‘Only partly. You wanted something to show Harry Faulkner. You knew he’d arrange things. A show of force, perhaps, that would frighten Ben away. You made a mistake there. Ben Garvald wasn’t the sort of man to be frightened by anything. You came to us just to make it look good.’

‘You’ve been to Bella.’

He nodded. ‘Once I told her how much I’d worked out for myself, she soon came across with the rest. She even told me about the divorce. How Ben suggested she go through with it as a blind to allay any possible suspicion by the police that she just might have that money.’

‘Did she tell you she was Ben’s driver when he pulled the Steel Amalgamated job?’

‘You were her alibi. You swore to the police that she hadn’t been out of the house all night and, afterwards, blackmailed her. You put the screws on your own sister. She knew that all you had to do was open your mouth and she’d get five years.’

‘I needed that money,’ she said calmly.

‘I realize that now,’ he said. ‘Four years at University. Did you really work as a barmaid at nights, by the way? And then there was this place. You said you were paying Miss Van Heflin a percentage of your profits each year. You didn’t tell me you gave her a down payment of three thousand pounds. She did. I hauled her out of bed and spoke to her on the phone half an hour ago. A nice old girl. She hopes you haven’t done anything wrong, by the way.’

Her iron composure cracked and she slammed a fist down hard on top of the piano. ‘I had to get out of Khyber Street, Nick. You can understand that? I had to.’

‘And what about Ben?’

‘He was going to spoil everything. If he’d had some sense, if he’d stayed away, none of this would have happened.’

‘Bella told me how you arranged things. That if Ben turned up she was to give him a phoney story about the money being hidden on board a boat she was supposed to have moored at Hagen’s Wharf. You asked her to bring the gun for protection only. You were going to bribe Ben to go away. That’s what you told her.’

Jean shrugged. ‘Poor Bella, she could never really handle anything when the going got rough. I had to do it all for her, even when I was a kid. You’ll never find the gun, you know.’