Gina didn’t stop to hear what it was Mrs Bassett wanted. She rushed into her sitting room and grabbed her handbag, in which she kept the money she had taken from Mrs Thwaite’s dead husband’s jacket pocket all those months ago, and the money she had made fencing the loot, visiting the pawnbrokers and taking the better class of items to Bella. Someone of Gina’s status had no business having that much stashed away: she needed to take it with her now. She raced into her bedroom, threw herself down beside the bed and pulled out the boxes from underneath. There was a shopping bag hanging on her door and she grabbed it and tipped the contents of the boxes into it, shaking them roughly down. She needed something to put over the top, to stop anyone seeing and to keep them safe. There was Diana’s silk scarf on the dressing table. Gina tucked that over the jewellery, took her coat and hat and rushed out to the corridor, locking her sitting-room door and pocketing the key.

‘Gina, is that you, love?’ called Mrs Bassett again, but Gina was through the back door and into the courtyard in a moment.

She was just hurrying round to the drive when she saw a black car coming up towards the house. In it were two men in police uniform. She leaped back and flattened herself against the side wall so they would not see her, desperately trying to silence her gasping breath. It was exactly as James had said. The police were here to search the house.

She heard the car stop in front of the Hall and the policemen slamming the car doors. Then there was the sound of their footsteps crunching on the gravel. Oh Lord, they were coming round this way! Desperately Gina looked for somewhere to hide. If she was caught with her coat on, a large amount of cash in her handbag and a bag of stolen jewellery, too, there would be no story she could invent to save herself that they would believe. Quickly she ran light-footed across the courtyard to the outbuilding where she played with Coco. As usual the door was open and she nipped inside and stood behind the door, making herself as flat as she could, the incriminating bag of jewellery resting between her feet. She hardly dared breathe as she strained to hear if the police were coming to find her.