‘Was Ancred murdered? I think so. Did Sonia Orrincourt do it? I don’t know. I shall know, I believe, when the analyst sends in his report.’

‘If he finds the arsenic?’

‘If he finds it in one place, then I’m afraid it’s Sonia Orrincourt. If he finds it in three places, it’s Sonia Orrincourt or one other. If he doesn’t find it at all, then I think it’s that other. I’m not positive.’

‘And—the one other?’

‘I suppose it’s no more unpleasant for you to speculate about one than about several.’

‘I’d rather know, if it’s all right to tell me.’

‘Very well,’ Alleyn said, and told her.

After a long silence she said: ‘But it seems completely unreal. I can’t possibly believe it.’

‘Didn’t everything they did at Ancreton seem a bit unreal?’

‘Yes, of course. But to imagine that underneath all the showings-off and temperaments this could be happening…I can’t. Of all of them…that one!’

‘Remember, I may be wrong.’

‘You’ve a habit of not being wrong, though, haven’t you?’

‘The Yard,’ said Alleyn, ‘is littered with my blunders. Ask Fox. Troy, is this very beastly for you?’

‘No,’ said Troy, ‘it’s mostly bewildering. I didn’t form any attachments at Ancreton. I can’t give it a personal application.’

‘Thank God for that,’ he said and went to the Yard.

Here he found Fox in waiting with the tin of rat-bane. ‘I haven’t had a chance to hear your further adventures at Ancreton, Foxkin. The presence of Mr Mortimer rather cramped our style last night. How did you get on?’