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‘Have you heard from Rissa?’

He rolled his eyes. ‘Oh yes. I have had quite the lecture from her. She and Betty had a long talk, apparently, and Rissa took it upon herself to apologise on my behalf for my unacceptable behaviour.’

‘Your unacceptable behaviour? But you only asked?—’

‘I know, I know! Rissa was embarrassed apparently and wanted to assure Betty that she didn’t come to Rowan Vale to cause any trouble or dig around in the past. You know, I wanted so much to tell her that she should be more worried about the fact that her great-grandfather is a suspect in a murder case for the simple reason that he was German! ’

‘But you didn’t?’ I said worriedly.

‘Not yet.’ His mouth tightened and his brow furrowed. ‘Maybe it’s time I did, though. She should know what’s really been going on here. What people believe about him. Maybe then she’ll think differently, and she’ll want to get to the truth as much as I do.’

‘I – I wouldn’t do that, Max,’ I said faintly. ‘Tell Rissa, I mean. Maybe – maybe it’s time to let it go?’

His eyebrows lifted in surprise. ‘Let it go?’

‘It was such a long time ago. Nearly eighty years. Is it really worth going over it all now? Isn’t it sometimes better to let sleeping dogs lie?’

He leaned back in his chair, staring at me in clear amazement. ‘You don’t want to know who killed your great-aunt? You don’t want to know if Sir Edward was really involved?’

I lowered my gaze, realising how bewildering my change of mind must seem to him. ‘I just think – well, nothing can come of it all now. Whoever killed Aunt Polly, they’re long gone. They can’t be punished. And we should be looking to the future, not the past.’

‘I don’t understand.’ He shook his head. ‘Is this Jimmy? Is your father telling you to say all this?’

‘Dad just feels that it’s not worth causing any upset now. Not after all this time.’

‘So, it’s okay for my grandfather to take the blame for something he didn’t do?’ he demanded incredulously.

‘But he’s not, is he? Not really! Only Betty and Dad have their doubts about Gerhard.

No one else knows. It was so long ago and there are very few people left in this village who were around in the forties, and even fewer who’ll remember anything about that case.

It’s not like he was ever arrested or charged, is it? ’

Noticing a couple of people waiting to pay by the counter, I got to my feet, telling him I’d be back in a minute.

I ended up taking payment from three people and placing an order with the kitchen staff for another table before I could return to Max. There was no preamble from him as I took my seat.

‘You say no one knows. I know. You know. Something very unsavoury happened that night in this village, Shona. Your great-aunt was shot dead, and the landowner insisted a farmer give my grandfather a false alibi. We both know that if he’d believed my grandfather to be guilty, he would have called the police.

If my grandfather did shoot your Aunt Polly, it was at the orders of Sir Edward, and we can’t let him get away with that. ’

‘Even if that’s true,’ I said wearily, ‘he already has. Don’t you see? They’re all gone, Max. Long gone. It wouldn’t do any good now to dig the past up again. Let it lie. Please.’

I could see the muscle in his jaw twitching as he watched me.

I knew he was trying to fathom where this change of heart had come from suddenly, and how could I blame him?

We’d been Poirot and Marple at one point.

Now I just wanted to forget the whole thing.

Of course he was confused. And probably very hurt.

‘No,’ he said suddenly. He leaned forward again and said, ‘I don’t buy this. There’s a reason you’re behaving like this, and I want to know what it is. Do you know something? Has your father confessed that he knows the truth? What’s going on, Shona? Really?’

Well, the ghost of my Aunt Polly has told Dad and me that she doesn’t want us digging into her murder, and if we continue, she’ll never speak to either of us again.

Yeah, great. Tell him that, Shona.

But even as I poured scorn on the idea, it occurred to me that maybe now was as good a time as any to tell him the truth about Rowan Vale.

Everyone who lived here knew about the ghosts.

Maybe even Rissa knew? If Max was going to be part of my life, then he needed to know, too.

After all, there were no official rules about it.

It was left to our discretion and common sense.

‘Just a minute,’ I said.

I hurried through to the kitchen and gave a startled Paige and Susie a pleading look. ‘Do you think one of you can cover the front for me for fifteen minutes?’ I begged. ‘I really need to do something, and I promise I’ll be back as quickly as I can.’

They exchanged knowing glances.

‘Oh yes? Sneaking off somewhere with Herr Meyer, are you?’ Paige said, waggling her eyebrows as Susie gave me a wide smile.

‘Take no notice of her, love,’ she said, patting me on the shoulder. ‘I’ll cover the front. You go and do whatever it is you need to do.’

‘Thanks, Susie,’ I said gratefully and shot back into the teashop.

Max got to his feet as I motioned to him to follow me, and we headed outside to the bench. I pushed him down onto it and said, ‘Right, look, this isn’t easy to say but there’s something you need to know. Prepare to suspend disbelief, okay?’