‘We do not need to go into the details here, Mrs Chandler. Do not upset yourself, please.’ He waited until she had sat down again. ‘As a result of this disagreement, you and your son did not leave the house to visit your sister until 6.25 p.m. and it is your testimony that is of great value now. You heard the dog barking at 6.18 p.m. and two minutes later the front door opened and closed. As the dog was known to bark when strangers came to the house, you assumed that this was the moment when the man who would terrorise Melissa James entered the property and, ten minutes later, caused her to call Dr Collins.

‘And where was Francis Pendleton during all this? We know that he did not attend the performance of The Marriage of Figaro as he pretended to do. It is quite possible that he did indeed leave the house at 6.15 p.m., using the French windows from the living room. He would not have been seen or heard. Or he could have remained and killed his wife. But if that were the case, why did she not say as much to Dr Collins on that last telephone call? If she knew the name of the man who was about to kill her, surely she would have wanted him to know!’

Pünd stood examining the chart.

‘It does not work,’ he admitted. ‘I cannot make it work. It is something that I have written about in my book, The Landscape of Criminal Investigation. Sometimes the facts will be presented to the detective in a way that seems to make sense but which makes no sense at all, and if that occurs you must accept that they may not be facts at all, that hidden amongst them are misconceptions that are blinding you to the truth.’ He paused. ‘That is what I have done. Almost from the very start, I have attempted to find an alternative sequence of events that would explain how Melissa James died and I will confess to you that I would have failed completely but for the brilliance of the detective chief inspector. He compared the crime to the death of Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello and at that moment he unlocked for me what must have taken place.’

‘And I suppose one of us is Iago,’ Algernon sneered. He seemed amused by the whole thing.

Pünd ignored him. ‘Let us go back to my first question,’ he went on. ‘What was the motive for the murder of Melissa James and why did Francis Pendleton also have to die?’ He turned to Lance Gardner. ‘You, Mr Gardner, had a good reason to kill her. She had warned you that she was intending to investigate the management of the hotel.’

‘I had nothing to hide,’ Gardner replied.

‘On the contrary. Thanks to the good offices of my assistant, Miss Cain, we know that you have a great deal to hide. I know about the overpayment of suppliers and the way in which you have diverted the refunds into your own account. I have given the evidence to the detective chief inspector.’

‘I’ll be wanting to talk to you and your wife as soon as this is over,’ Hare said, grimly.

‘If Melissa James were to die, there would be no examination and the money that you have stolen would remain undetected. You had a motive to kill not just Miss James but her husband too, as Francis Pendleton also suspected you of financial malfeasance and would have continued to pursue you.’

‘We didn’t kill anyone!’ Maureen Gardner exclaimed.

‘And what of Phyllis and Eric Chandler? They too might have had good reason to kill first Melissa and then Francis. They had a secret. Eric had been involved in a particularly unpleasant activity at Clarence Keep—’

‘She didn’t know anything about it!’ Eric said. His voice was high-pitched and petulant.

‘So you say. But how do we know that she had not discovered your secret and threatened you? Then, when her husband stumbled onto the truth, you killed him as well. It could have been either of you: Eric because he was afraid or his mother because she was ashamed. It could even have been both of you, working together. It seems to me quite feasible that the differences between you could have been exaggerated, and let me remind you that you, and only you, were in the house on both occasions at almost exactly the time the murders were committed.’

‘It’s a wicked lie!’ Phyllis spat out the words.

But Pünd had already moved on to Nancy Mitchell. He was a little gentler now, but her part in all this still had to be explained. ‘And then we come to you, Miss Mitchell.’

‘My Nancy did nothing!’ Brenda Mitchell clutched her daughter tighter.

‘That is, of course, what you would believe, Mrs Mitchell. It is what I also, with all my heart, wish to believe. But although it is true that your daughter was working at the hotel at the time of the first murder, she was most certainly present on the occasion of the second.’ Pünd sounded almost regretful as he turned to Nancy. ‘You have admitted as much. You tell us a story about looking in through the window and running away but it would have been perfectly simple for you to slip in through the back door and kill Francis Pendleton with the Turkish knife before making your escape. He had treated you badly. You were angry. We have already discussed the reasons and there is no need to air them again in public. But I will ask this. Is there anyone else in the room who would have been more motivated to act in so reckless and perilous a fashion?’

Nancy fell silent, casting her eyes down. Her mother comforted her. Neither of them spoke.

‘What about me?’ Algernon asked. ‘Aren’t you going to accuse me of doing Melissa in?’

‘You find this amusing, Mr Marsh?’

‘Well, it’s more entertaining than being stuck in jail.’

‘I think you’d better get used to jail time,’ Hare muttered. ‘I have a feeling you’re going to be doing a lot of it.’

‘Of course you had a motive to kill Miss James,’ Pünd continued. ‘She had invested a great deal of money in a business of yours but this was actually money that you were stealing from her. We know that she was having financial difficulties. What would you do if she asked for the money back? Your entire scheme would collapse.’

‘But she didn’t ask for it back. She and I were planning to get married. Everything she had would have been mine anyway, so I’m afraid that’s where your little theory rather falls to the ground.’

‘Ah yes. The letter that she sent to you. “My darling darling … ” as she called you.’

‘That’s right.’

‘No, Mr Marsh. It is not right. I do not believe that Miss James was involved in a relationship with you – at least certainly not of a romantic nature. I believe that you fabricated the entire story because you realised that you could use it to achieve your ends.’

Now Pünd turned to Samantha Collins.

‘When we met in the church, you told me that you had recently inherited a very large sum of money but that your brother had not.’

‘Yes.’ Samantha was clearly uncomfortable at finding herself the centre of attention.

‘You did not want your brother to know.’

‘Well … ’

‘Dr Collins asked me not to mention that you were going to London on the day we visited you at Church Lodge,’ Pünd reminded her. He turned to the doctor. ‘I take it that the reason for your journey was connected with the bequest?’

‘Yes,’ Dr Collins admitted. ‘It was.’

‘Later, when the detective chief inspector arrested him, your brother-in-law said something that interested me. “I’m sure Leonard has got quite a few things to tell you.” It struck me at once that in reality he was not speaking to me. He was sending a warning to you.’

The doctor smiled weakly. ‘I’m not sure about that.’

‘And then, in the church, Mrs Collins told me that you had, inexplicably, changed your mind and that you were attempting to persuade her to share the bequest with him.’

‘Well, I was just playing devil’s advocate.’

‘And who is the devil in this instance?’ Pünd smiled briefly. ‘Was Algernon Marsh blackmailing you?’ Dr Collins said nothing, so he went on. ‘Let us imagine that it was not he who was having the affair with Melissa James, but you. He somehow discovered the truth – it is possible indeed that Miss James informed him. He knew what it would mean to your wife if she found out. This I have witnessed for myself. In the church, Mrs Collins spoke of the sin of adultery and said that she would never see her brother again. To discover that her husband, the father of her two children, was engaged in an immoral relationship with a married woman – one can see easily the consequences.’

‘It’s not true,’ Dr Collins insisted.

‘But it is true, Dr Collins. It is the reason why you murdered her. It is the only reason that makes any sense.’

‘You’re wrong, Mr Pünd!’ Samantha Collins was staring at Pünd with a mixture of horror and disbelief. She had let go of her husband’s hand. ‘Leonard only went to the house because she wanted his help.’

‘You did not hear what she said, Mrs Collins.’

‘I didn’t hear everything she said. No. But I did hear someone asking for help and I recognised her voice.’

‘And what is it that had upset her?’ Pünd had turned back to Dr Collins.

‘I told you—’