‘I think I appreciate your motives well enough, Mr Malmsley. For instance, you realized that I should discover the opium in any case if I searched your room. You realized that if Mr Garcia makes a statement about Friday, he will probably speak of the opium you gave him. You may even have known that a plea of irresponsibility due to the effect of opium might be made in the event of criminal proceedings.’

‘Do you mean—if he was tried for murder, that I—I might be implicated? That is monstrous. I refuse to listen to such a suggestion. You must have a very pure mind, Inspector. Only the very pure are capable of such gross conceptions.’

‘And only the very foolish attitudinize in the sort of circumstances that have risen round you and what you did on Friday afternoon. Come, Mr Malmsley, forget your prose for a moment. To my aged perceptions it seems a little as if you were mixing Dorian Grey with one of the second-rate intellectuals of the moment. The result is something that— you must forgive me—does not inspire a policeman with confidence. I tell you quite seriously that you are in a predicament.’

‘You suspect Garcia?’

‘We suspect everyone and no one at the moment. We note what you have told us and we believe that Garcia was alone in the studio in a semi-drugged condition on Friday evening when we suppose the knife was thrust through the throne. We learn that you drugged him.’

‘At his own suggestion,’ cried Malmsley.

‘Really? Will he agree to that? Or will he say that you persuaded him to smoke opium?’

‘He was perfectly ready to do it. He wanted to try. And he only had one pipe. A small amount. He would sleep it off in a few hours. I tell you he was already half asleep when I left.’

‘When do you think he would wake?’

‘I don’t know. How should I know? The effect varies very much the first time. It is impossible to say. He would be well enough in five hours at all events.’

‘Do you think,’ said Alleyn very deliberately, ‘that Garcia set this terrible trap for Sonia Gluck?’

Malmsley was white to the lips.

‘I don’t know. I know nothing about it. I thought he must have done it. You have forced me into an intolerable position. If I say I believe he did it—but not because of the opium—I refuse to accept—’

His voice was shrill, and his lips trembled. He seemed to be near to tears.

‘Very well. We shall try to establish your own movements after you left the house. You caught the six o’clock bus?’