Benton said, “Mrs. Skeffington for one won’t be back, sir. It may be unwise to concentrate too much and too early on motive, but I can’t imagine Chandler-Powell or Sister Holland killing a patient. Mr. Chandler-Powell apparently made a good job of repairing that scar. It’s his job. Would a rational man destroy his own handiwork? And I can’t see the Bostocks as murderers. He and Kimberley seem to have a very comfortable billet here. Is Dean Bostock going to throw up a good job? That leaves us with Candace Westhall, Mogworthy, Miss Cressett, Mrs. Frensham, Sharon Bateman and Robin Boyton. And, as far as we know, none has a motive for murdering Gradwyn.”

Benton stopped and looked round, Kate thought in some embarrassment at going down a path which Dalgliesh might not have wanted to open up.

Without commenting Dalgliesh said, “Well, let’s be clear what we’ve learnt so far. We’ll leave motive for the moment. Benton, will you begin?”

Kate knew that her chief always asked the most junior member of the team to initiate the discussion. Benton’s silence on their walk suggested that he had already spent some time deciding how best to proceed. Dalgliesh hadn’t made it clear whether Benton was meant to review the facts or to comment on them or both, but invariably, if he didn’t, Kate would, and she suspected that this interchange, often lively, was what Dalgliesh had in mind.

Benton took a gulp of his wine. He had given thought to what he would say on the walk to the Old Police Cottage. Now he was succinct. He gave an account of Rhoda Gradwyn’s involvement with Chandler-Powell and the Cheverell Manor clinic from her appointment with him in his Harley Street consulting room on the twenty-first of November until the time of her death. She had had a choice of a private bed in St. Angela’s in London or Cheverell Manor. She chose the Manor, at least provisionally, and came for a preliminary visit on the twenty-seventh of November, when the member of staff who saw most of her was Sharon, who showed her the garden. This was a little surprising, since contact with the patients was usually with more senior members of staff or with the two surgeons and Sister Holland.