Alleyn said patiently: ‘Without any overtones or suggestions of criminal intention, I would rather like to trace exactly the movements of the group of people who were in conversation with Miss Bellamy during the last ten minutes or so of her life. You have all heard, ad nauseam, I dare say, of police routine. This is an example of it. I know you were all with her in the conservatory. I know each one of you, before the climax of her party, came out into the hall with the intention, Colonel Warrender tells me, of saying goodbye to two comparative strangers who for some reason that has not yet been divulged were leaving just before this climax. Among you was Mr Richard Dakers, Miss Bellamy’s ward. Mr Dakers left the house on the heels of those two guests. His reason for doing so may well be personal and, from my point of view, completely uninteresting. But I’ve got to clear him up. Now then. Any of you know why they left and why he left?’

‘Certainly,’ Gantry said promptly. ‘He’s catched with Anelida Lee. No doubt he wanted to see more of her.’

‘At that juncture? All right!’ Alleyn added quickly. ‘We leave that one, do we? We take it that there was nothing remarkable about Octavius Browne and his niece sweeping out of the party, do we, and that it was the most natural thing in the world for Miss Bellamy’s ward to turn his back on her and follow them? Do we? Or do we?’

‘Oh, Lord, Lord, Lord!’ Bertie wavered. ‘The way you put things.’

Pinky said: ‘I did hear the uncle remind her that they had to leave early.’

‘Did he say why?’

‘No.’

‘Had any of you met them before?’

Silence.

‘None of you? Why did you all feel it necessary to go into the hall to say goodbye to them?’

Pinky and Bertie looked at each other out of the corners of their eyes and Warrender cleared his throat. Gantry appeared to come to a decision.

‘I don’t usually discuss this sort of thing outside the theatre,’ he said, ‘but under the circumstances I suppose I’d better tell you. I’ve decided to hear Miss Lee read the leading role in’ – he hesitated fractionally – ‘in a new play.’

‘Really? Wonderful luck for her,’ Alleyn said. ‘What play?’

‘Oops!’ Bertie said involuntarily.

‘It’s called Husbandry in Heaven.’

‘By – ?’

Warrender barked: ‘Does it matter?’

‘Not that I know,’ Alleyn murmured. ‘Why should it? Let’s find out.’

Pinky said boldly: ‘I don’t see a bit why it should matter. We all heard about it.’

‘Did you?’ Alleyn asked. ‘When? At the party?’

She blushed scarlet. ‘Yes. It was mentioned there.’

‘In the conservatory?’

Bertie said in a hurry, ‘Mentioned. Just mentioned.’

‘And we haven’t had the author’s name yet, have we?’

Pinky said: ‘It’s a new play by Dicky Dakers, isn’t it, Timmy?’