Posy read it over her shoulder, then turned away in horror, yanking open the curtains and staring out at the gardens instead. As if the rest of Aldermere was any less threatening than Posy’s new stalker.

‘It’s like a twisted version of Alice in Wonderland,’ Caro mused. ‘Well, more twisted, I suppose.’ She’d played the Queen of Hearts in an immersive Alice experience a couple of years ago that became rather more immersive when they got a lost and confused stag party in one night, and the groom drank the glittery, gluey substance in the ‘Drink Me’ bottle. There were ambulances involved, but he’d been okay. Probably.

‘Who was out in the corridor?’ Rosalind asked Caro. ‘Any clues who left it here? Could it be Ashok? We know he’s broken in here before.’

Caro shook her head. ‘It’s Piccadilly Circus out there. Plus anyone could have ducked into one of the other rooms along the corridor before I came out.’

‘Should we call the police?’

‘And tell them what?’ Posy spun back around from the window. ‘That someone keeps relocating Lettice’s keepsakes from her study to another room in the house that used to belong to her? I’m really not sure they could prosecute something like that.’

‘That someone is trying to frame you,’ Rosalind corrected her.

‘For a murder that no one else knows happened? Right.’ She gave a high, nervous laugh. ‘I mean, that bottle probably wasn’t even used in the murder! It was the sugared flower, remember? Unless we’re all crazy and it was a heart attack after all …’

Posy was starting to lose it, that much was obvious. And they couldn’t afford for one of them to freak out and go rogue, not now.

‘Okay, I think we need to act fast,’ Caro said, soothingly. ‘Someone is trying to frame Posy and we’re not going to let that happen, right?’ She looked to Rosalind for confirmation, who took a beat too long to nod her agreement.

Caro resisted the urge to roll her eyes as Posy let out a squeak of something that sounded like fear and frustration rolled into one.

‘What are you suggesting we do?’ Rosalind asked.

‘The only people who know that Posy has any connection to the poison bottle or the magnifying glass are us three, right?’

‘And whoever put them there.’ Rosalind’s point was annoyingly accurate.

‘Ah, but all they can do is tell someone to look for them here.’

‘Which is when the police arrest me,’ Posy pointed out.

‘Not if the things aren’t here when they search.’ Caro grinned. ‘Then, they have to turn to the person who gave them the tip-off and ask how they knew in the first place.’

‘So you’re saying we need to hide them?’ The hope in Posy’s eyes was encouraging. She needed someone to tell her what to do for the best, that was all.