about the time, and even wrote it down. It was twenty-three-ten hours. Are you getting all this, Joe?’
‘I am. Carry on.’
‘He saw Felicity being attacked by another person. I repeat, Felicity was attacked. He saw the two of them fighting for several seconds and while he can’t be sure about this, he though the other person had a knife. He—’
‘Was this Dora?’ Joe asks.
‘Don’t interrupt me, Joe. He tried to call down but the window only opened a couple of inches. Health and safety regs. While he was wondering what to do, a third person appeared, this one answering the description of Dora Hardwick. Dora appeared to be trying to intervene. At this point, our witness decided to run outside, but by the time he got there, all three of them had vanished. He saw what he thought might be the woman in the white dress some distance away and ran after her but he lost track. When he got back to the place where he’d seen the fight, there was no sign of anyone. Are you still with me? Over.’
‘I am. Did he report it? And do we have any idea who the third person was?’
‘He didn’t report it. He just assumed it was a quarrel that had been settled. And his description of the third party is vague. Young, possibly white, dressed in dark casual clothes and wearing a backpack, but could have been male or female. Joe, would it be in character for Dora to intervene in a fight? Over.’
‘Yes.’ Joe can feel the back of his throat stinging. ‘She was fearless.’
‘The key thing is that Felicity does not seem to have been the aggressor. And she was seen running away. She couldn’t have put Dora’s body in the drain. Why the hell she didn’t tell us this and save us all some time—’
‘She couldn’t,’ Joe says. ‘She wasn’t Felicity. She was one of the alters. She would have no memory of it.’
‘Felicity didn’t kill anyone?’ Ralph asks. ‘Let me talk to her.’ He grabs the transmitter. ‘Delilah, love, are you saying Felicity didn’t kill this old dear? Over.’
‘I’m saying the situation is becoming more complicated. Now, put my son back on.’
Joe takes the transmitter back. ‘We need to find out who this other person is,’ he says. ‘Could it have been Freddie?’
‘We know he was in Cambridge that night, but the description doesn’t fit. According to our witness, the aggressor was five-four or five-five at most and a very slim build. And he or she moved like a young person. Felicity’s dad is said to be well over six foot.’
‘So who the hell—’
‘Hold that thought, because there’s more. The team are at Peterhouse College now. They finally got permission to excavate the drain. They’ve cleared the way into the old cellars and found evidence that someone was living in them.’
‘Living in the cellars?’
‘Sleeping bag, blankets, remains of food packaging. Someone was definitely bedding down in there, crawling in and out through the drain.’
‘Dora?’ Joe says. He can’t see it. She was too old, too frail.
There is a frustrating crackle of static and then his mother says,
‘Not necessarily. They’ve found another body.’
85
Freddie
Freddie is on the point of heading back up the glacier when he spots the RIB coming into harbour at Husvik. He lifts his binoculars and sees the three men and one woman. He is tempted to go down, attract their attention, wait for them. Five people will have a much better chance of rescuing Felicity than he will alone, but he cannot leave her for any longer than he has to.
He goes back into the equipment hut and looks around. There, on a shelf at head height, is a canvas bag of small flags, no doubt used to mark positions on the ice. There is a hammer in the bag too. He slings it over his shoulder and leaves the hut door open before starting to climb again. The daylight makes it easier this time, and he can follow his own footsteps in the snow for most of the way. Twenty yards up, he hammers a yellow flag into the ice and carries on. Another twenty yards, and he leaves another flag, a red one this time. Each time he stops, he looks down towards Husvik but the team from King Edward Point have gone inside the manager’s villa.
The glacier shifts again before he is halfway back but this time he is ready for it. He has fastened crampons onto his boots and carries twin