‘And all the time she was talking about deceased and body-urges and so forth, she never seemed to realize what these sick, giddy turns might mean,’ concluded Fox.

‘Of course the girl was going to have a child,’ said Nigel complacently.

‘It doesn’t follow as the night the day,’ murmured Alleyn. ‘She may have been liverish or run-down. Nevertheless, it’s odd that the little thought never entered Miss Lee’s head. You go back to your corner, Bathgate, here’s Mr Watt Hatchett.’

Watt Hatchett came in with his hands thrust into his trousers pockets. Alleyn watched him curiously, thinking what a perfect type he was of the smart Sydney tough about to get on in the world. He was short, with the general appearance of a bad man in a South American movie. His hair resembled a patent-leather cap, his skin was swarthy, he walked with a sort of hard-boiled slouch, and his clothes fitted him rather too sleekly. A cigarette seemed to be perpetually gummed to his under-lip which projected. He had beautiful hands.

‘Want me, Inspector?’ he inquired. He never opened his lips more than was absolutely necessary, and he scarcely seemed to move his tongue, so that every vowel was strangled at birth, and for preference he spoke entirely through his nose. There was, however, something engaging about him; an aliveness, a raw virility.

‘Sit down, Mr Hatchett,’ said Alleyn. ‘I shan’t keep you long.’

Hatchett slumped into an armchair. He moved with the slovenly grace of an underbred bouncer, and this in its way was also attractive.

‘Good oh,’ he said.

‘I’m sure you realize yourself the importance of the information we have from you as regards the drape.’

Too right. I reckon it shows that whoever did the dirty stuff with the knife did it after everyone except Garcia and Mr Highbrow Malmsley had cleared off to London.’

‘Exactly. You will therefore not think it extraordinary if I ask you to repeat the gist of this information.’

Hatchett wanted nothing better. He went over the whole story again. He went down to the studio on Friday afternoon—he remembered now that it was half-past two by the hall clock when he left the house—and noticed the drape lying crumpled on the throne, as Sonia had left it when she got up at noon. It was still undisturbed when he went away to catch the bus.

‘And yesterday evening it was stretched out tight. There you are.’

Alleyn said nothing about Troy’s discovery of this condition on Saturday afternoon. He asked Hatchett to account for his own movements during the weekend. Hatchett described his Friday evening’s entertainment with Phillida Lee and Ormerin.