‘– 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?’

‘The usual routine and a very tedious affair it’s likely to prove. There may be useful prints on the pedestal or the dolphin itself but I’m inclined to think that the best we can hope for there is negative evidence. There may be prints on the safe but so far Sergeant Bailey has found none. The injuries to the boy’s face are interesting.’

‘If he recovers consciousness,’ Peregrine said, ‘he’ll tell the whole story.’

‘Not if he’s responsible,’ Mr Greenslade said obstinately.

‘Concussion,’ Alleyn said, ‘can be extremely tricky. In the meantime, of course, we’ll have to find out about all the members of the company and the front-of-house staff and so on.’

‘Find out?’

‘Their movements for one thing. You may be able to help us here,’ Alleyn said to Peregrine. ‘It seems that apart from the boy, you and Miss Dunne were the last to leave the theatre. Unless, of course, somebody lay doggo until you’d gone. Which may well be the case. Can you tell us anything about how and when and by what door the other members of the cast went out?’