Murder Most Royal

He was a widower, and he said he knew she would be sympathetic, which she was, but he didn’t think his family would understand. He swore her to secrecy and she felt she was doing the right thing by not betraying his trust. It never occurred to her that he might actually be the person we were looking for.’

‘I see. I didn’t know Ely was a hotspot for such activities,’ the Queen noted.

‘It isn’t, any more than anywhere else, ma’am. But she was hardly going to check that out. Meanwhile, he was letting himself into St Cyr’s house with the man’s own keys, using his phone and his computer to create the sense that St Cyr had been there, and packing a bag.

We haven’t found much DNA at Abbottswood – not more than could be accounted for by a casual visit, which Mundy admitted to. But Mundy had ordered hairnets, plastic caps, surgical gloves, the works, on his computer. He had planned this, ma’am. Planned it down to the last detail. It’s the only way he could have done it. And he didn’t slip up once. ’

‘Well, there were always the—’ The Queen stopped herself and smiled. ‘Didn’t he? Not once?’

‘No. He gave the impression of bumbling – that was the clever thing – but in fact there was a sharp mind and endless research and preparation. He made sure he picked a day when Abbottswood would otherwise be empty, and the fiancée was abroad. He even took a broken phone charger up to London with him, so it would look natural that St Cyr’s phone had run out of power. Otherwise, it would have looked strange that he wasn’t using it at this mysterious meeting of his the next day.

In fact, Mundy must have ditched it as soon as he’d used it to text Miss Westover. After that, he raced for home. We’ve checked the train times. It was just doable. We’d always suspected someone else might have been at the flat. The issue that bothered us was how the killer got St Cyr out of it and what they did with the body. But Mundy didn’t have to worry about that. The body was already where he needed it to be. ’

‘And where was that?’ the Queen asked, though having seen a flapping tarpaulin at the hall, she thought she knew.

‘In one of the medieval rooms that was undergoing building work at Ladybridge Hall, ma’am. The windows were partially open to the elements. The perfect place to store a body in winter: cool and ventilated, like birds in a game larder. Forensics suggest it was wrapped in plastic and hidden behind some building equipment.