‘He’s getting nastier, I reckon,’ said Gina. ‘I’m glad I see you and Mum here and don’t have to go home and look at his miserable mug ever again, though I reckon it’s ’cos I’m not there to take the brunt of it that you and Mum are getting it in the neck more often. But don’t worry, I’ll look out for her. I’m going to ask her to help me pack up Eliza Thwaite’s rooms. That’ll be fun.’

‘Fun? How?’

‘Well, interesting, at least,’ said Gina. ‘Now, Coco, I’ll race you to the front. Bye, Nell.’ And she ran off with Coco, on his lead, dancing along beside her.

Ellen watched them go. Maybe her hopes were being answered and Gina was just what Grindle Hall – and Mrs Stellion – needed.

Gina took the key to the housekeeper’s rooms from the hook by the kitchen door and went down the corridor to open up. The sitting room was exactly as she’d seen it when she’d come to look for the library books. What a fruitful little search that had been!

Dora and Mrs Bassett were drinking tea and having a sit-down in the kitchen, and Mrs Stellion and Coco were enjoying each other’s company in the morning room. Gina had not gone into Mrs Thwaite’s rooms since that library day because she didn’t want to be caught where she had no business. Now, at last, she had every reason to be here.

Quickly she crossed the room to the bedroom door. The bedroom was musty with the smell of mothballs and felt somehow sad. There was little time to lose surveying the scene, though. Gina opened the window, then the wardrobe. She knew the money Mrs Thwaite had stolen was somewhere inside because she’d inadvertently told her so. She moved the handbag from the floor of the wardrobe and felt all over as best she could, but there were just the two gin bottles at the back, which she left where they were.

Where? Must be … in the bag, of course!

She opened the snap fastening of the black handbag, which was lined with what might have been a kind of paper that felt like cheap, brittle suede. A handkerchief, a little coin purse – one and tuppence inside – a zip pocket … empty.

But she told me the money was in the wardrobe …

Any moment now Dora would appear to help and the chance to find the money unobserved would be lost.

‘Gina, are you there, love?’ Dora was calling from the corridor.

Gina put the handbag in the wardrobe, closed the door and hurried back to the sitting room.

‘In here, Mum. It smells of old lady in here and I’ve opened the bedroom window.’

Dora appeared carrying a lot of empty cardboard boxes.