‘She didn’t struggle but I felt her body leap under my hands and then shudder. I can’t tell you exactly what it was like. Everything happened at the same moment. I saw her face. She opened her eyes very wide, and wrinkled her forehead as if she was astonished. I think she said “Don’t” again but I’m not sure. I thought—you know how one’s thoughts can travel—I thought how silly she looked, and at the same moment I suddenly wondered if she was going to have a baby and the pose really hurt her. I don’t know why I thought that. I knew s-something had happened. I didn’t know what it was. I just leant over her and looked into her face. I think I said: “Sonia’s ill”. I think Katti or someone said “Rot”. I still touched her—leant on her. She quivered as if I tickled her and then she was still. Phillida Lee said: “She’s fainted”. Then the others came up. Katti put her arms behind Sonia to raise her. She said: “I can’t move her—she seems stuck”. Then she pulled. There was a queer little n-noise and Sonia came up suddenly. Ormerin cried out loudly: “Mon Dieu, c’est le poignard”. At least that’s what he told us he said. And the drape stuck to my fingers. It came out of the hole in her back—the blood, I mean. Her back was wet. We moved her a little, and Katti tried to stop the blood with a piece of rag. Troy came. She sent Basil out to ring up the doctor. She looked at Sonia and said she wasn’t dead. Troy put her arms round Sonia. I don’t know how long it was before Sonia gave a sort of cough. She opened her eyes very wide. Troy looked up and said: “She’s gone”. Phillida Lee started to cry. Nobody said very much. Basil came back and Troy said n-nobody was to leave the studio. She covered Sonia with a drape. We began to talk about the knife. Lee and Hatchett said G-Garcia had done it. We all thought Garcia had done it. Then the doctor came and when he had seen Sonia he sent for the p-police.’

Her voice died away. She had begun her recital calmly enough, but it was strange to see how the memory of the morning grew more vivid and more disquieting as she revived it. The slight hesitation in her speech became more noticeable. When she had finished her hands were trembling.

‘I d-didn’t know I was so upset,’ she said. ‘A doctor once told me my nerves were as sensitive as the strings of a violin.’

‘It was a horrible experience for all of you,’ said Alleyn. ‘Tell me, Miss Seacliff, when did you yourself suspect that Garcia had laid this trap for the model?’