Alice-Miranda and Dolly Oliver arrived home armed with some remarkable findings.

‘Mummy, are you here?’ Alice-Miranda called as the lift opened into the hallway. ‘Daddy, are you home?’

But the apartment was silent.

‘Come along, dear, why don’t you go and have a bath and hop into your pyjamas and I’ll make us something to eat. I’m sure your parents will be home soon enough.’

‘I wish I had Lucinda’s telephone number.’ Alice-Miranda looked at Dolly. ‘I have to tell her what we found out.’

‘I don’t think Morrie Finkelstein would appreciate your call, dear, and I suspect the Finkelsteins would have a private number anyway. Perhaps you could write to her instead.’

Alice-Miranda nodded. ‘That’s exactly what I’ll do. And then I’ll write some more postcards to Millie and Jacinta and everyone back at school as well.’

‘After your bath, all right?’ Dolly instructed.

Alice-Miranda nodded and ran to her room.

Dolly walked through the hall and into the kitchen where she saw the light on the telephone blinking. She pressed the button to listen to the messages.

‘Hello Dolly, hello darling, Mummy here. I’m so sorry but I’ve got to entertain some important suppliers tonight. Morrie Finkelstein has done some serious damage this afternoon. He’s very cross with me. I think I made a big mistake telling him that you and Lucinda were friends and now he’s even more determined to ruin us. But don’t worry – Mummy’s made of sterner stock than that. I hope you had a lovely afternoon with Dolly. Now run a bath and hop into your PJs and I’m sure that Dolly will make you something yummy to eat. Love you. Oh, and Daddy’s joining me a little later. He had some business back at the store so he won’t need any supper either.’

Dolly opened the refrigerator and pulled out four eggs.

‘Boiled eggs and toasty soldiers will do us just fine this evening,’ she said to herself.

She took a saucepan from the drawer and was filling it with water when the telephone rang.

‘Hello, Dolly Oliver speaking,’ she answered. ‘Hello Ambrose, dear, how wonderful to hear from you. Yes, yes, all going well. Keeping very busy. And what about you?’ Dolly pulled up a stool and settled in for a long chat.

Alice-Miranda decided against a bath and instead hopped into the shower for a quick scrub. She dried herself off, pulled on her pyjamas and shoved her feet into her slippers. Outside her bedroom she saw that there was a light on in her father’s study and wondered if he had arrived home while she was in the shower.

She skipped to the end of the corridor and knocked gently on the door.

‘Daddy,’ she called. ‘Are you there?’ Alice-Miranda turned the handle and poked her head inside. Her father was nowhere to be seen. She was about to leave when something caught her eye. It looked like a letter and it was lying untidily in the middle of the floor as if perhaps her father had dropped it on his way out. She opened the door and walked inside, scooped the letter up and placed it carefully on the vast desk beside an ancient leather-bound book. She couldn’t help noticing a couple of notes, in her father’s own handwriting, hastily scrawled onto a notepad.

Painting in Met – how did it get there?

Xavier alive?

Where is he?

And there was a newspaper cutting too. Alice-Miranda picked it up. It was a death notice for Arabella Grace Kennington-Jones and Xavier Edward Kennington-Jones. Her grandmother and uncle.

Her mind buzzed. Xavier had been killed in the same accident that had claimed her granny, hadn’t he? But why did her father write Xavier alive? She wondered if it was possible that her father’s brother wasn’t dead after all these years.

Alice-Miranda ran her fingers over the leather-bound book beside her father’s note. She opened the cover. Tucked inside was another much smaller book.

‘Wow!’ Alice-Miranda exclaimed to herself. ‘That’s beautiful.’ She studied the illustrations closely, smiling at the surprising details.

Something tugged at Alice-Miranda’s memory.

‘Oh my goodness!’

It was no wonder her father had been so distracted these past few days. Alice-Miranda bit her lip. It seemed that everyone had a mystery to be solved.