‘Did Marcus see her too?’ Rosalind asked, remembering that he was the one who’d shown Caro where to leave her motorcycle. ‘And did she see you?’

Caro shook her head. ‘He wasn’t with me when I got up here, so I was alone when I found the note. And I hung back so Clementine wouldn’t know I’d spotted her. What about you, Rosalind?’

‘I went up before Posy. I found the note on the floor by the door when I was leaving.’

‘So that all ties up.’ Posy made a note on her pad, and Rosalind tried to imagine what the gossip magazines would make of her now, a pencil tucked behind her ear, wearing another hideous floral tea dress, more focused on murder than any of the vices that had so fascinated her fans for so long.

They’d probably put it down to method acting, she decided. But Rosalind had a feeling that this Posy, the one she’d got to know this weekend, might be the real one after all. She’d never been given a chance to get out, before.

‘Where next?’ Caro asked.

‘Back downstairs,’ Posy answered. ‘Next up was the house tour. Clementine was there when it started, but then she disappeared.’ Her gaze darted to Rosalind.

‘To meet Hugh in the Murder Spiral,’ she finished for her. ‘Come on, then.’

The gardens seemed strangely quiet without the fans bustling around. The abandoned stalls still stood on the lawn, as did the huge white marquee for the main events, a reminder of what the weekend should have been.

From the middle of the Murder Spiral they stared up at the window to Letty’s study, and Rosalind had the strangest sensation of being in two places at once. Both there on the ground, and up in the window looking down on Hugh and Clementine again.

Except this time the window was empty.

‘What were they talking about, here?’ Caro paced as she mused.

‘Do you think Libby would know?’ Posy asked. ‘I mean, they were obviously close if she was on Clementine’s HR record as her next of kin, right? But I don’t remember seeing them talk to each other since we arrived. And Libby didn’t mention it on the train, either. Did Larch tell you how they were related? Could they be sisters?’

‘Cousins, I think,’ Rosalind said.

‘But they were keeping the connection hidden.’ Caro tapped a finger against her bright red lips. ‘That makes sense. If they were both here to do something.’

‘Like kill Marcus?’

‘I’m not sure.’ Rosalind shook her head. ‘Why would Clementine end up dead in the river if she was Marcus’s murderer?’

‘True.’ Posy flipped through the pages of her notebook. ‘But Libby is the only one who could have attacked Caro in the Gate House last night. Unless someone else is lying.’