‘Because Garcia was so beastly to her. Oh, I do think he was foul! If you’d heard him that time!’

‘I wish very much that I had.’

‘When he said he’d shut her mouth for keeps—I mean it’s the sort of thing you might think he’d say without meaning it, but he sounded as if he did mean it. He spoke so softly in a kind of drawl. I thought he was going to do it then. I was terrified. Truly! That’s why I banged the door and walked in.’

‘About the scrap of conversation you overheard—did you get the impression that they planned to meet on Friday night?’

‘It sounded like that. Sonia said: “If it’s possible.” I think that’s what she meant. I think she meant to come back and bed down with Garcia for the night while no one was here.’

‘To what, Miss Lee?’

‘Well—you know—to spend the night with him.’

‘What did they do when you appeared?’

‘Garcia just stared at me. He’s got a beastly sort of way of looking at you. As if you were an animal. I was awfully scared he’d guessed I’d overheard them, but I saw in a minute that he hadn’t. I said: “Hullo, you two, what are you up to? Having a woo or something?’ I don’t know how I managed it, but I did. And he said: “No, just a little chat.” He turned away and began working at his thing. Sonia just walked out. She looked ghastly, Mr Alleyn, honestly. She always made up pretty heavily except when we were painting the head, but even under her make-up I could see she was absolutely bleached. Oh, Mr Alleyn, I do believe he did it, I do, actually.

‘You tell me you were on quite good terms with the model. Did she ever say anything that had any bearing on her relationship with Mr Garcia?’

Phillida Lee settled herself more comfortably in her chair. She was beginning to enjoy herself.

‘Well, of course, ever since this morning, I’ve been thinking of everything I can remember. I didn’t talk much to her until I’d been here for a bit. As a matter of fact the others were so frightfully superior that I didn’t get a chance to talk to anybody at first.’

Her round face turned pink, and suddenly Alleyn felt a little sorry for her.

‘It’s always a bit difficult, settling down among new people,’ he said.