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into the room where Avril Jarvis stood alongside a table and chair. She was not wearing handcuffs, but bracelets of raw skin on her wrists suggested that a pair had been removed after she had been brought into the secure room. Chalmers stood beside the door. Jarvis was dressed in a plain gray dress of prison issue and plain black lace-up shoes. Her hair had been drawn back sharply in a bun and her face and hands appeared to have been scrubbed roughly. She smiled as Maisie entered, but then her eyes filled with tears. She took a step toward Maisie, but Chalmers moved quickly. The girl was, after all, detained on suspicion of murder.
    “It’s all right, Chalmers.” Maisie held up a hand and turned to Avril, who collapsed into her arms. She said nothing but allowed the girl to weep.
    “I’m scared, miss. I’m right scared.”
    “Of course you are, of course you are. Now then.” Maisie held Avril Jarvis away from her but kept her hands on the girl’s upper arms, so she could feel the benefit of Maisie’s strength. “The Detective Inspector is waiting outside, and so is your solicitor. Avril? Avril, look at me.” Maisie lifted the girl’s chin, for she had tried to rest her head on Maisie’s shoulder. She’s exhausted . “Come on now, Avril, look at me. All you have to do is tell the same story that you told me yesterday.”
    Avril Jarvis wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and sniffed. “Yes, miss, all right.”
    Maisie looked into her eyes deeply and smiled knowingly. But you didn’t tell me everything, did you, dear girl. “Take a deep breath…yes, that’s it. And another…. And again…. Shake your hands like this…. Good. Now then, stand with your hands at your sides, keep them loose, and”—Maisie walked behind the girl and pressed her fingertips into the middle of Jarvis’s slender back—“let this go.”
    Avril Jarvis gasped and almost fell forward, feeling the tension in her spine escape as Maisie touched her. “That felt like burning, it did, miss. As if your hands was on fire. Like a hot poker going through me, it was.”
    Maisie nodded. “Keep your feet firmly on the floor, Avril, and stand tall, but not like a lamppost!”
    Stratton entered without knocking, accompanied by Caldwell and Charles Little.
    “Right, Miss Jarvis, let’s get down to business. This need not be long and miserable if you cooperate and answer my questions. Then Mr. Little here will be able to speak to you alone—with only the policewoman in the room, that is.”
    “What about this lady?” Avril pointed to Maisie. “Can she stay?”
    Maisie stepped forward. “No, Avril, I have to leave you with your solicitor. It’s for the best, and it’s also the law.”
    “But—”
    Maisie turned to Stratton. “I think Miss Jarvis is ready.” She smiled at Jarvis and nodded.
    The questioning of Avril Jarvis continued for a good two hours. Following the interrogation, Maisie waited to speak to Charles Little, who left the room anxious to return to his office.
    “Mr. Little, may I have a word?”
    “Oh, Miss Dobbs.” He looked at his watch. “I have barely a moment. I’m sorry, but I really am very busy.”
    “I have only one question: Do you know whom you will brief to act as counsel for Miss Jarvis?”
    Little sighed. “Well, clearly she’s on a sticky wicket. She needs a legal miracle worker to get her out of this mess, and even with the assistance available to those with no funds, she’ll not have access to the caliber of counsel I would like to brief on her behalf.”
    “I see.”
    “Well, then. I must be off. Cheerio, Miss Dobbs.”
    Maisie watched the young solicitor leave and shook her head. A legal miracle worker . She walked slowly toward the police constable who would summon Stratton’s driver to take her back to Fitzroy Square. So be it.

FIVE
    Maisie looked over the three pages of notes written in Billy’s large curved handwriting and smiled. His deliberate forming of letters, large, like