It was crowded in the refreshment rooms, but Tom had already secured a table and was waiting for her. He stood up as soon as he saw her approaching, doffed his hat and pulled out a chair for her.
‘It’s counter service, I’m afraid,’ he said. ‘What can I get you? The teacakes are unexpectedly good. A generous size and plenty of fruit.’
‘Just tea will be lovely, thank you.’
When he returned, carrying a cup and saucer in each hand, he asked a little anxiously, ‘Is everything all right? You’re not in any danger, are you?’
‘Goodness, no. I just wanted to bring you up to date and talk things over with you.’
‘But I thought you said we weren’t to meet one another?’
‘This is just a brief stop for a cup of tea and the exchange of a book in a completely public place,’ Fran said. ‘I really don’t see how somewhere as utterly unromantic as the refreshment rooms of a railway station could possibly be interpreted as an improper meeting. Who ever heard of anything romantic happening in a station refreshment room?’ As she spoke she glanced around, taking in the woman who was dispensing stewed tea from a huge metal urn on the counter and the variety of travellers, sitting at the surrounding tables, some consuming the ubiquitous ham sandwiches or rock buns which were always to be had in such places, others stringing out a solitary cup of tea, glancing every now and then at their watches or at the huge black-and-white clock which hung on the wall behind the counter, above the shelves and shelves of crockery.
‘Unlike a clifftop shelter,’ Tom agreed. ‘I’m sorry about that. It was entirely my fault. Anyway, you’ve got something exciting to tell me about. I can see it in your face.’
‘I’ve found the diamond. Well, no, to be absolutely honest, it simply fell into my lap in an entirely unexpected way.’
After a single exclamation of surprise and congratulation, Tom listened intently, only occasionally interrupting with a quick question as Fran brought him completely up to date.
‘So,’ he said eventually, ‘there is just the possibility that the old man really had lost the plot.’
‘What do you mean? Why?’
‘Well, he could have hidden the diamond there as Imogen thought he had, then become confused about his direction and pushed himself over the cliffs.’
‘Not a chance,’ said Fran emphatically. ‘I’ve thought that through and absolutely dismissed it. If we can be sure of anything, it’s that the one person who certainly did not put the diamond on that ledge was old Mr Edgerton. He couldn’t have reached up to the ledge from his wheelchair, and even if he could have stood up momentarily to do it, he would never have got that far in the first place, because the path to the grotto is far too steep and narrow. I’ve looked at the place from all angles and there’s no way it is accessible for anyone in a wheelchair.’
‘I see.’ Tom was silent for a moment, revising his mental picture of events. ‘I suppose we can’t be sure that the diamond and the death are linked at all.’
‘No, strictly speaking we can’t. We know that the diamond was discovered by Imogen on the same afternoon that her grandfather died, which is suggestive, but that doesn’t mean it was definitely put there that day.’
‘But you’ve also got the fact that Imogen heard someone walking along the path, coming from the direction of the cliffs, back towards the house and not so very far from the grotto. Someone whose feet sounded a little bit louder than yours.’
‘We have to be careful not to read too much into that,’ Fran said. ‘First of all, we’re expecting her to compare two sounds she heard months and months apart, and secondly, the path may have sounded different in the summer. There had been a long dry spell in the summer, but it had rained quite a bit around the time when I walked along it. That might make a difference. It’s only a beaten earth path.’
‘Fair enough. The key thing is that no one admits to being the person who was walking through the woods that day.’
‘No. Miss Billington was looking for Imogen, but I’ve double checked with her and she says she didn’t go into the woods.’
‘Which sounds reasonable,’ said Tom. ‘From what I saw the other day, it’s a regular rabbit warren. There would have been no point trying to follow the kid in there.’
‘The trouble is that almost everyone appears to have an alibi. Though there’s no one to verify that Miss Billington didn’t go into the woods, or that Lady Louisa was really resting in her room. We don’t know how long Charles had on his own before he met up with Connie and Dolly seems to have had quite a long period unaccounted for. I suppose it’s even possible that Mellie took advantage of Miss Billington’s absence to slip away from the beach for a while. I haven’t interviewed any of the children apart from Imogen, so I have nothing to confirm that Mellie stayed down there the whole time.’
‘There’s also this business about the diamond actually being held in trust for someone else,’ said Tom. ‘What did the Edgertons make of that, d’you think?’
‘I don’t honestly know. They probably weren’t too bothered. Although the diamond is obviously valuable, they’re not exactly hard up.’
‘They didn’t much like the idea of losing it. I mean, isn’t that why they called us in, or rather called you in, in the first place?’
‘I think that may have been as much because the disappearance of the diamond threw doubt on the way their grandfather had died as because the thing had been lost. If someone had stolen the diamond from the old man’s room, while everyone else was out enjoying themselves at the beach, and old Mr Edgerton had been found at the bottom of the cliffs that evening, that would have suggested foul play, but that scenario doesn’t work so obviously if someone only hid the diamond in the grounds.’
‘I’m not so sure,’ Tom mused. ‘The person who hid the diamond wouldn’t have anticipated Imogen’s finding and removing it that same afternoon.’
‘But why would you do that? Only hide the diamond in the grounds, rather than making off with it altogether, I mean?’
‘Goodness only knows.’
‘I suppose there could be reasons …’ Fran began to answer her own question. ‘What if you shared a room with someone else and you didn’t want them to accidentally come across the stone? By hiding it out in the woods, you could choose your own time to come back and fetch it.’
‘So going back to this question of the actual ownership of the stone …’ Tom nudged her back on track.
‘The news that Mrs Headingham claims to have been told that it actually belonged to someone else didn’t exactly cause a furore. Mellie did question whether anyone would have anything in writing to prove ownership, but I expect they probably all thought deep down, as I did myself, that if no one has come forward to claim the diamond by now, then they’re probably never going to.’
‘How long had old Edgerton been in possession of it?’
‘More than fifty years, I think.’
‘His friend probably didn’t make it back home from Africa, or wherever they met up. I don’t suppose anyone else even knows about Edgerton having the diamond. And you haven’t been able to make anything of the French connection?’
‘Well, there is one tiny thing. Imogen’s governess, Miss Billington, speaks noticeably good French and when I asked her where she’d learned, she told me it was in France.’
‘And she’s one of the people who hasn’t got a solid alibi for the whole afternoon.’
They both fell silent for a moment, as a woman wearing a white wrap-around overall cleared away their tea cups and rather officiously wiped a couple of invisible spots from the wooden table.
‘I think we’ve outstayed our welcome,’ said Tom with a smile. ‘Unless of course, you’d like another cup?’
‘No, thanks; my train is due quite soon. There is one more thing I thought I ought to tell you.’ Fran hesitated. It wasn’t exactly part of the investigation, but somehow, it had to be said.
‘Go on.’
‘Eddie Edgerton has asked me to marry him.’
She had expected Tom to express surprise or remark that it was all rather sudden, but after a brief, excruciating silence, he attempted a smile and said, ‘And are congratulations in order?’
‘Of course not. I … I hardly know him.’
‘But you haven’t turned him down?’
‘He asked me not to give him an immediate answer, so I’ve promised that I’ll think about it.’
Tom momentarily looked down as if he had just discovered something of immense interest on the empty table. ‘His brother seems a jolly decent chap,’ he said, looking up again and meeting her eyes. ‘So I’m sure Eddie is too. You were dealt a rotten hand first time around and you deserve to find someone you can be happy with. He’s a very lucky man, if you’ll have him.’
Fran was about to say something else, but Tom stood up and lifted her suitcase. ‘Let me see you to the gate of your platform. You don’t want to be late for your train.’