The thought of classes took her inexorably to Winchester, where Gina Dickens had come from. There seemed to be possible fruit to be borne from a fuller exploration of this. Meredith didn’t know whether this object actually belonged to Gina-nor had she the slightest idea why Gina or anyone else would have placed it beneath the basin-but the opened packet of Blu-Tac in the bedside table suggested it was hers. And as long as Gina’s ownership was a possibility, Meredith was not at a dead end in her investigation.

The question now was whether to take the little medallion with her or try to remember what it looked like so that she could describe it later. She considered drawing it, and she even went to the desk, sat, and brought out a sheet of the cheap stationery to try her hand at sketching. The problem was that the workmanship wasn’t particularly clear, and while there seemed to be embossing on the thing, she couldn’t make any of it out very well. So it seemed to her that there was nothing for it but to engage in one small act of burglary. It was in a good cause, after all.

WHEN GORDON JOSSIE arrived back at his holding, he found Gina in the last place he would ever have expected to see her: the west paddock. She was at the far side of it, and he might have missed her altogether had not one of the ponies whinnied, which directed his attention over to them. He saw the blond of Gina’s hair against the dark green backdrop of the wood in the distance. At first he thought she was merely walking on the far side of the paddock and beyond the fence, perhaps returning from a ramble in the trees. But when he climbed out of the pickup with Tess at his heels, he ventured over to the fence and found that Gina was actually within the paddock itself.

This sent his hackles soaring. From the first, Gina had made a considerable topic out of her fear of the New Forest ponies. So to find her inside the paddock with them aroused the sleeping cobra of distrust within him.

She hadn’t noticed his arrival. She was pacing along the line of the barbed-wire fencing, and she seemed intent upon ignoring the ponies as well as watching for their droppings or taking care with her footwork since she had her eyes on the ground.

He called to her. She started, one hand clutching at the collar of her shirt. In the other hand she appeared to be carrying a map.

She was wearing, he saw, her knee-high Wellingtons. This told him that whatever else she was doing, once again she was worried about adders. Briefly he thought about explaining to her that adders wouldn’t likely be in the paddock, that the paddock was not the heath. But this wasn’t a moment for explanations on his part. There was a question to be answered about what she was doing in the paddock in the first place and about the map she was holding. She smiled and waved and folded it. She said with a laugh, “You gave me quite a fright.”

“What’re you doing?” He couldn’t help it: His voice was sharp. He made a concerted effort to soften it, but he didn’t quite manage to make his tone normal. “I thought ponies scared you.”

She cast a look at the animals. They were meandering across the paddock in the direction of the water trough. Gordon gave it a look as he went over to the fence with Tess on his heels. The water was low, and he went for the hosepipe and unspooled it to the paddock. He entered, telling the dog to stay where she was-which she didn’t much like, pacing back and forth to show her displeasure-and he began topping up the trough.

As he did this, Gina picked her way in his direction, but she didn’t do it by crossing directly over to him as another person might. Rather she went by way of the fence, keeping within inches of it as she moved along. She didn’t answer him till she’d reached the eastern part of the paddock in this diligent fashion.

“You’ve found me out,” she said. “Pooh. I did so want to make it a surprise.” She cast a wary eye on the ponies. As she got closer to him, so also did she get closer to them.

“What surprise?” he asked. “And is that a map? What’re you doing with a map? How c’n a map be part of a surprise?”

She laughed. “Please. One thing at a time.”

“Why’re you inside the paddock, Gina?”

She observed him for a moment before she answered. Then she said with care, “Is something wrong? Should I not be in here?”

“You said the New Forest ponies…You said that horses in general-”

“I know what I said about horses. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t try to get over it.”

“What are you talking about?”

Gina reached his side before she replied again. She ran her hand through her sparkly hair. Despite his agitation, he liked to see her do this. He liked the way it fell back into place so perfectly no matter how she-or he-disheveled it. “Getting over an irrational fear,” she told him. “It’s called desensitisation. Haven’t you ever heard of people who get over their fears by being exposed to them?”

“Bollocks. People don’t get over their fears.”

She’d been smiling, but her smile faltered at his tone. She said, “What nonsense, Gordon. Of course they do, if they want to. They expose themselves to their fear in increments till they’re no longer afraid. Like getting over a fear of heights by slowly exposing oneself to progressively higher and higher places. Or getting over a fear of flying by getting used to the aeroplane jetway first, and then going to the doorway of the plane, and then just inside with the doors open, and then to the seats. Haven’t you heard of that?”

“What’s that have to do with being in the paddock? And carrying a map with you. What the hell are you doing with a map?”

She frowned outright then. She shifted her weight in that womanly way, one hip jutted out. She said, “Gordon, are you accusing me of something?”

“Answer the question.”

She looked as startled as she’d looked when he first called out her name. Only this time, he knew, it was because of how sharply he spoke to her.

She said quietly, “I just explained it to you. I’m trying to get used to them by being in the paddock with them. Not close to them, but not on the other side of the fence either. I was going to stay there until they didn’t make me so nervous. Then I was going to take a step or two closer to them. That’s all.”

“The map,” he said. “I want to know about the map.”

“Good grief. I took it from my car, Gordon. It’s something to wave at them, to frighten them off if they got too close.”

He said nothing in reply to this. She looked at him so closely that he turned his head to keep her from reading his expression. He felt his blood pulsing in his temples and he knew his face must be red and revealing.

She said with what sounded like great care, “Are you aware that you’re acting like you suspect me of something?”

Again, he made no reply. He wanted out of the paddock. He wanted her out of the paddock as well. He went to the gate and she followed him, saying, “What’s wrong, Gordon? Has something happened? Something else?”

“What d’you mean?” he demanded, swinging to her. “What’s supposed to have happened?”

“Well, heavens, I don’t know. But first that strange man came to speak with you. Then those detectives from Scotland Yard to tell you that Jemima-”

“This isn’t about Jemima!” he cried.

She gaped at him, then closed her mouth. She said, “All right. It’s not about Jemima. But you’re clearly upset and I can’t think it’s just that I went into the paddock to get used to the horses. Because that doesn’t make sense.”

He forced out the words because he had to say something. “They’ve talked to Ringo. He phoned me about it.”

“Ringo?” Clearly, she was nonplussed.

“He gave them letters, and the letters are false. He didn’t know that, but they’ll suss it out. Then they’ll be back here at the double. Cliff lied like I asked him to, but he’ll break if they press him. They’ll force the issue and he won’t hold out.”