Half an hour later she heard Dalgliesh’s foot on the stairs. Coming in, he said, “That was rather quicker than I feared. There were the general hoops to be jumped through but I got the supervising probation officer in the end. A Mrs. Madeleine Rayner. Fortunately, she lives in London, and I caught her just as she was leaving for a family lunch. She’ll come to Wareham tomorrow by an early train, and I’ll arrange for Benton to meet her and bring her straight to the Old Police Cottage. If possible I want her visit to be unnoticed. She seems convinced that Sharon needs no particular supervision and isn’t a danger, but the sooner she leaves the Manor the better.”

Kate asked, “Are you thinking of going back to Dorset now, sir?”

“No. There’s nothing to be done about Sharon until Mrs. Rayner arrives tomorrow. We’ll go on to Droughton and clear up the matter of the car. We’ll take the copy of the will, the file about Sharon and the article on plagiarism, but I think that’s all, unless you’ve found anything else relevant.”

Kate said, “Nothing that’s new to us, sir. There’s an article about the huge losses suffered by the Lloyd’s Names in the early 1990s. Miss Cressett told us that Sir Nicholas was among them and was forced to sell Cheverell Manor. The best pictures were apparently sold separately. There’s a picture of the Manor and one of Sir Nicholas. The article isn’t particularly kind to the Names, but I can’t see it as a possible motive for murder. We know that Helena Cressett wasn’t especially anxious to have Miss Gradwyn under her roof. Shall I put this article with the rest of the papers?”

“Yes, I think we should have anything she wrote which relates to the Manor. But I agree. The article on the Names is hardly a credible motive for anything more dangerous than a cool reception when Miss Gradwyn arrived. I’ve been looking through the box of correspondence with her agent. It seems she was thinking of cutting down on the journalism and writing a biography. It might be helpful to see her agent, but that can wait. Anyway, add any relevant letters, will you, Kate, and we’ll need to write a list for Macklefield of what we’ve taken, but that can be done later.”