‘Basic psychology, mate. All four of them felt under pressure. Olivia probably blamed herself for nicking her mum’s review and sending it to her girlfriend. Sky felt guilty about reading it out. Ewan was defending Jordan, and Jordan … well, he’d started the whole thing. It was the same for all of them. Deflection! They accused you to stop me accusing them.’

‘There’s something else.’ This had also been on my mind. ‘On the first night of the play, Martin Longhurst was sitting right behind me and I was sure I felt something prick at the back of my neck. All along, I thought he was the one who might have pulled out one of my hairs.’

‘Why didn’t you mention it?’

‘I don’t know. I couldn’t be sure …’

‘Well, he had nothing to do with it. It was probably first-night nerves.’

‘Or you could have nits,’ Hilda suggested.

‘I don’t have nits,’ I growled.

Hawthorne smiled. ‘Anyway, Tony, it’s all over. And I’ve got to tell you, if it wasn’t for me, you know where you’d be right now.’

‘That’s true.’ I couldn’t deny it. ‘You worked it all out, Hawthorne. You stood by me. I owe you a big vote of thanks.’

He coughed quietly. ‘Actually, you owe me a bit more than that.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, you hired me. This time, I wasn’t helping the police. You were the client. I put four days into this and Kevin helped too.’ He held up a hand before I could protest. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll do it for mate’s rates. I can give you a ten per cent discount—’

‘Hawthorne! I don’t believe you’re saying this. It’s outrageous.’

‘I don’t see why. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have a career any more. I was just talking about that with Hilda.’

‘I don’t think it would have been a good look, being arrested for murdering a critic,’ Hilda agreed.

I stared at Hawthorne. ‘So that’s all there is between us? You just think of me as a client?’

‘You were the one who said you didn’t want to write any more books.’

He let this sink in. Suddenly, I knew where this was heading.

‘I’ve spoken to Penguin Random House,’ Hilda chipped in. ‘They were very saddened by your decision. The Word is Murder has done much better than any of your other books, and you know how keen they are on series. Hawthorne asked me to call them on his behalf – I didn’t want to trouble you while you were away – and I have to say, they’ve made an extremely generous offer.’

‘An offer?’

‘Four more books once you finish A Line to Kill.’ She opened a drawer in her desk and took out a contract. ‘Of course, it’s entirely your decision. I wouldn’t want you to do anything you weren’t comfortable with.’

She handed me the document. I read:

Memorandum of Agreement dated 20 April 2018

between Anthony Horowitz (‘Author’), c/o Hilda Starke Limited (‘Agent’) of the one part; and

Penguin Random House (‘Publisher’) of the other part, concerning 4 (four) original works of fiction of 90,000 words each at present entitled:

Hawthorne Investigates (‘Book 4’)

Untitled Hawthorne Book 5 (‘Book 5’)

Untitled Hawthorne Book 6 (‘Book 6’)

Untitled Hawthorne Book 7 (‘Book 7’)

(hereinafter referred to as the ‘Work’, together or individually as the context provides)

Whereby it is mutually agreed as follows: