‘At any rate,’ said Fabian, with an air of relief that was unexpectedly naive, ‘you’re not laughing at me.’

‘Of course not, but I don’t fully understand you.’

‘The official stuff has been useless. It’s a year old. It’s just a string of uncorrected details. For what it’s worth you’ve got it in these precious files. It doesn’t give you a picture of a Flossie Rubrick who was murder-worthy.’

‘You know,’ said Alleyn cheerfully, ‘that’s only another way of saying there was no apparent motive.’

‘All right. I’m being too elaborate. Put it this way. If factual evidence doesn’t produce a motive, isn’t it at least possible that something might come out of our collective idea of Flossie?’

‘If it could be discovered.’

‘Well, but couldn’t it?’ Fabian was now earnest and persuasive. Alleyn began to wonder if he had been very profoundly disturbed by his experience and was indeed a little unhinged. ‘If we could get them all together and start them talking, couldn’t you, an expert, coming fresh to the situation, get something? By the colour of our voices, by our very evasions? Aren’t those signs that a man with your training would be able to read? Aren’t they?’

‘They are signs,’ Alleyn replied, trying not to sound too patient, ‘that a man with my training learns to treat with extreme reserve. They are not evidence.’

‘No, but taken in conjunction with the evidence, such as it is?’

‘They can’t be disregarded, certainly.’

Fabian said fretfully, ‘But I want you to get a picture of Flossie in the round. I don’t want you to have only my idea of her which, truth to tell, is of a maddeningly arrogant piece of efficiency, but Ursula’s idea of a wonderwoman, Douglas’s idea of a manageable and not unprofitable aunt, Terence’s idea of an exacting employer—all these. But I didn’t mean to give you an inkling. I wanted you to hear for yourself, to start cold.’

‘You say you haven’t spoken of her for six months. How am I to break the spell?’

‘Isn’t it part of your job,’ Fabian asked impatiently, ‘to be a corkscrew?’

‘Lord help us,’ said Alleyn good-humouredly, ‘I suppose it is.’

‘Well, then!’ cried Fabian triumphantly. ‘Here’s a fair field with me to back you up. And, you know, I don’t believe it’s going to be so difficult. I believe they must be in much the same case as I am. It took a Herculean effort to write that letter. If I could have grabbed it back, I would have done so. I can’t tell you how much I funked the idea of starting this conversation but, you see, now I have started there’s no holding me.’

‘Have you warned them about this visitation?’