DETECTIVE INSPECTOR Joseph Rafferty, dragged from a sound sleep to take over the investigation on a day he had elected to give himself a late start, had decided to use the study of the Egertons’ late patriarch, Thomas Egerton, for the interviews. Dahlia Sullivan, the housekeeper, had told them it was a room that was seldom used any more, so they could call it theirs for as long as necessary.
Rafferty sat in the high-backed maroon leather chair behind the imposing mahogany desk and surveyed his temporary domain with satisfaction. ‘The family’s clearly not short of a bob or two,’ he said to Sergeant Dafyd Llewellyn. ‘According to the housekeeper, this house belonged to the victim. Reckon one of them bumped the old lady off for her money?’
‘We don’t know yet that she was “bumped off”, as yo
