‘You’re asking me, sir,’ said Markins, in an indignant whisper. ‘Look! If that young man had crawled about after me on his stomach in broad daylight, he wouldn’t have given himself away more than he did. Look, sir. He got into my room and messed about like a coal heaver. His prints all over everything! Butted his head in among my suits and left them smelling of his hair oil, and I’m blest if he didn’t pinch a bill out of my pockets. Well, I mean to say, it was awkward. If he went howling up to Headquarters about me being a spy or some such, they’d be annoyed with me for putting myself away. It was comical, too. I was there to watch his blinking plant for him and he goes and makes up his mind I’m just what I pretended I was to Kan & Co.’

‘You must have done something to arouse his suspicions.’

‘I never!’ said Markins indignantly. ‘Why should I? As far as he knew, I never went near his blinking workroom but once. That was when I had an urgent telephone call for Mrs Rubrick. I heard voices up there and went along. He and Mr Losse were muttering in the doorway and didn’t hear me. When he did see me, he looked at me like I was the Demon King.’

‘He says he heard you prowling about the passage at a quarter to three in the morning, three weeks before Mrs Rubrick was killed.’

Markins made a faint squeaking noise. ‘Like hell he did! I never heard such a thing! What’d I be doing outside his workroom? Yes, and what does he do but rush off to Madam and tell her she’s got to give me the sack.’

‘You heard about that, did you?’