‘What do you make of this dope story, Mr Alleyn?’ said Fox. ‘We’ll have to have a go at tracing the source, won’t we?’

‘Oh Lord, yes. I suppose so. Malmsley will say he got it from the friend who gave him the pretty little pipe and etceteras, and I don’t suppose even Malmsley will give his dope merchant away. Not that I think he’s far gone. I imagine he spoke the truth when he said he’d only experimented—he doesn’t look like an advanced addict. I took a pot-shot on his eyes, his breath, and the colour of his beastly face. And I remembered Sadie noticing a smell. Luckily the shot went home.’

‘Smoking,’ ruminated Nigel. ‘That’s rather out of the usual in this country, isn’t it?’

‘Fortunately, yes,’ agreed Alleyn. ‘As a matter of fact it’s less deadly than the other methods. Much less pernicious than injecting, of course.’

‘Do you think Garcia may have done his stuff with the knife while he was still dopey?’ asked Nigel.

‘It would explain his careless ways,’ said Fox, ‘dropping clay about the place.’

‘That’s true, Brer Fox. I don’t know,’ said Alleyn, ‘if, when he woke at, say, seven-thirty, when Sadie banged on the screen, he’d feel like doing the job. We’ll have to have expert opinion on the carry-over from opium. I’m inclined to think he might wake feeling damned unpleasant and take a pull at his whisky botde. Had it been handled recently, Bailey?’

‘Yes, sir, I’d say it had. It’s very dusty in patches, but there’s some prints that were left after the dust had settled. Only a very light film over the prints. Not more than a couple of days’ deposit.’

‘That’s fairly conclusive,’ said Alleyn. ‘Taken with Sadie’s statement it looks as if Garcia’s Friday evening dinner was a jorum of whisky.’

‘What beats me,’ said Fox, ‘is when he got his stuff away.’

‘Some time on Friday night.’

‘Yes, but how? Not by a local carrier. They’ve all been asked.’

‘He must have got hold of a vehicle of some sort and driven himself,’ said Nigel.

‘Half doped and three-quarters tight, Mr Bathgate?’

‘He may not have been as tight as all that,’ said Alleyn. ‘On the other hand—’ ‘Well?’ asked Nigel impatiently.

‘On the other hand he may have,’ said Alleyn. ‘Come on, we’ll see how Bailey’s got on, and then we’ll go home.’

CHAPTER 13
Upstairs