‘No. I can’t suspect her. She has been with me for fifteen years. She’s my old dresser. I know she wouldn’t do it.’

‘Have you any idea who could have taken it?’

‘I can’t think, except that for my charade party I turned my room into a buffet, and the men moved everything round.’

‘What men?’

‘The caterer’s men. Dimitri. But Dimitri superintended them the whole time. I don’t believe they had an opportunity.’

‘I see,’ said Alleyn.

He saw she now watched him with a different kind of awareness. Alleyn had interviewed a great number of Mrs Halcut-Hacketts in his day. He knew very well that with such women he carried a weapon that he was loath to use, but which nevertheless fought for him. This was the weapon of his sex. He saw with violent distaste that some taint of pleasure threaded her fear of him. And the inexorable logic of thought presented him to himself, side by side with her lover.

He said: ‘Suppose we get the position clear. In your own interest I may tell you that we have already gathered a great deal of information. Lord Robert was helping us on the blackmail case, and he has left us his notes. From them and from our subsequent enquiries we have pieced this much together. In your own case Captain Withers was the subject of the blackmailing letters. Following our advice you carried out the blackmailer’s instruction and left your bag in the corner of the sofa at the Constance Street Hall. It was taken. Because Lord Robert deliberately sat next to you and because Captain Withers had, as you put it, warned you against him, you came to the conclusion that Lord Robert took the bag and was therefore your blackmailer. Why did you not report to the police the circumstances of the affair at the concert? You had agreed to do so. Were you advised to let the case drop as far as the Yard was concerned?’

‘Yes.’

‘By Captain Withers? I see. That brings us to last night. You say you noticed that Lord Robert watched you both during the ball. I must ask you again if Captain Withers agrees with your theory that Lord Robert was a blackmailer.’

‘He—he simply warned me against Lord Robert.’

‘In view of these letters and the sums of money the blackmailer demanded, did you think it advisable to keep up your friendship with Captain Withers?’

‘We—there was nothing anybody could—I mean—’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Alleyn sternly.

She wetted her lips. Again he saw that look of subservience and thought that of all traits in an ageing woman this was the unloveliest and most pitiable.

She said: ‘Our friendship is partly a business relationship.’

‘A business relationship?’ Alleyn repeated the words blankly.