Page 102 of Marble Hall Murders

‘It is.’ I waited for him to continue, but he was either lost in his own thoughts or unwilling to express them. ‘I don’t think it’ll be too difficult to finish it,’ I went on. ‘Eliot must have left notes. And I’m sure there are plenty of clues in the pages I’ve read so far. It’s just a question of finding them.’

‘Do you know the ending?’

‘No. I’ve never been any use at working these things out. But another writer – someone who works in crime fiction – would be able to do it. The book doesn’t feel too complicated. The characters are all there. And it might be quite fun for someone else to bring all the different strands together.’

Michael considered what I had said, then shook his head. ‘I’m not sure. Alan Conway is already dead. Now Eliot Crace. To have a third writer coming along feels a bit … indecent.’

‘It seems a shame to stop now. I think it’s going to be a good book, Michael. And do you really want to throw away the advance?’

‘Well, the advance wasn’t too much to worry about.’ I’d been in the business for most of my life and I’d never heard a publisher so blasé about losing money. ‘I’m afraid my instinct is to let it drop, Susan.’ He shook his head, as if this wasn’t something he’d decided long before I came into the building. ‘I wish there was something else we could offer you, but right now there isn’t anything.’

‘There’s that other mystery you sent me from Norway.’

‘We’re having second thoughts about that too.’

I saw the way this was going. ‘You’re ending my contract,’ I said.

‘Actually, we don’t have a formal contract.’

‘But you’re still letting me go.’

‘You could put it that way. But let’s think of this as a temporary measure. There’s every possibility something will come up in the future and if it does, we’ll get in touch.’

He was lying to me. We both knew it.

‘You were at the party,’ I said. ‘I saw you.’

‘Yes.’ He looked uncomfortable. ‘I noticed you there too. I wasn’t expecting to see you. They told me you weren’t coming.’

‘I think they forgot to cancel my invitation.’

‘Under the circumstances, you might have done better to stay away.’

‘And what circumstances are those, Michael?’

Finally he lost his temper. He hadn’t wanted to speak to me today. He obviously didn’t care if he never spoke to me again. ‘For God’s sake, Susan. I don’t know what’s got into you. It must be that business with Alan Conway and what happened with the Trehernes. Yes. I heard about that too.You seem to think that the entire world is a conspiracy theory and that it’s your job to sort it all out.’

‘I don’t think that at all,’ I protested.

‘Then why did you go to Marble Hall, asking questions about a murder that never happened? Why did you allow Eliot to go on that blasted radio programme, making absurd accusations about his grandmother and damaging her reputation at the worst possible time? Your job was simply to edit a book, not to make trouble for the Crace Estate.’

‘You’re working with them, aren’t you,’ I said. ‘You and Jonathan Crace. That’s why you were at the party.’

He looked embarrassed. ‘As it happens, yes.’ I waited for him to continue. I wasn’t going anywhere until he had told me the truth. ‘I may not have been completely straight with you, Susan,’ he said at last. ‘When I first proposed the book to you, perhaps I should have mentioned that we were also dealing with the estate. It won’t be announced until the Netflix deal has been fully agreed, but at the start of this year, we won an auction for three more adventures with the Little People. The first one –A Little More– is coming out at Christmas.’

‘Another continuation novel!’ I was amazed. ‘Who’s writing it?’

‘Michael Morpurgo. We’re absolutely thrilled he’s agreed. I mean, he’s one of our greatest children’s authors. His books are classics.’

‘So how did Eliot fit into all this?’

‘He didn’t.’ Michael shuffled in his seat. ‘Someone suggested Eliot for Atticus Pünd because he’d written crime novels. I’ll be completely honest with you and say that Iagreed because I thought it would cement our relationship with the family and support our bid in the auction.’

‘You mean, you only gave him the job to score brownie points.’

‘I think that’s putting it a little crudely. There was a tactical element to the decision, though, I’ll admit. And anyway, it backfired. We weren’t to know it, but the family was far from happy that we were working with him. They thought of him as a liability. It was very lucky for us that we’d signed the deal with them before they found out that he was involved.’

‘But they didn’t want him to write it.’