After assuring the DCI that she had no idea where Libby might be at this time, Rosalind raced to the library to find Posy and Caro.

‘You’re here!’ Posy beamed at her as she dropped into one of the free chairs.

‘Where have you been?’ Caro demanded.

Rosalind rolled her eyes. ‘Where I was supposed to be. I spoke to Hugh – and then DCI Larch collared me for a Q and A. Now, what did you two learn?’ She’d save her big reveal for the end. She was sure that, after they learned that Libby was Clementine’s next of kin, they’d be dropping all the other investigative threads for a while anyway.

‘Isobel was in here, with Hugh, Heather and Harry until late last night – they’d only just gone up when the police arrived. So it couldn’t have been any of them in the Gate House attacking Caro,’ Posy said.

Caro nodded. ‘Heather said the same. What about Juliette?’

‘Confirmed,’ Posy answered. ‘She stayed with them for a while, then went up to bed to call her boyfriend, but she still couldn’t have got down to the Gate House before we did.’

‘What about Felicity?’ Rosalind asked. ‘She knew where we were going. Could she have beaten us down there?’ Realistically, she couldn’t imagine who else could have, with Clementine already dead, and Felicity was the one who’d given them the tip-off that led them there. But she’d also told Larch that she’d done that, which was risky if she was the one who’d been lying in wait.

Caro made a wobbly motion with her hand. ‘Maybe. But she’d have been pushing it. She was with Ashok and Kit when we left, the three of them heading up to bed, but they stopped and talked for a while on the landing, it seemed, and Anton joined them. I confirmed that with the guys, too.’

Posy looked down at her notes. ‘Libby’s the only one I couldn’t find. But I’ll keep looking.’

‘You’re not the only one looking for her.’ Rosalind waited for them to look at her before offering her prize. ‘Larch wants to speak to her. Apparently she’s Clementine’s next of kin.’

That stunned the pair of them into silence for a few seconds, which was fun. But nothing kept Caro quiet for long.

‘Perhaps she’ll be able to answer Posy’s question for us then, when we find her,’ she said, with an air of ‘we know something you don’t, too’.

Rosalind looked at Posy. ‘What’s your question?’

‘There was something bothering me about the clothes Caro found at the Gate House,’ Posy explained. ‘I got a good look at them while we were waiting for the police, and there was something missing. Her locket.’