He held her gaze for a moment longer, then reached past her and opened the library door.
Her father rose as they entered. So, too, did Cedric. Jonas was standing by the long windows.
"My dear!" Sir Jasper came forward, hands outstretched, concern very evident in his face.
Phyllida put her hands in his. "Papa." She returned his kiss. "I'm feeling much better, and I really should tell you what happened." Her voice was as raspy as Lucifer's.
"Humph!" Sir Jasper looked at her, shaggy brows drawn down. "You're quite sure you're up to it?"
"Quite sure." Retaking Lucifer's arm, she allowed him to steer her to the chaise. She nodded to Cedric.
Handing her to the chaise, Lucifer murmured, "I thought Cedric should be here-there are points he might be able to help us with."
Phyllida nodded and settled back. Before she could blink, Lucifer lifted her ankles and swung her feet up. Previously, she'd have glared and swung them back down. Now she just wriggled into a more comfortable position.
"Well, then." Clearing his throat, her father sat in a nearby chair. "If you're determined to explain it tonight, we'd better start, heh?"
"Perhaps"-Lucifer took the chair beside the chaise-"to save Phyllida's throat, I could fill in the background, then she need only describe the events only she knows."
Sir Jasper turned his gaze expectantly to Lucifer. Cedric, in another armchair, did the same. Jonas held to his position by the windows, his attention fixed on Lucifer.
Lucifer settled back. "To begin, there are some elements in our investigations which concern others not implicated in Horatio's murder or the subsequent attacks on Phyllida, but to whom we, Phyllida and I, owe a certain measure of confidentiality." He looked at Sir Jasper. "If you will accept some of our discoveries without detailed explanations of how we made them, then we can preserve those confidentialities without prejudicing our account."
Every inch the magistrate, Sir Jasper nodded. "Sometimes that's the way of things. If mentioning unnecessary details will trouble someone who has done no wrong, then there's no need for me to know."
Lucifer nodded. "On that basis, then. Phyllida saw a hat at the murder scene soon after the murder, but later that hat disappeared. Bristleford and the Hemmingses never saw it. It was not Horatio's. When the attacks on Phyllida became obvious and concerted, she concluded that the hat would identify the murderer-or so the murderer believes. There's nothing else Phyllida knows that could explain the murderer's interest in her."
"Did Phyllida recognize the hat?" Sir Jasper asked.
Lucifer shook his head. "She has no idea whose hat it is, but even though she has obviously not remembered-given she's raised no hue and cry-as evidenced by his continued attacks on her, the murderer's convinced she will, at some point, recall, and she's therefore a continuing threat to him."
"How did the murderer know Phyl had seen the hat?"
The question came from Jonas; Lucifer turned to look at him. "We don't know. We can only assume that, from hiding, he saw her take note of it."
Turning back to Sir Jasper and Cedric, Lucifer continued. "Phyllida kept her eyes open for the hat-a brown one. Simultaneously, I was pursuing the idea that something in Horatio's library was behind his death. For instance, some information hidden in a book that the murderer wished to hide. We found such information. Unexpectedly, we also found the brown hat.
"Both the information and the brown hat led us to Cedric, but when we confronted him with both, it was quickly proved that he wasn't the murderer. The hat didn't fit, and the information wasn't as vital as it had seemed. Cedric also has a solid alibi for the time when Horatio was killed. We established all that yesterday, by which time it was evening.
"This morning, before church, Phyllida received this note." Lucifer drew the note from his pocket and handed it to Sir Jasper. Sir Jasper read it, then, his expression hardening, passed it to Cedric.
Sir Jasper looked at Phyllida. "So you didn't have a headache?"
Phyllida colored and shook her head. "Molly asked for no one to know. I got Jonas to take me to the Manor, intending to show only Lucifer and have him escort me to the cottage."
"But I wasn't there-I'd gone to look for Phyllida."
"I assumed," Phyllida said, "that the note was genuine, so when Lucifer wasn't at the Manor, I went on to the cottage alone, reasoning that I'd be safe, as the murderer could not know I was out, walking that way."
Cedric handed the note back to Sir Jasper. "Whoever wrote it, it wasn't Molly. She's in Truro visiting her family, and, on top of that, the girl doesn't read or write much above a few words. Mama's forever lamenting that she has to make the lists of stuffs to buy herself."
"So," Lucifer continued, "someone wrote the note making sure it looked innocuous, unthreatening, but also believable. Phyllida knew Molly; we'd found the hat near the back of Ballyclose Manor. No one saw who left the note here-Jonas checked with the staff indoors and out."
Sir Jasper humphed. "Whoever he is, he's clever and very careful not to be seen."
"Which suggests," Jonas put in, "that if he was seen, most people would know who he was."
Lucifer nodded. "My thoughts exactly. It's someone widely known in the village. That's inescapable."