‘Secret door? Tunnel?’

  ‘Yes. The house that originally stood here was built by a Catholic family in Elizabethan times. There’s an escape tunnel that runs from the chapel to this room so that the family priest could flee if the authorities came calling.’

  ‘In here?’ said Howard.

  Ellie pointed to the bookcase. ‘Show them, Ivor.’

  There were oohs, aahs, and one ‘Well, I’ll be blowed’ as Skins opened the bookcase door.

  ‘Once in here, he picked up a cushion from one of those chairs and took it with him. I’m not sure exactly how he proceeded next, but I’m going to assume he went down to the kitchen to fetch a piece of ice from the ice box in the larder. Lily the kitchen maid said she saw someone go into the larder that afternoon but doesn’t know who it was.’

  ‘Ice?’ said the inspector.

  ‘Yes, sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. He’d worked out a way to rig one of the door locks so that it would lock on its own. We can show you the lock later. It involved modifying it with a spring mechanism held back by ice. So, with his trick lock and his cushion he went in to see John. This was the only part of the scheme that was a bit of a gamble, I think. He’d taken the chance that John would help himself to a glass of Scotch while he was working, so he’d dosed the decanter with Veronal. By the time he got to the study, John was out cold.’

  ‘What makes you think he did that?’

  ‘One of our boys helped himself to the whisky decanter from the study and put the whole band to sleep later that night. We have the decanter among our effects so you can check it for yourselves. With his brother out for the count, Malcolm took John’s pistol from his desk and shot him with it, setting the scene to make it look like suicide. We assume he took the cushion to muffle the shot, but with the storm thundering away outside there was no need. With John unconscious, he was able to time the shot with a clap of thunder and no one would be any the wiser. He must have decided it would be too risky to be walking about with a cushion, so he put it on the windowsill and hoped no one would notice.’

  ‘Where is the gun now?’

  ‘Still in the study. It’s a Smith and Wesson Ladysmith. A .22.’

  ‘You know your guns.’

  ‘A girl has to have a hobby. We believe he quickly searched among some files on the bookshelves, looking for any evidence John might have had on Baisley, but didn’t find what he was looking for.’

  ‘How do you know he didn’t find it?’

  ‘Because we found it, and it wasn’t in the files – it was in a secret drawer in the desk. After that, he switched on the electric gramophone and put George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” on the turntable. But instead of playing it, he left the needle at the end as though it had just finished. He replaced the door lock with his modified version, leaving the key in it, then set off back to the library. As the last of the ice melted, the door locked itself. The little bit of water I slipped in when we burst into the room came from the melted ice, do you see?

  ‘A couple of minutes later he was back in the control room and putting the original lock in the drawer, where we found it a little while ago. Then comes the technical bit that the boys figured out.’ She indicated Skins and Dunn. ‘When he knew Elizabeth, Veronica and I had gone off to the house, he kept a close eye on the clock. It’s another assumption on my part, but I’m betting that the butler is fastidious about clocks. Veronica told us how he regularly checks the staircases for creaks, so I imagine he’s fastidious about everything else and the clocks are all set to exactly the right time. Anyway, at a couple of minutes to four, he started playing his own, doctored copy of the Gershwin on the gramophone in the control room, which he’d rigged up so that it would play out of the loudspeaker in the study. As the clock struck four, I was outside the study where I heard not a gunshot, but a recording of a gunshot played on a gramophone in the chapel.’

  ‘Going on your performance so far, I presume you have evidence of this, too?’

  ‘We have the gramophone record he used, yes. Then, when we raised the alarm, he was in the chapel as though he’d been there all the time. We considered the possibility that it could have been almost anyone else, but the weather was so bad that no matter how sneaky they were, they couldn’t have got to the house and back without getting soaked to the skin. Everyone was dry – or at least as dry as they could be given how wet they’d gotten on their way to the chapel earlier – and the only dry way to get to the house was through the tunnel. And Malcolm was able to keep an eye on the entrance to the tunnel because it’s in his control room.’

  ‘This is all very thorough. Is there anything else?’

  ‘No, Inspector, that’s more or less it. John Bilverton didn’t commit suicide, he was killed by his brother in a quite astonishingly sophisticated plan that really ought to have worked. It was just bad luck that it didn’t.’

  ‘You said something about the two ladies.’

  ‘Oh, yes. Hetty Hollis was murdered because she discovered the secret door in the chapel. Your police surgeon will be able to check, but it was almost certainly a drug overdose. Barbiturates would be my guess. And Marianne Bilverton didn’t fall down the stairs, she was pushed – Malcolm admitted as much. She knew he was a bad lot, and something Malcolm said in the chapel makes me think she knew about John’s investigation. Barty Dunn overheard Charlotte telling her to be careful – that must have been before she confronted Malcolm. I think she knew Malcolm had killed her husband.’

  The family sat in stunned silence. The band nodded appreciatively. Another victory for Skins, Ellie and Dunn.

  Malcolm, who had remained unexpectedly silent throughout, suddenly exploded. ‘Balderdash!’ he exclaimed. ‘Utter poppycock. You’re the one on drugs, Mrs Maloney, if you think any of that is true.’

