‘I can’t see why the boy, having got the documents and glove, should come out to the circle foyer where he’d be sure to be seen by Jobbins on the half-landing. Why didn’t he go down through the circle by the box, stairs, and pass-door to the stage and let himself out by the stage-door?’

‘He might have wanted to show off. He might have – I am persuaded,’ Mr Greenslade said crossly, ‘that your objections can be met.’

‘There’s another thing,’ Peregrine said, ‘and I should have thought of it before. At midnight, Jobbins had to make a routine report to police and fire-station. He’d do it from the open telephone in the downstairs foyer.’

‘Very well,’ said Greenslade. ‘That would give the boy his opportunity. What do you say, Alleyn?’

‘As an investigating officer I’m supposed to say nothing,’ Alleyn said lightly. ‘But since the people at the bistro up the lane and the wretched Hawkins all put Jay out of the picture as a suspect and you yourself appear to have been some thirty miles away –’

‘Well, I must say!’

‘– there’s no reason why I shouldn’t ask you to consider under what circumstances the boy, still clutching his booty, could have fallen from the circle with his face towards the balustrade and as he fell have clawed at the velvet top, palms down in such a posture that he’s left nail-tracks almost parallel with the balustrade but slanting towards the outside. There are also traces of boot polish that suggests one of his feet brushed back the pile at the same time. I cannot, myself, reconcile these traces with a nose-dive over the balustrade. I can relate them to a blow to the jaw, a fall across the balustrade, a lift, a sidelong drag and a drop. I also think Jay’s objections are very well urged. There may be answers to them but at the moment I can’t think of any. What’s more, if the boy’s the thief and killer, who unshot the bolts and unslipped the iron bar on the little pass-door in the main front entrance? Who left the key in the lock and banged the door shut from outside?’

‘Did someone do this?’

‘That’s how things were when the police arrived.’

‘I – I didn’t notice. I didn’t notice that,’ Peregrine said, putting his hand to his eyes. ‘It was the shock, I suppose.’

‘I expect it was.’

‘Jobbins would have bolted the little door and dropped the bar when everyone had gone and I think he always hung the key in the corner beyond the box-office.’

‘No,’ Peregrine said slowly. ‘I can’t see the boy doing that thing with the door. It doesn’t add up.’

‘Not really, does it?’ Alleyn said mildly.

‘What action,’ Mr Greenslade asked, ‘do you propose to take?’