“Because I don’t think the police are going to make fast progress unless they have someone on their murder squad who’s experienced in the internecine warfare of trade unions. Not only do I want to clear my name, I also want to be on a plane back to San Francisco next Tuesday.”

“So you’ve taken your investigative skills out of mothballs? Well, I wish you every success, my dear. Just don’t tread on so many toes that you have to leave the country in rather more of a hurry than you’d anticipated! As for young Jed, you won’t find him in his room. I collared him as he came out of the hall and told him to lie low for a few hours. He should be in my room, which is in Pankhurst Tower, room 403. Tell him I sent you. He’s worked himself up into a real old tizzy, so be gentle with the boy.”

“I wouldn’t dream of being otherwise, Brian,” Lindsay said, with rather less than complete honesty. “I don’t suppose you’d like to make things any easier for me by suggesting a line of questioning I might benefit from pursuing?”

Brian’s mouth twitched as he looked consideringly at her. Then he cocked his head to one side and scratched his stubbled head, rather like a de-crested parakeet. “I don’t honestly know whether I should tell you this,” he said wistfully.

But you’re going to, you old gossip, Lindsay thought affectionately. “If you can’t trust me, Brian . . .” She added a conspiratorial smile.

“Well, my dear, one certainly can’t trust the police, can one? Not in a city where they arrested thirteen men in a raid on public toilets only last week. Ask him about Handy Andy.”

“Andy Spence?” Lindsay demanded incredulously.

“You absolutely didn’t hear it from me. Nice to see you again, Lindsay,” he added over his shoulder as he walked away.

Lindsay stood staring after him, open-mouthed. Sophie jogged her arm gently. “One of life’s little surprises?”

Lindsay shook her head, still with the kind of look she’d have had if someone had offered her documentary evidence that the Archbishop of Canterbury was a cocaine baron.

“One of life’s complete gobsmackers,” she said. “Well, I definitely think we need to talk to Jed Thomas. And right now. Desperately sorry, darling, but the hypno will just have to wait.”