Atalanta Wyndham smiled. ‘I shoot at dawn. First light. Only the cook is awake, preparing breakfast – and she is on the other side of the house. My parents keep the rest of the staff working late and have moved their hours to start later in the morning.’

‘How convenient. But I thought you stayed up at night to write?’

‘I do both,’ said she.

‘And who retrieves the arrows for you?’

‘The gardener.’

‘And you compensate him … in some way?’

The slender creature drew herself up at this question. ‘Sir! You imply impropriety!’

‘Not at all, Miss Wyndham, nor did it occur to me. Do you pay him?’

‘Yes. What has all this to do with Dillie’s disappearance?’

‘I do not know which facts pertain until I have them in hand. Earlier you said Dillie has several admirers. Do you know who they might be?’

‘Well, at last you attend to the real issue,’ snapped Atalanta Wyndham with a toss of her head. ‘That young deacon is infatuated with her. Hopeless fool. Buttons, what a stupid name! Then, of course, Mr Eden-Summers – if she hasn’t scared him away. And there is another: a science student at St Cedd’s. I did glimpse him once, in Dillie’s room. His name is Leo Vitale.’ She pronounced his name ‘vih-tally’.

‘Italian name?’ said Holmes.

‘I suppose. But English now. Pale, glasses. Face of a surprised baby owl. I don’t know what she sees in him.’

‘Here? Young Mr Vitale visited your sister here?’ I blurted out. ‘How is it that your parents would allow—’

Holmes held up a hand to silence me. ‘Thank you very much, Miss Wyndham, you have been helpful. And have no fear, I will not give away your secret archery practice.’ He turned to leave but paused at the door and turned back. ‘Oh, but one other question, if you would. Has it rained here in Cambridge in the last few days?’

‘No, but I wish it would. This heat is oppressive!’

So, I felt, was the Wyndham family.

We returned downstairs. Holmes asked to speak with Polly, the maid, but we were told she had been sent on an errand. He informed Professor Wyndham that evidence pointed to his daughter Dillie’s planned departure, and that he did not believe an abduction had taken place.

Wyndham’s response was quick, decisive, and rude. ‘Deliver this observation to the police, then, and they will take it from there. If there is no abduction, we have no further need for your services.’

‘Professor Wyndham, yet I believe this doll – designed to look like your daughter and found dismembered in the lock – is clearly a kind of message. It could well be a direct threat of bodily harm. I would like to find your daughter and get to the bottom of it.’