said she was coming to England, to Bryher. I think your aunt gave you a message to take to the Hell Bay just before Manon Vinet came. That note probably told Ms. Vinet that Hilda Noyes would come to the hotel at a certain time and they’d meet there.” Jury paused and glanced at Hilda Noyes, whose face looked to have turned hard as stone.

Zoe said nothing.

“Come on, Zoe. Your aunt is sitting right here. You simply typed up another note and signed Hilda Noyes’s name.”

Zoe still said nothing, but Zillah, clutching the giraffe, said, “You said she was a witch, you said—”

“Shut up, Zillah! Next, you’ll be saying I shot her. Where would I ever have got a gun?”

“From Jack Couch, in exchange for your father’s SIG Sauer P226,” said Jury.

Zoe looked at Zillah and fairly screamed out the words: “It’s all your fault, you know that, don’t you? Now what’s going to happen—?”

Hilda Noyes was growing increasingly upset by this exchange between the girls. “Zoe, are you saying you two went to the beach looking for someone that night?“

“No, Aunt Hilda. Zillah’s making it all up.”

“I’m not! You were the one who told me the lady was some kind of witch!”

Zoe turned on Zillah eyes of ice and an expression so full of ire Jury felt his blood run cold. Had he been six years old, it would have scared him into speechlessness, too.

Zillah was nearly strangling the giraffe with the grip she had on it. Jury put his arms round both her and the giraffe. “It’s all right, Zillah. Nothing to be scared of. The lady you saw was just a lady; no witches, no ghosts. Don’t cry.”

She was weeping loudly, her body now pressed half against Jury, half against the giraffe. Jury looked up and signed to Plant, who kneeled down and took his place, while Jury rose and went to Zoe, who said, “She was going to take Zillah away.”

“I know,” said Jury. “She was Zillah’s mum. She’d waited years to come and get her.”