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ring?”
    “She asked me to keep it for her,” Veronica said.
    “Lily, you mean? Lily asked you to wear her wedding ring? I don’t believe it.” I turned to her brother. “Mr Cream, did you even notice that your sister is wearing your wife’s wedding ring today?”
    Geoffrey Cream blinked and said nothing. His sister’s lip curled at the edge and a throaty whisper echoed somewhere deep in her chest. “It was Mother’s ring, not some stranger’s. It didn’t belong to her.”
    “You took it from her?” Geoffrey said.
    “It was meant to be mine. Lily didn’t belong here. It’s always been the two of us and we’ve been happy.”
    “What did you do, Veronica?” I said.
    “She gave me the ring.”
    “Lily went to her room to freshen up after the wedding,” I said. “And you visited her there, didn’t you, Veronica? Did you tell her that Geoffrey didn’t love her? What else did you say to her? That he belonged to you?”
    “I said nothing that wasn’t true.” I could see the hate in her eyes. It looked more natural than her smile had.
    “You couldn’t stand to share your brother with another woman, could you?”
    “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But the fire had gone out of her. Her brother tried to catch her eye, but she looked away from him at the shelves of books.
    “It must have bothered you when Geoffrey started seeing her. You controlled your emotions, but last night . . .
    “You two have been sharing this house since your father died,” I said. “You’ve settled into a routine here and Lily threatened everything, didn’t she?”
    “I barely spoke to her.”
    “You choked her.”
    Veronica looked worried for the first time. “We disagreed,” she said.
    “You must have nearly killed her.”
    “I touched her, that’s all. She was so fragile, there was nothing to her.”
    “Why would you choke her? And why wait until last night?”
    Veronica’s eyes flicked over to her brother and I realized.
Turn back, turn back, you pretty thing
. “They would have consummated their marriage,” I said. “That’s why, isn’t it? That’s why you finally attacked her.”
    Veronica swallowed hard and closed her eyes and I knew I was right. My stomach turned.
    “What’s he saying, Veronica?” Geoffrey said. “What did you do to Lily?”
    “You’re hardly blameless, Mr Cream,” I said.
    “I didn’t kill anyone.”
    “I think she loved you. Letting her believe you loved her back was most unkind.”
    “You didn’t know her.”
    He was right. I felt angry and I felt uncomfortable, and I wasn’t certain if it was because the Creams loved each other too much or because they hadn’t loved the blue girl. She had been cruelly used by them and she had taken her own life. Someone needed to bear the responsibility for that. Someone needed to care.
    “You know what must have happened. Maybe she met someone, a ruffian.” I looked at Veronica, but there was nothing human left in her eyes. “But I think Lily threw herself into the canal. Because your sister made it so very clear that she wasn’t welcome here. You inspired her to take her own life.”
    “None of this constitutes a crime, even if it were true,” Veronica said. “And you’ve no proof of any of it.”
    “But I do. I had proof the minute I laid eyes on Geoffrey, sitting here in yesterday’s clothing. The same clothing you were married in, isn’t that right?”
    “What does that have to do with . . .”
    “Marriage is the family business, isn’t it? I mean wasn’t your father an expert?”
    “I’m sorry?”
    “
Marriage, Custom and Practise
,” I said. I pointed to the library copy on Geoffrey’s desk. “Written by Robert Cream.”
    “My father wrote many things.”
    “I see that. How many of those did he write?” I gestured at the sea of marbled cardboard on the wall. “But this is the one that mattered to Lily.”
    I took the copy I had borrowed from the pocket of my overcoat and