Candace took the receiver, was silent for a minute, then said, “We’re busy in the office here and, frankly, we haven’t time to chase after Robin Boyton. I know he’s our cousin, but that doesn’t make us his keepers. How long have you been trying to reach him . . . ? All right, someone will go round to the guest cottage, and if we’ve got any news we’ll tell him to ring you. . . . Yes, I’ll ring back if we’ve no luck. What’s your number?”

She reached for a sheet of paper, took down the number, then replaced the receiver and turned to Lettie. “That’s Robin’s business partner, Jeremy Coxon. Apparently one of his teachers has let him down and he wants Robin back urgently. He phoned late last night but got no reply, so left a message, and he’s been repeatedly trying again this morning. Robin’s mobile rings, but no answer.”

Lettie said, “Robin may have come here to get away from phone calls and the demands of their business. But then why not turn off his mobile? I suppose someone had better take a look.”

Candace said, “When I left Stone Cottage this morning his car was there and the curtains were drawn. He could be still asleep and has left his mobile where he can’t hear it. Dean could run over if he’s not busy. He’ll be quicker than Mog.”

Lettie got to her feet. “I’ll go. I could do with a breath of fresh air.”

“Then you’d better take the spare key. If he’s still sleeping off a hangover he might not hear the bell. It’s a nuisance that he’s still here at all. Dalgliesh can’t detain him without cause, and you’d think he’d be only too glad to get back to London, if only for the fun of spreading the gossip.”

Lettie was tidying the papers on which she was working. “You dislike him, don’t you? He seems harmless enough but even Helena sighs when she books him in.”

“He’s a hanger-on with a grievance. A perfectly legitimate one, probably. His mother got herself pregnant and subsequently married an obvious fortune hunter, to old Grandfather Theodore’s disgust. Anyway, she was cast off, more, I suspect, for stupidity and naïvety than for the pregnancy. Robin likes to turn up from time to time to remind us of what he sees as unfair discrimination and frankly we find his persistence boring. We do hand out the odd subvention from time to time. He takes the money, but I think he finds it humiliating. Actually, it’s humiliating for both parties.”

This disclosure of family affairs surprised Lettie. It was so unlike the reticent Candace she knew—or, she told herself, thought she knew.