Chapter Twelve

She opened the downstairs cupboard and, rummaging past winter coats and boots, reached to the back and pulled out a whiteboard.

She propped it up on a chair in the sitting room, closed the curtains, and began to write.

She started at 6:30, when she and Victoria had entered the library and admired the Black Chair. Then, at 6:50, when Mrs. Lloyd had arrived about ten minutes early, she and Victoria had redraped the chair in its black shroud. And to the best of her knowledge, that was the last time anyone in the house had seen it—except, of course, the thieves. Two and a half hours later, about 9:30 or so, after the short concert in the sitting room while they’d had coffee and dessert, the guests had trooped into the library to view the chair. But when Emyr removed its protective cloth, the Black Chair had been replaced. So what had happened during the two and a half hours between when the chair was known to be there and the discovery that it was missing?

She scribbled some more, then stepped back to examine her timeline.

At approximately 7:45 P.M., the guests crossed the downstairs hall to progress from the sitting room to the dining room, and about five minutes after that, when they were seated, the door separating the dining room from the hall was closed. About ten minutes after that, Lane came down the corridor and entered the sitting room to clear away the remains of canapés and drinks. He took his time, stopping to examine Victoria’s harp. About 8:10 or 8:15, he dropped the tray in the corridor. And that was when he met the person or persons who threatened him.

By 8:20, the starter course was over, and the dining room table was cleared. A few minutes later, just before service of the main course was about to begin, Gwennie realised that Rhodri was missing.

So the window of opportunity for the theft of the chair—assuming it was related to the death of Rhodri Phillips—must have been between, say, eight ten, when someone spoke to Lane in the corridor, and 8:30, when Rhodri was missing. Penny circled the times, then replaced the cap on the marker and set it in on its ledge. She went to the kitchen, poured herself a glass of wine, and returned to the sitting room, where she contemplated the whiteboard while she ran through all the events of the evening in her mind, picturing every situation and replaying conversations.