‘We’re ready?’ Rosalind asked. Caro and Posy shared a look, then nodded. ‘Let’s go catch a murderer.’

Posy left first, handing them the envelopes before heading for the main staircase. It was late, and dark, and though they heard her saying goodnight to the policeman stationed at the front door for the night as she passed, otherwise the house was in silence.

‘Think she can do it?’ Caro asked. ‘I mean, patience isn’t exactly a virtue for her, is it? She gets twitchy whenever she sits still for too long. Always tapping that pen or doodling or whatever. Probably displacement activity from missing her phone. Never known not having one, has she?’

Except she’d had it back almost all day, but she seemed to prefer her pen and paper.

‘Do you remember life before mobile phones?’ Rosalind wondered if Caro even realised how much she fidgeted – and babbled – when she was nervous. They all had their own tics, she supposed.

‘Vaguely,’ Caro admitted, with a grin. ‘It’s just … we’re asking a lot.’

‘She’s up to it,’ Rosalind said. ‘All she has to do is stay still and not screw things up.’

‘Like I said, that’s a lot.’

‘Which is why she’s doing it, not you.’ No way that Caro would have the patience to hold back until the right moment. But Rosalind had a feeling that Posy understood the importance of timing. After all, she’d timed her own comeback perfectly. ‘Come on. We’ve got a job to do too, and she’ll be up there by now.’

Caro nodded. They split the envelopes between them, then made their way up the stairs together.

The hallways and landings of Aldermere House were silent in the darkness, the faces of the Davenport ancestors in their paintings invisible on the walls. But Rosalind knew that at least one person would be waiting up tonight – other than them.

Because if they were following the books, so was the murderer. And that meant they could use Letty’s stories to predict what the murderer would do next.

Caro took the bedrooms on the first floor, slipping the first envelope under a door as Rosalind padded around to the next staircase. Blind in the darkness, she felt her way up along the wall, watching for any glimmers of light ahead.

Nothing.

There were five bedrooms to deliver to on this floor, and Rosalind slipped notes under each of them as quickly as she could, before darting back down the staircase to her own room. She caught a last glimpse of Caro, heading down the main staircase, as she arrived, and braced herself for what was coming.

Rosalind held her breath.

And then the dinner gong started to sound.

Tuesday 31st August

Chapter Twenty-Eight