THE HOUSE AT SEA’S END

had a heart attack, found the next morning. I filed a report.’ Slightly defensively.
    ‘The stairlift stopped halfway up. You didn’t think that was odd?’
    ‘The warden thought it must have malfunctioned. Or the old boy pressed the wrong button by mistake. There were no suspicious circumstances.’ Definitely defensive.
    ‘What happened to Hugh Anselm’s stuff? His belongings?’
    ‘I don’t know. I presumed next-of-kin took them.’ Clough looks curious now. ‘What’s this all about, boss?’
    ‘Probably nothing.’
    ‘Is there a link to old man Whitcliffe?’
    That’s the trouble with Clough. He’s not as thick as he looks.
    ‘Possibly. They were both in the Home Guard, and before he died Hugh Anselm wrote a letter to a German military historian. He said something had happened in 1940 that had haunted him all his life. A “great wrong” he called it.’
    ‘Do you think it was the murder of our six chums?’ The team now know that the dead men were almost certainly German. Nelson has heard Clough calling them ‘the Nazi boy band’.
    ‘I don’t know and now there’s no-one left to ask.’
    ‘Suspicious,’ says Clough happily.
    ‘Yes.’
    Clough is on his way out when Nelson calls him back. ‘Cloughie, what do you know about
Countdown
?’
    ‘
Countdown
, boss? It’s a quiz programme. Teatime TV. For the oldies. It’s a word game. Dictionary corner and all that.’
    ‘The sort of thing someone who liked crosswords would enjoy?’
    ‘I suppose so.’
    Because Nelson had identified the thought that was nagging at him. Archie’s newspaper, folded back at his day’s viewing.
Countdown, Coronation Street, Panorama
, an afternoon film matinee of
Went the Day Well?
    When Clough has gone, he googles
Went the Day Well?
    ‘Chilling classic,’ he reads, ‘imagining the brutal Nazi invasion of a sleepy English village.’

CHAPTER 14
     
    ‘We gather today to bless a child.
    A new life that has become part of our world.
    We gather today to name this child.
    To call a thing by name is to give it power,
    and so today we shall give this child a gift.
    We will welcome her into our hearts and lives
    and bless her with a name of her own.’
    Cathbad is in full swing. He made a bonfire in the back garden and placed a trestle table in front of it. He then put a goblet of wine and a bowl of olive oil on the table and has invited the guests to form a ring around the fire.
    Ruth, carrying Kate in her blue snow suit, follows him rather reluctantly. She had been surprised to see how many people turned up for the naming day party. Tatjana, of course, was already in residence and was quickly chatting to Phil about Arlington Springs Woman. As well as Phil there was Shona, Cathbad’s friend Freya from the modern languages department, Trace and Clough, Ted, Judy and, surprisingly, Dieter Eckhart and Clara Hastings.
    ‘I met Cathbad at the university,’ explained Dieter. ‘He invited me. I hope you don’t mind.’
    ‘Why should I mind?’ said Ruth, rather sulkily. Cathbad can hardly know Dieter, who is doing some research in the history department, very well. Ruth suspects him of extending the invitation to annoy Phil, who might be jealous of Dieter’s academic reputation (and his good looks). What is more surprising is how close Dieter and Clara seem, armin-arm, laughing warmly over shared jokes, speaking in German together. He has only been here a few days after all.
    ‘Clara’s been a great help to me,’ Dieter explained. ‘Telling me many stories of local history.’ He gave Ruth a rather meaningful look.
    Clara laughed. ‘And I’ve been practising my German. I spent a year in Germany before going to uni but I’m awfully rusty. I wish I’d worked harder at school now.’
    ‘I bet you were the model pupil,’ said Dieter with a smouldering look.
    ‘Oh, I was useless,’ said Clara carelessly. ‘I was expelled from two schools.’
    Well, Dieter was certainly making every effort to help Clara catch up, retiring with her into a corner of Ruth’s sitting room and managing, with clever body language, to block out the rest of the company altogether.
    To her surprise, Ruth found that she was enjoying the party. It’s been a long time since she had so many people in her house and, since Cathbad and Freya provided the food and drink, it’s hardly a strain on her as hostess, though she had trouble finding enough plates and glasses (Cloughis drinking from a Winnie the Pooh mug and Phil is