  The inspector shook his head wearily. ‘Please be quiet, Mr Bilverton—’

  ‘Colonel Bilverton. I earned my rank, Upton.’

  ‘Inspector Upton – I earned mine too. You’ll have your chance to speak later, though I should warn you that since you are now under arrest, you do not have to say anything unless you wish to do so, but that anything you say will be taken down and may be given in evidence.’

  ‘Preposterous. Upon what charge, sir? Upon what charge? The word of this American woman and her musician friends?’

  ‘We shall be investigating the allegations of murder, of course, but in the meantime possession of an illegal drug and reckless discharge of a firearm will be enough to be getting on with.’

  ‘What drug? There’s no drug.’

  ‘That white powder on your jacket suggests otherwise. And you can’t deny the wound in young Miss Bilverton’s shoulder. Take him out to the car, please, Sergeant.’

  The unnamed sergeant handcuffed Malcolm Bilverton, who was still loudly protesting his innocence as he was led out.

  The room erupted with questions, which the three friends tried to answer. Meanwhile, the two ambulance men were finally able to take their charge to the hospital. Howard went with her.

  It took almost another hour for Inspector Upton to finish collecting everyone’s details and taking a few key witness statements. Ellie stayed nearby, eavesdropping on what the family said, but no one seemed to offer anything to contradict her own version of events.

  Eventually the inspector was satisfied that he had enough to be getting on with, and said his goodbyes to Gordon as the head of the household. He seemed about to leave when he called Ellie over.

  ‘I’m obliged to keep an open mind – innocent until proven guilty and all that – but I’m impressed by the effort you and your husband put into this.’

  ‘And Barty Dunn,’ she said.

  ‘Ah, yes, the cocaine flinger. Well, I’m impressed. Have you any experience of this line of work? Or do you just read a lot of detective novels?’

  ‘We helped solve a case a few weeks ago in London with a detective from Scotland Yard. Superintendent Sunderland.’

  ‘He caught the deserter at the Mayfair club, didn’t he? I read about that. You were involved in the case?’

  ‘We were indeed. And I have a friend in Gloucestershire who has some experience in the field, too. Lady Hardcastle?’

  ‘Good Lord. She’s almost legendary. Well, I never.’

  ‘So we’re just enthusiastic amateurs, but we have friends to advise us when we need them.’

  ‘It seems you do, madam. Well, I have to be off now – poor Sergeant Adams has been sitting in the car with Bilverton for quite a while. You’ll be called for the trial if we decide to prosecute, of course. And between you and me, I rather think we shall. And this file on Valentine Baisley’ –he tapped the pile of papers under his arm – ‘might put an end to that toerag’s shenanigans, too. You’ve done us a great service.’

  ‘You’re more than welcome, Inspector. I just hope the family doesn’t resent us too much. It was hard for them to accept that their father had killed himself, but I don’t imagine it’s much easier to accept that their favourite uncle murdered him.’

  ‘It will take time, but they’ll come to terms with it, I’m sure. It’s always better to know the truth.’

  ‘I suppose so. Well, goodbye, Inspector.’

  She found Skins and Dunn talking to Marianne.

  ‘. . . of the will, of course. Once we all know where we stand, perhaps we can make a proper decision. Ah, hello, Ellie.’ With a smile, Marianne reached out to shake Ellie’s hand.

  ‘We’re so glad to see you up and about,’ said Ellie. ‘You gave us quite a fright.’

  ‘It gave me quite a fright, too. One minute I was standing at the top of the stairs, the next I was waking up in bed with Dr Hurlston standing over me.’

  ‘Do you remember anything at all?’

  ‘Charlotte and I had begun to suspect Malcolm. John had told me about his file on Baisley, and of course we knew how thick he was with Malcolm. We put it all together and I went to have it out with him. He told me it was utter rot, of course, and invited me to get out of his room. I was on my way back downstairs and . . . and then I woke up in bed. He must have followed me and given me a shove. Given what he was prepared to do to John and poor Hetty, I’m lucky he didn’t get a chance to finish me off.’

  ‘Well, yes.’

  ‘Thank you so very much for everything you’ve done,’ said Marianne.

  ‘You’re entirely welcome, of course. But the boys here have to take two-thirds of the credit.’

  ‘And I’ve already given them two-thirds of the thanks. Between you, you’ve saved John’s reputation from the stigma of suicide. That sort of thing hangs over a family, you know.’

  ‘Although we replaced one stigma with another. There’s a murderer in the family, after all.’

  ‘That’s easier for society to accept, though. Actually, I can imagine one or two thinking it rather glamorous and romantic that John lost his life in his crusade against a gangster.’

  ‘Well, when you put it like that . . .’ Ellie smiled, then looked around to make sure they couldn’t be overheard. ‘What will you and Charlotte do now?’

  ‘I . . . Oh, of course you know. You seem to know everything. Well, I’m not sure, to be honest. I was just saying to these two scallywags that until the estate is settled, none of us has any real idea how to proceed for the best. I can’t help thinking that there’d be even more stigma and scandal if we ran off together. But then again . . .’

