‘Are these manually activated?’ he asked, testing her.

‘Time switch again,’ she said.

‘But you can override it if you want to?’

‘Of course.’

‘Shall we see?’

‘Whatever for?’

‘To guarantee it works.’

‘Why?’

‘I would have thought that was obvious.’

‘We weren’t advised this would be necessary.’

‘I’ve only just decided it is. Bells that don’t ring aren’t an awful lot of good, are they?’

‘These work.’

‘Have you tested them?’

She moved her feet, uncomfortably. ‘No.’

‘So we’ll check, shall we?’

‘But people will have to be warned: one alarm sounds directly into the local police station.’

‘You’d better warn them, hadn’t you?’

‘Are you sure it’s necessary?’

‘Positive.’

She turned on her heel and flounced out, leaving him in what he supposed was a drawing room. Over the marble fire-place, the unspeakable in hunting pink pursued the unseen uneatable. The English scene seemed curiously out of place among the classical ornaments and carvings, which Charlie supposed were genuine. There was no sense that anyone ever visited the room except to dust. He ran his finger along the top of a side-table. They did that well enough. It was fifteen minutes before Jane Williams returned.

‘Are you ready?’ she said.

‘If you are.’

Her face was expressionless. ‘What do you want?’

‘Is the alarm set?’

‘Yes.’

‘The police warned?’

‘Yes. I told them we’d be testing for an hour and they were to ignore it during that time.’

Charlie went to the main entrance, first triggering the alarm by opening the door and then by stepping on the pressure pad. On both occasions, the alarm jangled piercingly. He repeated the process at every other entry point and at the French doors. The protection operated every time.