"So you found it on Tuesday?"
"Aye, but not this Tuesday. 'Twould have been the one before that-I was nearly a week in Honiton, and then I went down to Sidmouth."
"Tuesday before last." Lucifer nodded. "Our thanks."
The tinker looked down at the coins in his hand. "I'm thinking'twas my pleasure entirely."
They left him bemused by his good fortune; Lucifer set the blacks pacing smartly, then glanced at Phyllida.
She was holding the hat in her lap, staring down at it. "No wonder we couldn't find it-never saw it. He must have got rid of it straightaway."
Her tone was distant. Lucifer frowned. "Those tall gateposts you mentioned-that's the entrance to Ballyclose Manor, I take it."
Phyllida nodded.
"So what is at the end of the seaward leg of the lane?"
She exhaled. "It's a rear entrance to Ballyclose. It's not even a gate, just a gap in the hedge, but it's been there forever. Everyone who rides at Ballyclose uses it to come and go unless they're riding directly into the village."
"So if someone was out riding from Ballyclose and didn't want to return by riding through the village, they'd use that entrance?"
"Yes."
The tone of the word had Lucifer glancing at Phyllida again. "What are you thinking?" He couldn't tell from her face.
She drew in a breath. "It must be Cedric after all."
He looked to his horses. "There are other possibilities."
"Such as?"
"That it's not Cedric's hat, for a start."
Phyllida held the hat up, turning it around. "Just because I can't recall seeing him wearing it doesn't mean it isn't his. You saw how many hats he has. I didn't recognize half of them."
"Equally, just because he has a hat fetish doesn't mean that one's his." Lucifer looked at the hat again. "I really don't think it is."
"If I can't be sure, I can't see how you can be."
Lucifer swallowed his explanation of why he didn't think the hat was Cedric's-he was, after all, only guessing. After a moment, he said, "Very well, consider this. The murderer, not Cedric, knows that the books in Horatio's library leave Cedric with a real motive for killing Horatio, which, I admit, is more than we've been able to uncover for anyone else. The murderer, however, has another motive-one we have no idea of. Needing to get rid of the hat, he plants it at a place where enough people come past, so that, at some time, it'll be discovered and all will point to Cedric, not him."
Phyllida stared at him. "That's tortuous reasoning. Do you really think anyone actually thinks like that?"
Lucifer shot her a glance. "Our murderer has eluded us multiple times-he's ruthless, clever, and without compunction. He probably has the sort of mind that works like that all the time."
"Hmm." Phyllida looked down at the hat. "Or he could simply be Cedric."
Lucifer let out a long sigh. "I have serious difficulty casting Cedric in the role. Not because I don't think he could do it, but because I don't think he would."
"I can't imagine him as a murderer, either, but…" Phyllida looked up; her gaze fixed forward. "I think we should go directly to Ballyclose."
"Why?"
"Because of this." She brandished the hat. "I cannot bear to go on thinking Cedric might be the murderer, and just not knowing. I want to find out-with this-now."
"What on earth do you plan to do? Barge in and ask him if the hat's his?"
Phyllida lifted her chin. "Precisely."