  ‘Perhaps it’s better to endure a little scandal than deny yourselves a chance at happiness?’ suggested Ellie.

  ‘Something like that, yes. We shall see.’

  ‘I hope whatever you decide, you find some contentment.’

  ‘You’re very kind. Now, if you’ll all excuse me, I ought to check a few things. I’m still nominally the lady of the house, even if Gordon thinks otherwise.’

  She headed off in the direction of the kitchen stairs.

  ‘Well, that’s that, then,’ said Skins.

  ‘It does seem to be,’ said Ellie.

  ‘We never did find out what John did to upset Peter so badly, though.’

  ‘I don’t suppose he cares much now he’s got all the Bilverton’s Biscuits business,’ said Dunn. ‘But it would be interesting to know.’

  ‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ said Ellie, ‘I thought I’d already told you – John left an account of it in his notes. He and his brother had a thing about writing everything down, didn’t they? Anyway, Peter had been engaged to act for Valentine Baisley in a business matter that John knew to be shady, so he warned him off. He knew the police would have to act once they had his own evidence, and he didn’t want anyone in the family connected with criminal activity. Of course, he couldn’t let on that that was why he was against it, so Peter worked himself up into an indignant paddy about being a fully qualified solicitor and able to make up his own mind, thank you very much. But John stuck to his guns and Peter resentfully caved in.’

  ‘So he didn’t ruin a lucrative deal, he saved him from gaol,’ said Dunn. ‘Are you going to tell them?’

  ‘I probably ought. It’ll come out soon enough, but knowing might make it easier to come to terms with . . . well, you know, everything.’ She was wondering whether to go off and find Elizabeth and Peter when they heard Gordon calling from the Grand Hall.

  ‘The charabanc’s here.’

  The Dizzy Heights gave a cheer.

  By the time Skins and Ellie had checked that everything from their room on the second floor had been packed and brought down, the rest of the Dizzies were assembled in the Grand Hall with all their gear. Mickey was sitting on Skins’s bass drum case, chatting to Eustace.

  ‘Thanks for bringing my kit up,’ said Skins. ‘I owe you one.’

  ‘Not sure you do, mate,’ said Mickey. ‘We knew what you three was up to, of course, but none of us had any idea it was all so . . . you know . . . so involved. And you cracked it. You caught an actual murderer. Again. Proud to carry your drums.’

  ‘Really? Job’s yours if you want it. I always wanted me own porter.’

  ‘Don’t get carried away, son. I was happy to get your stuff up from the chapel ’cause you were busy, but I ain’t making a career of it.’

  ‘Fair dos. You all right, there, Benny?’

  ‘Just fine, thank you. I’ll be glad to get home, though.’

  ‘You and me both, mate.’

  Katy came in through the front door.

  ‘Come on then, you lot,’ she said. ‘Let’s get all this stuff loaded up. The footmen will give us a hand, but the driver’s keen to get going as soon as poss, so don’t dawdle.’

  The Dizzies stirred to action and started carrying their bags and instruments out on to the drive. The two footmen were there, helping the driver to heft the baggage on to the roof, and Skins handed up his and Ellie’s bags before they both turned back to collect the first of his drum cases. They caught up with Dunn and were just about to re-enter the front door when a taxi pulled up on the drive and Howard hopped out. He paid the driver and loped over to the three friends.

  ‘How is she?’ asked Ellie.

  ‘They were just taking her into surgery when I left,’ said Howard, ‘so I’ve taken the opportunity to scoot back to get her some necessaries. She lost quite a bit more blood than we thought, and it was, or so said the quack, “a nasty big old bullet” so it’s made quite a mess of her shoulder, but they’re confident they can put her more or less back together.’

  ‘That’s not wonderful, but it could be worse. Do give her our love, won’t you?’

  ‘Of course. And thank you for . . . well . . . you know.’

  ‘I hope we’ve not made things worse.’

  ‘Far from it. I can’t say I liked the old man much, and heaven knows the feeling was mutual, but I’m not sure he deserved to die. Especially not at Uncle Malcolm’s hand. I had no idea he was in so deep with Baisley.’

  ‘No one did. Are you all right, though? What are you going to do? Didn’t I hear you had a job in the City?’

  ‘D’you know, I’ve been thinking about that. One way or another I’m coming into money, so blow the boring job – I’m going to go to New York. Who knows what exciting opportunities might arise while I’m there.’

  ‘Are you serious?’

  ‘Never more so, Mrs M. Either the gaffer left me money or Ronnie and I sell those postcards. Either way I can’t let a windfall like that go to waste. I only took the banking job to annoy Papa, if I’m honest, so now I want to see the bright lights, listen to the jazz. Meet glamorous and exciting people.’

  Ellie laughed. ‘Well, good luck to you, Mr B. Oh, hold on.’ She pulled a calling card from her pocket and handed it to him. ‘When you’re ready to set off, drop me a line, give me a call. Hell, you can come unannounced for tea if you like. But do get in touch. I can give you introductions to a few lovely people there – friends of mine. They’ll make you welcome.’