Inspector Callahan still looked as if he were fighting to control his annoyance. “I must object, Mr. Wexler. This is a criminal investigation. Whatever this man’s real name was does not alter the fact that he was murdered in Ireland and all evidence points to Mr. O’Mara’s father.”

“I disagree.” Darcy turned to face Callahan. “It might have everything to do with the man’s murder. Since my father’s guilt has not yet been proven, then surely the case now opens up to a whole lot of motives and a whole lot of different suspects. If he wasn’t Timothy Roach, then who was he? And how did he come by his money, and who might have wanted to murder him?”

“You have a point there, son,” the American said. “You can rest assured we will be asking the authorities in Illinois to follow up on this. Can you supply me with photographs of the dead man, Chief Inspector Callahan? We’ll need to circulate them to the appropriate people.”

“And fingerprints,” I said. I had forgotten that Darcy had told us he wanted to do all the talking, and I was conscious that everyone was now looking at me. “It makes sense to check his fingerprints, surely,” I went on. “If he is not the man he claimed to be on his passport then he had to be hiding his true identity for a reason. You might find that his fingerprints are on file.”

“And who might you be, young lady?” Chief Inspector Callahan asked.

I decided this was not a time for concealment. It was a time to pull rank. “Lady Georgiana Rannoch, cousin to His Majesty, King George,” I said. “And this is the Princess Zamanska. We are both old friends of Mr. O’Mara and we are over here to show our support for the O’Mara family, and to do a little preliminary work while a barrister is being chosen for the defense.”

I think that Inspector Callahan swallowed hard. “It’s good to know that O’Mara has friends in such high places,” he said. “Not that it will do much good. Unfortunately we are no longer part of Great Britain here. You can have no influence on the outcome of Irish justice, however royal you are.”

“Of course not,” Princess Zamanska said in a sweet, gentle tone. “But that doesn’t prevent us from helping a chum in need, does it? Especially now that the whole matter appears to have taken on a very different twist. I think your investigation should now focus on why this man was here and who might have paid him a visit recently, don’t you, Chief Inspector?”