‘I don’t think my wife can give you any information, Alleyn. She’s absolutely prostrated by this business. Robert Gospell was a very great friend of hers and she’s taken it damn hard. Matter of fact, she’s not up.’

Alleyn paused.

‘I am so sorry,’ he said at last. ‘That’s most unfortunate. I wanted if possible to save her appearing at the inquest.’

‘When is the inquest?’

‘Tomorrow morning, sir.’

Carrados glared at him.

‘She will certainly be too unwell for any such thing. I shall see that her doctor forbids it. And it is equally impossible for her to see you this afternoon. I know that if I were to disturb her, which I have no intention of doing as she is asleep in bed, she would refuse. That’s definite.’

The door opened and the footman came in.

‘Her ladyship, sir, wishes me to say that if Mr Alleyn has a few minutes to spare she would be very pleased to see him.’

He waited, gently closing the door on an extremely uncomfortable silence.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Lady Carrados Looks Back

ALLEYN FOLLOWED the footman upstairs, leaving Fox in the library to make the best of a sticky situation.

The footman handed Alleyn over to a maid who took him to Lady Carrados. She was not in bed. She was in her boudoir erect in a tall blue chair and wearing the look that had prompted Paddy O’Brien to compare her with a Madonna. She held out her hands when she saw Alleyn and as he took them a phrase came into his mind. He thought: ‘She is an English lady and these are an English lady’s hands, thin, unsensual, on the end of delicate thin arms.’

She said: ‘Roderick! I do call you Roderick, don’t I?’

Alleyn said: ‘I hope so. It’s a long time since we met, Evelyn.’

‘Too long. Your mother tells me about you sometimes. We spoke to each other today on the telephone. She was so very kind and understanding, Roderick, and she told me that you would be too. Do sit down and smoke. I should like to feel that you are not a great detective but an old friend.’

‘I should like to feel that too,’ said Alleyn. ‘I must tell you, Evelyn, that I was on the point of asking to see you when I got your message.’

‘An official call?’

‘Yes, bad luck to it. You’ve made everything much pleasanter by asking for me.’

She pressed the thin hands together and Alleyn, noticing the bluish lights on the knuckles, remembered how Troy had wanted to paint them.

Lady Carrados said, ‘I suppose Herbert didn’t want you to see me?’

‘He wasn’t very pleased with the idea. He thought you were too tired and distressed.’