‘The club porter may be useful,’ she said, ‘his name’s Jackson. He may have noticed my goings out and comings in. I remember that I asked him the time, and got him to call taxis. The sort of things people do when they wish to establish alibis, I understand.’

‘They occasionally do them at normal times, I believe,’ said Alleyn. ‘Thank you, Miss Troy. I won’t bother you any more for the moment. Do you mind joining the others until we have finished this business.’

‘Not at all,’ answered Troy with extreme grandeur. ‘Please use this room as much as you like. Good evening, good evening.’

‘Good evening, miss,’ said Fox.

Troy made an impressive exit.

CHAPTER 8
Sidelights on Garcia

‘The lady seems a bit upset,’ said Fox mildly, when Troy had gone.

‘I irritate the lady,’ answered Alleyn.

‘You do, sir? I always think you’ve got a very pleasant way with female witnesses. Sort of informal and at the same time very polite.’

‘Thank you, Fox,’ said Alleyn wryly.

‘Learn anything useful, sir?’

‘She says the drape was in the second position on Saturday afternoon.’

‘Stretched out straight?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well,’ said Fox, ‘if she’s telling the truth, it looks as though the knife was fixed up between the time this Mr Malmsley walked out on Friday afternoon and the time Miss Troy looked in on Saturday. That’s if Malmsley was telling the truth when he said the drape was crumpled and flat on Friday afternoon. It all points one way, chief, doesn’t it.’

‘It does, Brer Fox, it does.’

‘The Yard’s getting straight on to chasing up this Mr Garcia. I’ve rung all the stations round this district and asked them to make inquiries. I got a pretty fair description of him from the cook, and Bailey found a couple of photographs of the whole crowd in the studio. Here’s one of them.’

He thrust a massive hand inside his pocket and produced a halfplate group of Troy and her class. It had been taken in the garden.

‘There’s the model, Fox. Look!’

Fox gravely put on his spectacles and contemplated the photograph.

‘Yes, that’s the girl,’ he said. ‘She looks merry, doesn’t she, sir?’

‘Yes,’ said Alleyn slowly. ‘Very merry.’

‘That’ll be this Garcia, then.’ Fox continued. He pointed a stubby finger at a figure on the outside of the group. Alleyn took out a lens and held it over the photograph. Up leaped a thin, unshaven face, with an untidy lock of dark hair falling across the forehead. The eyes were set rather close and the brows met above the thin nose. The lips were unexpectedly full. Garcia had scowled straight into the camera. Alleyn gave Fox the lens.

‘Yes,’ said Fox, after a look through it, ‘we’ll have enlargements done at once. Bailey’s got the other. He says it will enlarge very nicely.’