Chapter 53

All of them were now crowded around the door. No one was saying anything, they were just staring. Rory put his arm around a stunned Nina. Tom eventually broke the silence.

"Let's go to the kitchen and we can discuss our next moves."

Rory shut the door and then inspected the wall afresh. He had jokingly said that the panels were a great disguise, but that had proved to be true. Now, knowing it was there, he could see the miniscule gap around it and the different colour of the wood on the place where one had to push. 

Back around the table, Tom called them to order.

"Well done. Whilst you were searching inside, Simon and I were looking at the garden. There is a place by the hedge around the field which has been disturbed. The intruder has been coming across the field, as we suspected, and gaining access there. I think that we can be fairly certain, at this point, that Abby is our invader. The next question is what to do about it."