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One of Lucas’s feelings. Perhaps he was on the right track. ‘It does fit in with everything that we know.’
‘Exactly.’ He accelerated away from the lights as soon as they turned green. ‘The more I thought about it, the more I reckoned you were exactly right. That somehow Derek Thompson had some direct contact with Mariam. And this is the only thing I can come up with.’
He’d been thinking about her. Not about her exactly, but she’d had some part of his thoughts. And Thea could never resist Lucas’s enthusiasm. ‘Okay, then. Let’s have a look.’
* * *
The library was closed on Wednesday evenings but a caretaker, who was obviously expecting Lucas, let them in.
‘You have a separate quiet room.’
‘Over here.’ The caretaker marched them towards a high, panelled door.
‘You keep this door closed in the winter?’
‘Yes, mostly. It gets too cold in there otherwise to sit for very long. Are we in trouble here?’
Lucas shook his head. ‘Not as far as I know. We just need to know what happened.’ He walked into the study room and smiled. ‘See that? Mariam says that she always sat in the same seat, over there.’ He pointed to a large polished wood table, which stood beneath a ventilation grille.
‘So far so good for your theory. Let’s go and see the other end of it.’
* * *
Lucas had left her in the messy back room of the theatre, which was stacked high with painted scenery boards and boxes of props. Her phone rang.
‘Nothing yet.’ She sniffed the air.
‘I’ve only just lit the incense sticks. When I closed the door, the smoke went straight up towards the ventilator.’
‘I don’t smell anything.’ Thea sniffed the air. Maybe… ‘Patchouli!’
Lucas’s delighted chuckle reached down the phone. ‘Right in one!’
By the time he’d navigated the maze of corridors that led from the library to the props room, the smell of patchouli hung heavy in the air.
‘Good grief. There’s no mistaking it, is there?’ He looked speculatively up at the ventilation grille in the wall.
‘Looks as if you were right.’ Thea grinned up at him.
‘Only because you were.’ He returned the smile. ‘I’ve got the master keys from the caretaker
. Let’s see where else we can smell it.’
They toured the library and the theatre together, opening doors and trying to catch the unmistakeable scent. The library was completely clear, unless you stood right by the door of the study room, and so was the theatre, apart from a couple of box rooms adjoining the props room.
‘At least there’s nothing in here.’ Lucas had switched on the lights in the auditorium of the theatre and they meandered down past the seating to the foot of the stage. ‘That was what was worrying me most. Derek’s wife said there was a kids’ pantomime on here before Christmas.’
The thought made Thea shudder. ‘You’ll need to do some further testing of the system, though, surely?’
‘Yes, we will. I’ll be commissioning an urgent inspection first thing in the morning. But this is a first indication.’ He climbed up onto the stage and Thea gave a round of applause from the auditorium. Lucas bowed deeply.
‘I reckon if I go up into the loft…I bet I can work it out if I can see the ducting for the ventilation.’
‘It’s probably filthy up there. And you don’t know anything about ventilation systems.’
‘Don’t you want to know?’
‘We do know. The patchouli went straight to the props room from where Mariam was sitting.’
