‘Of course, since the magnifying glass belongs to her family, and will one day belong to her, it’s hard to imagine why she might want to steal it,’ Rosalind said, drily. ‘I hate to tell tales out of school, but I rather suspect she was sneaking out to meet her boyfriend! Now, who is next?’ Rosalind moved on smoothly, while the audience laughed, but Juliette had risen to the top of Caro’s mental list of people to speak to.

Next up was Ashok, who confirmed Felicity’s story, and added that he’d also been in his room reading – ‘an actual book, not a contraband electronic one’ – between the film panel and dinner. But there was something about his manner that made Caro suspicious. She narrowed her eyes as she tried to figure it out, then smiled as she realised. His gaze was darting around the marquee, but there was one place it never landed – on Posy. Did the boy have a crush on their Hollywood starlet, perhaps?

Or was there something more to it?

‘And are you certain there isn’t anything else you’d like to share with us about your day yesterday?’ Rosalind asked, mildly, from Posy’s side.

All three Dahlias stared him down.

And Ashok broke.

‘Okay, fine. I bribed those girls to distract Felicity with the argument about Flowers and Feuds so that I could win the tickets for next year’s convention. Happy?’ He threw himself back in his chair with his arms folded across his chest, his chin low and his eyes embarrassed.

Beside him, Felicity gasped, then whacked him on the arm with her convention guide. ‘See if I share any more of my investigation notes with you!’

‘But I also saw you arguing with Anton in the hallway during dinner.’ Ashok pointed at Posy, who gave a somewhat tense laugh.

‘Artistic differences, I’m afraid,’ she joked. ‘Rather than theft related.’

‘And I did see Marcus heading towards Lettice’s study in the attic, not long before you and I … bumped into each other on the landing before dinner,’ he added, looking at Posy.

Or when she’d broken into Clementine’s room and stolen the script, more likely. But what had Marcus been doing up there? At least it explained where he’d disappeared to, leaving her to try and talk Isobel down from her seating plan related hysteria.

‘Interesting. Thank you, Ashok. So that’s two confessions so far,’ Caro said. The audience applauded dutifully. ‘Let’s see if we can get anything a little meatier from our next suspects, shall we?’

Harry and Heather had nothing new to add, but Kit happily took the floor to be thoroughly questioned for the last fifteen minutes of their session. By the end, Caro suspected he was making stuff up for dramatic impact.