Before Lady Hawse-Gorzley could say, “Please show him in,” Inspector Newcombe strode into the room.

“Sorry to barge in on you like this, Lady Hawse-Gorzley,” he said. “But I just wanted to come up and tell you that they’ve flown the coop. We had to break in the cottage door and they’ve gone. Taken any incriminating evidence too, although there are signs that Robbins was living upstairs.”

“Nobody saw them leave the village?” I asked.

“They must have had a vehicle hidden nearby and crept away sometime during the night. I can’t get over that Prendergast woman. Had us all fooled, didn’t she? If she was that good an actress, why didn’t she make money legitimately on the stage?”

“She wasn’t that good,” I said. “My mother saw through her.”

“Well, we’re talking of a superior actress there, aren’t we?” he said with a smile. “But I’m hoping they won’t get far. We’re sending out alerts for them all over the country and at all the ports. We’ll catch ’em eventually, you’ll see. And then they’ll both hang. And good riddance too.”

“So he’s not going to finish the twelve days,” I said. “I’m surprised.”

Lady Hawse-Gorzley had been standing there silently. Now she said, “Did you say the man’s name was Robbins? Not Robert Robbins, by any chance?”

“That’s right. One of the three convicts who escaped.”

“What an unpleasant man he was,” she said.

“You knew him?” the inspector asked.

“Oh, yes. I presided as magistrate when he was first arrested,” she said. “He came up before me on extortion charges, but I could see there was more to it than mere extortion. I was convinced he’d killed at least one landlady, so I handed him over to the Crown court.”

My heart was thumping loudly. “Oh, no.” It came out as a whisper. “Then you’re intended to be the twelfth victim. You’re the one he’s been waiting for.”

Chapter 39

Chapter 39

STILL NEW YEAR’S EVE

Nobody dead yet.

It was the inspector who spoke first. “Right. That settles it. You’re staying in the house and we’re putting a police guard on you until Robbins is caught.”

Lady Hawse-Gorzley shook her head. “Oh, no, Inspector. Don’t you see—this is our only chance to catch him. I’m afraid I must carry on as planned tonight. I must offer myself as bait.”

“You can’t do that,” I said.

“Why not? If tonight passes without my presence, he’ll just slip away and probably be on the next boat out of England. I want him caught, Inspector. I want to make sure that this time he doesn’t escape the noose on a technicality. I want him hanged. And her too. She was part and party to all this.”