The door to the study creaked open. She hadn’t heard footsteps on the stairs, but then, she wouldn’t. The person she was waiting for knew Aldermere as well as anybody, and those stairs better than most.

In her hiding place, Posy held her breath. Through the tiny gap in the curtains, she saw someone enter the room and place something – the poison bottle, if they were right – on the shelf. Then the figure glanced around the study, turned, and walked away again.

But not before the moonlight from the open window behind the desk landed on their face, enough for Posy to make out their identity.

Posy swallowed a gasp. But as the murderer left, the same pieces that Rosalind had put together earlier moved into place for Posy.

They were right. Everything was going to plan.

Rosalind would be pleased.

Caro

The echo of the gong still ringing in her ears, Caro raced up the stairs towards Lettice’s study. Everyone had their notes. Whoever had committed the murder had to know they were onto them. But with Posy watching the back door from the study window, and the policeman at the front door, where were they going to go?

Worst case scenario, nobody showed up for her big reveal. But Caro didn’t think that was going to happen.

She knew these people, or knew people like them. There was too much drama for them to miss out. And even the guilty would want to appear innocent by playing along. The person who’d been taunting them with miniature dolls for days wouldn’t want to miss a chance to see them get this wrong. Their killer was overconfident, convinced they were beyond suspicion. That was what would bring them down.

It always worked for Dahlia.

Caro slipped silently into the study, and flicked on the lights. ‘Posy?’ she whispered, and at the far end of the room a curtain moved. ‘Did you see them?’

‘Yeah.’ Her voice was muffled by the fabric. ‘Should I come out?’

Caro considered. Her first instinct was that she’d like to have Posy at her side when the suspects arrived – not as a sidekick, or a supporting actress, but as a Dahlia.

This was Caro’s chance to take the limelight, to show everyone that she was the quintessential Dahlia Lively. And now she wanted to share it? She smiled to herself. Annie would be impressed. She’d tell her all about it when she got home.

But for now, she needed Posy where she was – for dramatic effect, mostly, but also for practical reasons.

‘No, stay there – we need you to keep an eye on the back door, remember?’

The curtain nodded.