‘Very well. You will now, if you please, give us an exact account of the manner in which you spent your afternoon. You went to the studio immediately after lunch. Was Garcia there?’

‘Yes. He had just got there.’

‘How long was it before you gave him opium?’

‘My dear Inspector, how should I know? I should imagine it was round about four o’clock.’

‘After your conversation about the model and so on?’

‘It followed our conversation. We discussed pleasure. That led us to opium.’

‘So you went to the house and fetched your jade and ivory paraphernalia?’

‘Ah-yes.’

‘In your first account you may remember that you told me you did not leave the studio until it was time to change and catch your bus?’

‘Did I? Perhaps I did. I suppose I thought that the opium incident would over-excite you.’

‘When you finally left the studio,’ said Alleyn, ‘what was Mr Garcia’s condition?’

‘He was very tranquil.’

‘Did he speak after he had begun to smoke?’

‘Oh, yes. A little.’

‘What did he say?’

‘He said he was happy.’

‘Anything else?’

‘He said that there was a way out of all one’s difficulties if one only had the courage to take it. That, I think, was all.’

‘Did you take your opium and the pipe back to the house?’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘The housemaid had said something about changing the sheets on my bed. I didn’t particularly want to encounter her.’

‘Where did you put the things then?’

‘In a box under Garcia’s bed.’

‘And collected them?’

‘This morning before class.’

‘Had they been disturbed?’

‘I have no idea.’

‘Are you sure of that?’

Malmsley moved irritably.

‘They were in the box. I simply collected them and took them up to the house.’

‘How much opium should there be?’

‘I don’t know. I think the jar must be about half full.’

‘Do you think Garcia may have smoked again, after you left?’

‘Again I have no idea. I should not think so. I haven’t thought of it.’

Alleyn looked curiously at Malmsley.

‘I wonder,’ he said, ‘if you realize what you may have done?’

‘I am afraid I do not understand.’

‘I think you do. Everything you have told me about Mr Garcia points, almost too startlingly, to one conclusion.’

Malmsley made a sudden and violent gesture of repudiation.

‘That is a horrible suggestion,’ he said. ‘I have told you the truth —you have no right to suggest that I have—that I had any othermotive, but—but—’