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We were back upstairs in her wrecked parlour. The three women sat together on the settee, shaken but much better for having washed their faces and downed several cups of strong tea. Miss Decima sat opposite them, while the Ivys and I crowded the floor and Mr Benson marched around the back of the room, staring aghast at the walls and floor.

‘Bloody right, you can start with an explanation!’ he grumbled. ‘What are you doing, cutting into the panelling like that? I’ve got a mind to –’

‘Shut up,’ said all twenty-seven Ivys at the same time.

Theodora Gussett smiled weakly, her hand shaking as she held her saucer. ‘Thank you again. I can’t tell you how … trying this whole experience has been.’

‘Trying?’ muttered Éimhear. ‘That’s one word for pissing into a bucket for four days.’

‘I just can’t believe you’ve been hired by Mrs Pankhurst!’ Lavinia chimed in excitedly. ‘I say – do you think we might meet her, once this is all over?’

Éimhear and Theodora both gave Lavinia a look that suggested several days of her company had been even more trying than the bucket.

I walked around, refilling their cups. I couldn’t help but feel a little cowed by the developments of the last half-hour. Only a short while ago, I’d sworn blind that these women were guilty of murder. Now I was beginning to understand the truth – or, at least, to piece it together. Take Éimhear, for a start: after everything I’d heard about her scaring Lavinia and ordering about Theodora, I was expecting someone terrifying. As it turned out, she was just quite blunt. No wonder Miss Decima seemed to like her.

‘The ordeal is not over yet, my dears,’ said Miss Decima. ‘Far from it. At this moment in time, you are still wanted for the murder of Constable Watts. We have fewer than twenty-four hours to find the true killer, or far, far worse is yet to come.’

‘Perhaps,’ I said, bending down, ‘we should start with this.’

I picked up the carpet bag – the one I’d seen on the table in the trunk room. I’d almost had a heart attack when I spotted it, until I saw that it wasn’t filled with dynamite and hatpins. Just yards and yards of those purple, white and green ribbons.

‘That was our plan,’ said Lavinia sheepishly. ‘We were going to cover the statue with suffragette ribbons. I’d bought tons of the stuff the week before … had to bring back different colours each day hidden inside my cello case, so Ripley didn’t spot me. She caught me, of course – you can’t hide anything from that woman. She threatened to tell my parents about my attending WSPU meetings, but luckily I had an ace up my sleeve. I said that if she told my parents, I’d tell everyone what I’d overheard her saying on the telephone about stealing funds from the house to pay for materials for her horrid little anti-suffrage society! That certainly put her in her place, let me tell you.’

No wonder Mrs Ripley had been so worried about the police investigation. Once Lavinia was found, the whole truth would come out. By now, she’d probably burned as much incriminating paperwork as she could get her hands on. ‘So that meant you were able to sneak out of the house on Saturday without her trying to stop you,’ I said, ‘and carry out your plan for the statue.’

‘We had it all timed,’ said Éimhear. ‘I had a friend set off some fireworks on the main road, just after the meeting started – enough to cause a distraction, so we could tie the ribbons around Albert’s neck –’

‘Like a maypole!’ said Lavinia brightly.

‘But then … then that officer appeared,’ sighed Theodora, placing down her teacup. ‘We really should have anticipated that a little better. We had no choice but to run – and that was when it all went wrong.’

I glanced at Miss Decima. The next detail was the most important one of all. ‘So … you ran where, exactly?’

Theodora dabbed at her forehead. ‘I’d always accepted that there was a chance of our being spotted. So I said that if we got caught, we would run back to my apartment at Number 89 and hide in there. Only … well –’

‘He grabbed me,’ Lavinia cut in, the plumminess of her voice disappearing instantly. ‘The officer grabbed me, hard, from behind. And I wasn’t having that. Not after what happened at that dreadful demonstration in November. I’d taken judo lessons at the local WSPU chapter earlier this year. Self-defence and so on. So I held my weight and stamped on his foot and headbutted backwards, hard as I could. And it worked! He hit the floor like a lead weight!’

‘Which wasn’t exactly in the plan,’ said Theodora. ‘It happened right outside the entrance to Number 89, too – I was already halfway through the door. It meant the officer clearly knew where we were going.’

‘So I said we should run downstairs, to the basement,’ said Éimhear. ‘The buildings all have the same layout around here – I knew that, from working next door. You can go through the servants’ entrance and out to the main road on the other side, then we could get lost in the crowds …’

‘But someone had locked the servants’ entrance,’ Lavinia picked up. ‘So we were trapped. We couldn’t go through, or back, or even up to Theodora’s apartment. There was nowhere to go.’

I glanced at Miss Decima. The reason for the locked staff entrance was obvious: the men Mr Benson had found hiding in the empty trunk room would have locked it earlier in the day. They wouldn’t have wanted their plan spoilt by a servant wandering into the basement from outside.

‘So,’ said Theodora, picking up the thread, ‘I suggested that we hide in my trunk room. I’ve never had any cause to use it – it’s always been empty.’ She glared at Mr Benson. ‘I wasn’t expecting to see crates of food and liquor stashed inside it.’

‘Though they came in pretty handy over the next few days,’ Éimhear admitted. ‘Especially the whisky. That sorted my cough right out.’

Miss Decima nodded. ‘I see. So the three of you hid in the trunk room to escape from the police officer.’

‘We thought it would just be for a few hours!’ said Lavinia. ‘Once we knew there was no chance of being followed, we could sneak back upstairs to Theodora’s apartment –’

‘Only we couldn’t,’ said Éimhear. ‘Because while we were in the trunk room, someone stacked a load of cases in front of the door, so we couldn’t get out again. And we’ve been stuck there ever since!’

Everyone turned to face Mr Benson.

‘It’s not my fault,’ he muttered. ‘Like I said – I had to hide that door from the police, didn’t I? I couldn’t have them finding all that whisky.’ He scowled. ‘Speaking of which, by my reckoning, you three owe me at least –’