Gina drew out the bottom drawer and found it empty.

She looked around and saw James’s little weekend case, which she remembered seeing him take from the car, tucked not quite under the bed. She kneeled down and carefully drew it out. She tried to slide the locks across at the front but they would not move.

Damn …

Why would he feel the need to lock his own case under the bed in his own room? The answer was simple: because he had something hidden in it that he didn’t want anyone else to see.

Fearing that she’d been here quite long enough, Gina looked around in the vain hope that she would see the key left lying about. Nothing. He probably had it on his keyring and had taken it with him when he went out.

Half-heartedly she opened the bedside cabinet drawer, expecting to find that empty; instead she discovered a key that might well fit the little case. In an instant she was on her knees, trying it. The two little locks turned, she slid them back, and the catches shot up, each with a click.

In the case were a few items of clothing, and underneath a brown manila envelope. This might well have been what she had seen the rough man handing to James the previous evening. She picked it up – it was fat and well filled – and looked inside …

Banknotes! Gina gasped. She had never seen so much money in her life – why would she have? Most of it was green one-pound notes, but a quick glance told her that there were very many red ten-shilling notes, too, and, at the back, a few folded white pieces of paper, which she took to be five-pound notes, though she couldn’t remember when she had last seen one of those. This was far more than the little hoard of stolen funds Mrs Thwaite had accumulated.

She couldn’t resist, there was just so much of it that she thought it wouldn’t be missed: she took one of the ten-shilling notes and slipped it into her pocket, then put the envelope back exactly as it had been, under the clothes. She quickly locked the case, pushed it back under the bed and put the key in the drawer where she’d found it. She was just picking up the towels she’d brought to provide her cover for being here, when the door suddenly opened and there was James.

‘Gina?’

‘James! I was just changing the towels. I’ll leave you a couple of clean ones.’ She put the top two on the bed.

James gave her a quizzical look. ‘Fine …’ he said, distracted. He took off his jacket and laid it on the bed where it fell heavily.

Gina risked a glance and saw there was the slightly bulging shape of a flat rectangle outlined on the front. A brown envelope with more cash? Possibly.