Chapter 13: The Inspector

I was off his lap and had the zip halfway up my back before the door had finished opening.

Clement stood and buttoned his shirt with one hand, and put himself between the door and me.

Nobody spoke.

Honoria's eyes went over the room once: the chest, his coat on the rail, my knickers on the stone by the sink.

Then she turned to the inspector, as if she had found exactly what she came for.

"Inspector, this is Mr Ardley," she said. "He has held the keys to this church all week, because I gave them to him.

"The cable over the altar was cut, and he was the only member of my staff who was near it."

"I was near it because I was running to her," Clement said.

"You see?" Honoria said. "He admits it."

The inspector was a heavy man with a pink neck and a tired face.

He did not look at me, and that told me what he had been promised.

"Clement Ardley," he said, "I'm arresting you on suspicion of criminal damage with intent to endanger life. You do not have to say anything."

Clement held out his wrists.

He did it at once, without a word, and I knew what he was thinking about.

A fight in a church would cost him a care home bed in Surrey.

"He didn't cut it," I said. "I did."

The inspector stopped with the cuffs half out.

"Thea, darling," Honoria said.

"I cut it at eight this morning with my restoring knife.

"I climbed the gallery stairs and sawed through it, because I wanted this rehearsal stopped."

"Miss Marchbanks," the inspector said slowly, "you're telling me you sabotaged a light rig that nearly killed you?"