'Why do you really want to go? You've got some other reason, haven't you?'

'There is someone who knows too much about one.'

'So you have got another reason?'

'Not a real one.'

'Come on, Tuppence. You're not really so fond of turning over people's belongings.'

'That, I think, is my duty,' said Tuppence firmly. 'No, the only other reason is-'

'Come on. Cough it up.'

'I'd rather like to see that-that other old pussy again.'

'What, the one who thought there was a dead child behind the fireplace?'

'Yes,' said Tuppence. 'I'd like to talk to her again. I'd like to know what was in her mind when she said all those things. Was it something she remembered or was it something that she'd just imagined? The more I think about it the more extraordinary it seems. Is it a sort of story that she wrote to herself in her mind or is there-was there once-something real that happened about a fireplace or about a dead child. What made her think that the dead child might have been my dead child? Do I look as though I had a dead child?'

'I don't know how you expect anyone to look who has a dead child,' said Tommy. 'I shouldn't have thought so. Anyway, Tuppence, it is our duty to go and you can enjoy yourself in your macabre way on the side. So that's settled. We'll write to Miss Packard and fix a day.'

Chapter 4. Picture of a House

Tuppence drew a deep breath.

'It's just the same,' she said.

She and Tommy were standing on the front doorstep of Sunny Ridge.