“A young Jewish man was seen running away down the street about the time he was killed,” she said. “I’m not surprised, frankly, after his outspoken tirades against Jews. I’d have willingly done it myself, odious man. He liked to think of himself as the doyen of American artists here, but all he wanted really were sycophants around him, people who painted the way he did, no innovators, nobody with creative genius.”

I was trying to process what I had just learned. If a young, zealous Jew killed Reynold Bryce then his death might have nothing at all to do with Sid and Gus’s disappearance.

“So do you remember when was the last time you saw my friends?”

She stared out of the window. “Some time ago. Not recently, that’s for sure. You have to understand that I see a lot of people.”

“Not recently,” I repeated.

“Why are you so keen to know when I saw your friends?” she demanded.

“Because they’ve disappeared. I don’t know where they’ve gone and I’m worried about them.”

“Perhaps they got tired of Paris and went to seek the sun on the Mediterranean. Lots of people do.”

“No,” I shook my head firmly. “They haven’t gone away, not deliberately anyway. All their things are still in their apartment. And they invited me to stay with them. They knew I was coming.”

“Well, that’s a rum do.” She rubbed her head vigorously with the towel. “What do you suppose might have happened to them?”

“I don’t know, that’s the problem,” I said. “I don’t know where to start. I know they were in contact with Reynold Bryce because there was a postcard from him posted just a day or two before they vanished.”

“So where are you staying?”

“At their apartment at the moment,” I said, “although the landlady keeps suggesting that I move on. I suspect she’d like to relet their room, although I don’t think she can throw me out until the end of the month.”

“Well I suppose we could always put you up here, if it came to that,” she said.

“That’s very kind, but no thank you,” I replied. “I have a small baby, for one thing. And I want to stay on at my friends’ place just in case some mail or any kind of message comes that might give me a clue as to where they’ve gone.”

“Quite right.” She nodded. “So there’s no hint at all as to what might have happened to them?”