‘It never does to start with, Sergeant. Suppositions, inaccuracies, statements that don’t really hold water – that’s all we ever have to work with in most cases. For example, Phillips says that he walked the streets for a while after leaving the pub, then had a coffee at the station buffet. How many people would you say use that buffet on a Saturday night?’

‘Thousands, sir.’

‘Exactly. In other words it would be unreasonable to expect some sort of personal identification by any of the buffet staff. Another thing – as far as we can judge at the moment, ‘the girl was killed at around half-ten.’

‘And Phillips was home at nine-thirty and in bed ten minutes or so later. What was it he said? That he took his mother a cup of tea?’

‘Interesting thing about Mrs Phillips,’ Mallory said. ‘Brady had to kick on the door for a good five minutes before he could rouse Phillips. There wasn’t a bleat from the old girl. In fact Phillips told him she was sleeping like a baby.’

Miller frowned. ‘That doesn’t make very good sense.’

‘Even more interesting was the bottle of Canbutal capsules Brady found on the mantelpiece. A couple of those things and you wouldn’t hear a bomb go off in the next street.’

‘Might be an idea to check with her doctor in the morning, just to get a complete picture.’

Mallory nodded. ‘Brady can handle that.’ He got to his feet. ‘I’m going over to the Medical School now. We’ve hauled Professor Murray out of bed. He’s going to get cracking on the post-mortem just as soon as the Forensic boys have finished with her. You’d better get a couple of hours’ sleep in the rest room. If I want you, I’ll phone.’

Miller helped him on with his coat. ‘What about Faulkner?’

Mallory shook his head. ‘I never had much of a hunch about him, not in the way I do about Phillips.’

‘I’m afraid I can’t agree with you there, sir.’

For a moment, Mallory poised on the brink of one of those sudden and terrible wraths for which he was famous. With a great effort he managed to control himself and said acidly, ‘Don’t tell me you’re going to solve this thing in a burst of intuitive genius, Miller?’

‘Meadows had some very interesting things to say about him, sir,’ Miller said patiently. ‘There’s a pattern of violence there that just doesn’t fit in a man of his background. He uses force too easily, if you follow me.’

‘So do I when the occasion calls for it,’ Mallory said. ‘Is that all you have to go on?’

‘Not exactly, sir. He had a pretty strange conversation with Meadows one night when he was drunk. Meadows got the impression that he’d been inside.’