They continued to the front and saw at once what was happening.

A young woman had climbed over the stone balustrade that ran the full length of the bridge and was standing on the narrow ledge on the other side. She was perched forward, leaning over the river, clinging on with her hands behind her. The bridge was not more than twenty feet high but the water was fast-flowing and murky with swirling currents. If she let go, the fall might not kill her but she would almost certainly drown.

Hare had a grown-up daughter and felt a surge of pity for the young woman who had been driven to such an act. He guessed that she was in her twenties but it was only as he got nearer and saw her more closely that he recognised her brown hair, her slightly uneven features.

‘It’s the girl from the Moonflower!’ he exclaimed.

‘Nancy Mitchell.’ Pünd had also recognised her.

‘I have to stop her.’ Hare pushed his way between two men who had been standing helplessly at the entrance to the bridge. At least none of the drivers had moved too close, understanding that if the girl felt threatened, she would jump.

Pünd reached out and took hold of the detective’s arm. ‘With respect, my friend, it might be better if I attempted to speak to her. She knows that you are a senior police officer and she may also know that to commit suicide is an offence against the law. If she sees you approach, it may alarm her … ’

‘You’re right.’ There was no time for argument. Hare had positioned himself in front of the crowd and he turned round to face them. ‘I’m a police officer,’ he announced quietly. ‘Could I ask you all to move back?’

The spectators did as they were told. At the same time, Pünd continued forward, finding himself alone on the now empty bridge. Nancy saw him coming and stared at him with eyes that were wide with fear.

‘Don’t come any closer!’ she shouted.

Pünd stopped about ten paces away. ‘Miss Mitchell! Do you remember me? I am a guest at the hotel.’

‘I know who you are. But I don’t want to talk to you.’

‘You do not have to. There is no need to say anything. But please let me speak to you.’

Pünd took two steps forward and the girl tensed herself. He stopped and looked down at the churning brown water as it raced past. The crowd on the other side of the river stirred uneasily, but fortunately another policeman had arrived and was making sure they stayed back.

‘I do not know what has brought you here or how you have been driven to an action as extreme as the one you are now contemplating,’ he said. ‘You must be very unhappy. Of that I am sure. Will you believe me if I say that no matter how bad things may appear, they will be better tomorrow if you allow tomorrow to do its work? That is the way of things, Miss Mitchell, and I am the living proof of it.’

She said nothing. He took two more steps. The closer he was to her, the less he would have to raise his voice.

‘Stay where you are!’ Nancy cried out.

Pünd showed the palms of his hands. ‘I am not going to touch you. I wish only to talk.’

‘You can’t know what I’m thinking!’

‘What you are thinking, no. What you are feeling, perhaps.’ He took another step. ‘I too have suffered, Miss Mitchell. I have endured terrible violence – in prison in Germany, in the war. My wife was killed. My parents were killed. I found myself in an abyss, alone, surrounded by cruelty and inhumanity which I cannot describe. Like you, I wished for death.

‘And yet I did not die. I made the most stupid, the most irrational decision of my life. Against all the odds, I chose to survive! Am I glad I did so? Yes. Because here I am now and it is my hope that I can persuade you to do the same.’

‘I’ve got no hope.’

‘There is always hope.’ Pünd took another two steps towards her. He was now so close that if they had both stretched out their hands, they would have touched. ‘Let me look after you, Miss Mitchell. Let me help make the bad things that have happened go away.’ She was still unsure. He could see her struggling to decide. He knew what he had to do. ‘Think also of the child that you carry!’ he said. ‘Will you not give it a chance?’

She had been looking at the water but now her head snapped round. ‘Who told you that?’

In fact it was Detective Chief Inspector Hare who had guessed. ‘The miracle of life is written all over you,’ Pünd said. ‘And life is what you must embrace.’

Nancy Mitchell had begun to cry. She nodded weakly, then twisted round, still grabbing hold of the balustrade with both hands. Pünd sprang forward and put his arms around her, holding her close to him, lifting her to safety. A few seconds later, Hare arrived as Nancy sank unconscious to the ground.

*

Two hours later, Atticus Pünd and Detective Chief Inspector Hare were sitting on uncomfortable wooden chairs outside a private room on the first floor of North Devon Infirmary in Barnstaple, the same hospital where Henry Dickson was slowly recovering. And, Pünd realised, Madeline Cain must be somewhere there too. He had not seen her since the death of Francis Pendleton, although he had made sure she was well looked after.

The door opened and a young doctor came out.

‘How is she?’ Hare asked.

‘I’ve given her a mild sedative and she’s a little drowsy, but she wants to see you. I advise against it. After what she’s been through, she needs to rest.’

‘We’ll try not to tire her,’ Hare said.

‘Good. She is pregnant, by the way. You were right about that. About three months. Fortunately, no harm will have come to the unborn child.’

The doctor walked away. Pünd and Hare exchanged a glance and went in.

Nancy Mitchell was lying in bed with her hair spread out on the pillow behind her. She looked rested and strangely serene. ‘Mr Pünd,’ she said as the two men sat down. ‘I want to thank you. What I did … what I was thinking of doing … was very stupid. I feel embarrassed that I made such a fool of myself.’

‘I am just glad that you are here and you are feeling better, Miss Mitchell.’

‘Are you going to arrest me, Chief Inspector?’

‘That’s the last thing on my mind,’ Hare replied.

‘Good. I want to see both of you because I need to get this off my chest. Certainly before my parents get here. The doctor said they’re on their way.’

Hare was surprised how assured Nancy Mitchell had become. It was as if her experience on Bideford Long Bridge had provided some sort of epiphany.

‘I suppose I ought to start at the beginning. You were right, Mr Pünd. I’m sure the doctor will have told you that I’m expecting a child. I haven’t told my parents yet but I’ve decided I want to keep it. Why should I have to put it up for adoption just because the local people of Tawleigh might not approve? My dad won’t agree, but I’ve been afraid of him since I was a child and I’m tired of it. Maybe it’s like what you said, Mr Pünd, and this is a chance for me to take control of my life.

‘Before you ask, I’m going to tell you the name of the father even though I haven’t told anyone else and I wasn’t going to. But I suppose you have to know and so I’m going to tell you now. It was Melissa’s husband, Francis Pendleton. Does that surprise you? That’s what this is all about, isn’t it, and it’s the reason why I have to talk to you. I was not in love with him and, in case you’re wondering, I didn’t kill him, although I suppose I would say that, wouldn’t I?’ She paused. ‘I’ll tell you how it happened.

‘I knew him quite well, of course. Miss James might have owned the Moonflower but he was in and out all the time. He helped her run it. I won’t say we became friends but he seemed to enjoy talking to me. He also wanted me to help him. He had this idea that the Gardners were cheating his wife in some way and he asked me to keep an eye on them for him. I wasn’t too keen about that. I didn’t want to be a spy. But at the same time I was flattered that he’d asked me and I liked him. He was always kind to me.

‘And then one day, about three months ago, he came to the hotel in a dreadful state. He didn’t say anything to me but he went straight to the bar and began drinking, on his own. It was my luck – my bad luck – to be on night duty. This was the end of January and the hotel was almost empty. Anyway, I left him on his own for a couple of hours and then I went into the bar because I was worried about him and I wanted to know everything was all right.