‘I think because …’ God, how was she only seeing this now, so many years later, when the man himself was dead and she couldn’t yell at him for it? ‘It gave him more power, this way. If he’d blackmailed me, I might have done what he asked but I’d have hated him, and eventually I’d probably have cracked, if he’d asked for too much. But this way … I’ve spent the last seven years waiting for the other shoe to drop. Playing nice with him, going the extra mile for his conventions, keeping his secrets, everything. Because he never let me forget that he knew mine, too. And he could share them with the world anytime he wanted.’

‘Typical male power move,’ Posy grumbled. ‘He’s as bad as Anton.’

Rosalind straightened her back as she sat on the bench, looking Caro in the eye. ‘So. Truth time. Did you steal the magnifying glass?’

‘No. I didn’t need to. Someone in this house had already sold it to Marcus and replaced it with a cheap replica. It’s all in the ledger – including who he sold it to.’ She held the book out to Rosalind, who took it.

‘Oooh, who?’ Posy asked.

‘Heather and Harry – that old couple in tweed with the fake magnifying glasses,’ Caro said. ‘Or, now I think about it, perhaps not both fake.’

‘Harry did say that he and Marcus went way back.’ Rosalind thumbed thoughtfully through the ledger. ‘This was obviously what he meant. It looks like they’ve been buying memorabilia from Marcus for years.’

‘Hard to think of a reason that Harry or Heather would want to kill him, then,’ Caro said. ‘If he was their supplier of precious items. And if they were such good buyers, he probably wouldn’t risk blackmailing them, either. Not when he could fleece them on sales.’

‘And he was definitely doing that.’ Posy pointed over her shoulder to the discrepancy between how much Marcus had paid for the magnifying glass, and how much he’d sold it for.

Rosalind snapped the ledger shut. ‘So. What do we do now?’

‘We still need to speak to Ashok,’ Posy reminded them. ‘He wasn’t around at lunch. I think he might be avoiding us.’

‘Sensible man, especially if he’s got something to hide.’ Caro watched the other two, trying to guess how they’d react to what she said next, before deciding it didn’t matter. She needed to say it anyway. ‘Before we talk to him … I think we need to be honest with each other.’

‘You mean you have more illegal activities to share with us?’ Rosalind asked, eyebrows raised.