Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryham

tell her soon. Then he said he would make a new will, leaving me the Stubbs, and that way I could sell it and be free of my husband.’
    ‘So there was another will!’ cried Agatha.
    Lizzie shook her head. ‘I don’t think so. He said he’d made a new will on one of those do-it-yourself will forms from the stationer’s, but why would he do that when, as far as he knew, he might outlive me?’
    ‘But don’t you see,’ said Agatha, excited. ‘Say he did make out another will and Lucy found it; she may have stolen the Stubbs herself to make sure you didn’t get it.’
    ‘You haven’t told us yet why you still go to that flat in Norwich and dress up,’ said Charles.
    She gave a pathetic little smile. ‘The flat’s paid up until the end of the year. You know how some transvestites parade around as women and that’s all they do. I’m rather like that. Just for a little bit, I feel different, like I did with Tolly.’
    ‘You must have been devastated by his death,’ said Charles.
    ‘At first I was terrified my husband had done it, but he’s got such a temper, he would have let me know I had been found out. I was shocked and frightened by the murder, but the truth was that I think Tolly was just using me. I am related to the Earl of Hadshire on my mother’s side of the family, and latterly all Tolly wanted was for me to engineer an invitation for him. I think the affair would have ended soon. At first I thought it was love because it’s been years since I felt like a woman, but then there were all the excuses about how he couldn’t tell Lucy just yet. I think he didn’t want a divorce because of the alimony. He really didn’t want her to get anything, and of course, he never expected to die so soon. Please don’t tell the police any of this.’
    ‘We won’t,’ said Charles. ‘But just suppose we somehow find the new will. Suppose we find the Stubbs. The police will have to know.’
    ‘In that case it wouldn’t matter. I’d just leave and stay with my sister until the Stubbs was sold at auction. I should have left before, but that money would give me the courage to do it.’
    ‘Haven’t you any money of your own?’ asked Agatha.
    ‘I’m afraid what little I have has nearly got used up secretly buying clothes.’
    ‘When we saw you going up to the flat, you were carrying a suitcase. Why didn’t you just leave your good clothes at the flat?’
    ‘I keep some at home in an old chest in my bedroom. We have separate bedrooms. He never looks in mine. I like to have some nice things by me.’
    ‘Won’t he let you wear pretty things?’
    ‘No, he always finds fault with me. I think he likes me to look dowdy.’ Lizzie flashed a shy smile at Charles. ‘You men!’
    Agatha bristled. Was this Lizzie as downtrodden and innocent as she seemed?
    ‘Do you want a drink?’ she asked. Charles raised his eyebrows in surprise because Agatha had barked out the offer.
    ‘Oh, no, I must be getting back. So good of you both not to expose me.’ She stood up and smiled mistily at Charles, who said gallantly, ‘I’ll get your coat.’
    He saw Lizzie out and came back into the sitting-room and surveyed Agatha, who was scowling into the flames.
    ‘What got into you?’ he asked.
    ‘You may not have noticed, but Mrs Oh-So-Innocent Findlay was beginning to flirt with you.’
    ‘Come on, Aggie, she’s just a comfortable old-fashioned type of woman.’
    ‘Keep on thinking along those lines and you’ll soon be getting a closer look at those French knickers she bought.’
    ‘So crude! If we all come back as something, Aggie, I swear you’ll come back as a squashed fly on someone’s windscreen. Stop bitching, and let’s have a look at what we’ve got. Now, say Tolly made that new will – forget about the murder – and Lucy pinched the Stubbs. What would she do with it?’
    ‘You forget. She gets the insurance money. She can burn it if she likes.’
    ‘Right, so she can. But unless she murdered him, she wouldn’t know she was going to inherit anything soon. So where do we go from here? Do you know, I feel guilty about Lizzie.’
    ‘Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for her faded charms.’
    ‘I mean, I’m feeling guilty about us promising not to tell the police about that other will. Look at all the manpower they’ve got. Tolly would need to get two people to witness that will. I wonder who they were.’
    ‘We’ve forgotten about Paul Redfern, the gamekeeper.’
    ‘That’s true. If Tolly