Cousin Seb lit a cigarette and looked on, narrowing his eyes against the smoke. Joe had waved away the offer to join Marland in a cigarette and helped himself to a slice of cake. He knew he ought to be relieved that Cassandra and the boys were being cared for and, it seemed, cared about. This was one self-imposed burden he could now slip from his shoulders. Yes, it was all turning out well. He couldn’t account for the feeling of foreboding he was experiencing.
With everyone finally herded back to the tea tables, the conversation began to flow on more conventional topics. Eventually Cassandra broached the question of the admiral’s funeral and, at a suitable moment, Joe inserted the information he’d come to deliver. Everyone fell silent to hear his announcement.
The Yard had completed its investigation of the murder, he told them, and the trial of the two perpetrators was to be held at the earliest possible date. He left a space for their reaction and unobtrusively watched for any sign of dissent.
Marland interrupted Cassandra’s whispered thanks. ‘Hang on a minute, Commander. You’ve skipped a paragraph. Wasn’t there a question of a third assassin? The girl in the taxi? The high-calibre bullet that finished off my uncle? Cassandra tells me she voiced her suspicions to the police.’ He shot a glance at Lily, who nodded back.
Sandilands looked a warning and spoke crisply. ‘We are indeed aware, but this is not perhaps the place, Marland, or the time-’
‘Nonsense! If it’s the boys you’re concerned for, forget it. They know how their father died. They’re au fait with the case. Cassandra and I see no reason to hold back the details from them.’
The boys nodded. Cassandra nodded. Joe realized that he was addressing a unified family and refocused his delivery.
‘Very well. The pathologists’s report upheld Cassandra’s assertion. She was not mistaken. However, the girl in the taxi has been exonerated by the cabby, who has had a lucid interval or two in his hospital bed and has made a statement saying that it was not she who pulled the trigger.’
‘Glad to hear it. Common sense — and science of course — have prevailed, then. Not a woman’s crime, shooting in the street. Sure you’d agree. But if not her, nor the cabby, then who did pull the trigger?’ Sebastian persisted. He was clearly not going to let Sandilands off until he’d revealed all he knew.
‘The solution, as it often is, was staring us in the face,’ Joe admitted with a shamefaced grin. ‘The killers have been questioned at length and have made full confessions. The tougher one of the pair, in the end, admitted that he was issued with two guns, just in case one jammed. Sensible precaution.’