‘They don’t necessarily give a reason.’ I listened to what the telephone said. ‘I know, he’s only just left my suite. Ask him to give me a ring when he gets in, would you? The name is Kemp.’ I hung up the phone and lay on the bed.

‘First Ogilvie and now you,’ said Hanna.

‘First Salton,’ I corrected him. ‘Ogilvie came later.’

‘The connection between you and Ogilvie is obvious – maybe a little too obvious,’ said Hanna. ‘But it’s the methods. I don’t like the variety of methods. Ogilvie was beaten up and you were shot.’

‘It comes to the same thing in the end,’ I said. The telephone rang and I picked it up.

‘Ogilvie could have survived,’ said Hanna. ‘The attempt on you was intended to be more final.’ He shook his head irritably.

I said into the telephone, ‘Hello, doctor. How would alcohol mix with the sedative you gave me?’

‘You mean you want a drink?’ He paused. ‘It should be all right, provided you don’t drink the whole bottle.’

‘Thanks. I’ll do the same for you some day.’ I put down the phone and said to Hanna, ‘There are glasses on the tray and scotch in the minibar. Do you mind?’

He sighed tiredly and got up from the chair in which he was sitting. ‘You really think this is to do with Salton’s death?’

‘Don’t you? It seems as though anyone asking about Salton runs into trouble.’

Hanna put down two glasses on the bedside table. ‘No one has shot at me,’ he said. I frowned as he uncapped a half-bottle of malt and poured the drinks. ‘Who did you see today?’

‘A man called Roker from the Caribbean Banking Corporation.’

‘What did he want?’

‘I don’t have to tell you all my business,’ I said.

Hanna smiled. ‘Tell me something, even if it’s only a lie. What did Roker want?’

‘You remember me telling you that someone had been pretty insistent about me leaving – that was Roker. He wanted me to cease and desist. It seems I’m rocking his boat.’

‘What did you tell him?’

‘I told him what he could do with his suggestion. Then he tried to bribe me.’

‘Who else?’

‘Jake McKittrick, Joe Hawke, Abel Stern and Martin Idle of Salton Estates. Oh, and Mrs Forsyth, Salton’s secretary. There was also an anonymous character on the telephone who said that if I didn’t quit I’d get the same as Ogilvie.’

Hanna raised his eyebrows. ‘You should have told me about that. Were those his words – the same as Ogilvie – is that what he said?’

‘Exactly.’

‘But you were shot. That’s not the same as Ogilvie.’

‘The manner of my death won’t make any difference to me when I’m dead,’ I said tartly.