‘Do you want me to leave?’ asked Toni.

‘Good God, no! I’ll make it up to you on Monday morning. Now, I’ll get us a drink. What would you like?’

Toni asked for a vodka and tonic.

When Agatha went off to get the drinks, Toni felt trapped. How could she leave now after Agatha’s amazing burst of self-honesty?

Agatha came back with the drinks and looked at Toni’s troubled face. ‘Forget about it,’ she said gruffly. ‘You’d have felt better if I’d shouted at you and told you you were talking rubbish, now wouldn’t you?’

Toni gave a reluctant laugh. ‘Something like that.’

‘So let’s move on to something else. Sylvan’s body hasn’t been washed up anywhere and that bothers me. The police have pretty much closed the case, although they’re still looking for Sylvan – but not very hard. They have decided that Felicity knew something about the smuggling and that’s why she was shot. Yet, they have accepted that George Bross was gulled by Sylvan and is innocent. I can’t see that. I really don’t trust that man. I wish I could get to his wife, Olivia. She was keen to employ me but it was her husband who cut her off.’

‘The agency is running well,’ said Toni. ‘Why don’t you go back to Hewes and see if you can catch Olivia when she’s out shopping or something?’

Agatha brightened. ‘That’s an idea. I just don’t like to leave the whole case alone with so many unanswered questions.’

‘You’d better go in disguise,’ said Toni uneasily. ‘If Bross is a villain, you might be in trouble.’

‘I’ll go as myself,’ said Agatha defiantly. ‘It might stir things up.’

Before she set out on Monday morning, after announcing to her staff that she was leaving Toni in charge, Agatha was tempted to phone Charles. But she quickly rejected the idea. If anything were to be found out about this case, then she would find it herself.

She booked herself into The Jolly Farmer and then wondered where to start. Downboys was such a small village. Perhaps if she parked somewhere along the road leading from Downboys to Hewes, she might see Olivia driving past. The countryside, basking in the Indian summer that was also blessing the Cotswolds, looked much friendlier and less threatening than she remembered. She parked a little way outside Downboys under a stand of trees and waited.

The hours dragged by. She probably shops in the village, thought Agatha, stifling a yawn. By late afternoon, she returned to Hewes, deciding to drive up to Downboys after dark and see if there were any lights on in the house. It would be silly to waste any more time if Olivia and George were not at home.

After dark she drove slowly past the house. Lights were on at the downstairs windows.

Now what to do? wondered Agatha.