‘All right. We’ll leave the studio to these two now, Fox. Try to get us as full a record of footprints as you can, Bailey. Go over the whole show. I can’t tell you what to look out for. Just do your stuff. And, by the way, I want photographs of the area round the window and the tyre-prints outside. You’d better take a cast of them and look out for any other manifestations round about them. If you come across any keys, try them for prints. Lock the place up when you’ve done. Good sleuthing.’

Fox and Alleyn returned to the house.

‘Well, Brer Fox,’ said Alleyn on the way, ‘how goes it with everybody?’

‘The Yard’s still in the same old place, sir. Pretty busy lately.’

‘What a life! Fox, I think I’ll see Miss Valmai Seacliff first. On the face of it she’s a principal witness.’

‘What about Miss Troy, sir?’ asked Fox.

Alleyn’s voice came quietly out of the darkness:

‘I’ve seen her. Just before you came.’

‘What sort of a lady is she?’

‘I like her,’ said Alleyn. ‘Mind the step. Here’s the side door. I suppose we can use it. Hullo! Look here. Fox.’

He paused, his hand on Fox’s arm. They were close by a window. The curtains had been carelessly drawn and a wide band of light streamed through the gap. Alleyn stood a little to one side of this light and looked into the room. Fox joined him. They saw a long refectory table at which eight people sat. In the background, half in shadow, loomed the figure of a uniformed constable. Seven of the people round the table appeared to listen to the eighth, who was Agatha Troy. The lamplight was full on her face. Her lips moved rapidly and incisively; she looked from one attentive face to the other. No sound of her voice came to Alleyn and Fox, but it was easy to see that she spoke with urgency. She stopped abruptly and looked round the table as if she expected a reply. The focus of attention shifted. Seven faces were turned towards a thin, languid-looking young man with a blond beard. He seemed to utter a single sentence, and at once a stocky woman with black straight hair cut in a bang, sprang to her feet to answer him angrily. Troy spoke again. Then nobody moved. They all sat staring at the table.

‘Come on,’ whispered Alleyn.

He opened the side door and went along the passage to a door on the left. He tapped on this door. The policeman answered it.

‘All right,’ said Alleyn quietly, and walked straight in, followed by Fox and the constable. The eight faces round the table turned like automatons.

‘Please forgive me for barging in like this,’ said Alleyn to Troy.