Dikon was amazed to see that she was quite unruffled. She sat beside her husband and looked brightly at her brother. ‘Well, dear?’ she asked.

Dr Ackrington grasped the edge of the table with both hands and leant back in his chair.

‘It seems to me,’ he began, ‘it is essential that we, as a group of people in extraordinary circumstances, should understand one another. I, and I have no doubt all of you, have been subjected to a cross-examination from a person who, I am persuaded, is grossly unfit for his work. I am afraid my opinion of the local police force has never been a high one and Sergeant Webley has said and done nothing to alter it. I may state that I have formed my own view of this case. A brief inspection of the scene of the alleged tragedy would possibly confirm this view but Sergeant Webley, in his wisdom, sees fit to deny me access to the place. Ha!’

He paused, and Mrs Claire, evidently feeling that he expected an answer, said: ‘Fancy, dear! What a pity, yes.’

Dr Ackrington looked pityingly at his sister. ‘I said “the alleged tragedy”,’ he pronounced. ‘The alleged tragedy.’ He glared at them.

‘We heard you, James,’ said Colonel Claire mildly, ‘the first time.’

‘Then why don’t you say something?’

‘Perhaps, dear,’ said his sister, ‘it’s because you speak so loudly and look so cross. I mean,’ she went on with an apologetic cough, ‘one thinks to oneself: “How cross he is and how loudly he speaks,” and then, you know, one forgets to listen. It’s confusing.’

‘I was not aware,’ Dr Ackrington shouted, and checked himself. ‘Very well, Agnes,’ he said, dropping his voice to an ominous monotone. ‘You desire a continuation of the mealy-mouthed procedure of your Sunday school. You shall have it. With a charge of homicide hanging over all our heads, I shall smirk and whisper my way through this meeting and perhaps you will manage to listen to me.’

‘ “I will roar you” ’thought Dikon, ‘“as ’twere any nightingale.” ’

‘You said alleged,’ Mr Falls reminded Dr Ackrington pacifically.

‘I did. Advisedly.’

‘It will be interesting to learn why. Undoubtedly,’ said Mr Falls mellifluously, ‘the whole affair is not to be described out of hand as murder. I don’t pretend to understand the, shall I call it, technical position of a case like this. I mean, the absence of a body…’

‘Habeas corpus?’ suggested Colonel Claire dimly.

‘I fancy, sir, that habeas corpus refers rather to the body of the accused than to that of the victim. Any one of us, I imagine,’ Mr Falls continued, looking amiably round the table, ‘may be a potential corpus within the meaning of the writ. Or am I mistaken?’

‘Who’s going to be a corpse?’ Smith roared out in a panic. ‘Speak for yourself.’

‘Cut it out, Bert,’ Simon muttered.