Miller produced the gloves and tossed them down on the desk. ‘Those belonged to Grace Packard. Faulkner left them at the coffee stall by mistake.’

Mallory picked them up, frowning. ‘You mean you’ve been there this morning?’

‘That’s right. Brady told me about Dwyer’s report. I thought I might as well call at the coffee stall on my way to pick young Phillips up, just to see what the proprietor had to say.’

‘I thought I told you I wanted Phillips picked up right away?’ Mallory demanded harshly.

‘So I wasted ten minutes. Would it interest you to know that when those gloves dropped out of Faulkner’s pocket he told the owner of the coffee stall they belonged to his fiancée? Now why would he do that?’

Mallory laughed in his face. ‘Because he didn’t want him to know he’d been out with another woman or is that too simple for you?’

‘But a great many people already knew he’d been in Grace Packard’s company that night. Everyone at the party saw him leave with her. Why tell the bloke at the coffee stall such a silly lie at this stage?’

‘I think you’re placing far too much importance on a very minor incident.’

‘But is it minor, sir? Inspector Wade reminded us earlier that in every other incident the Rainlover had taken some item or another from the victim. He said that didn’t seem to have happened in this case. Can we be certain of that knowing about these gloves?’

‘So we’re back to the Rainlover again?’ Mallory shook his head. ‘It won’t fit, Miller. There are too many other differences.’

‘All right,’ Miller said. ‘But I still think Faulkner has a lot of explaining to do. To start with he was in the girl’s company and his reasons for taking her back to the flat were eccentric enough to be highly suspect.’

‘Not at all,’ Mallory countered. ‘Typical behaviour according to his friends and past record.’

‘He was in the immediate area of the murder only minutes before it took place, we’ve two witnesses to that. And he lied about the girl’s gloves to Harkness.’

‘Why did he visit the coffee stall? Did Harkness tell you that?’

‘To buy cigarettes.’

‘Was this the first time?’

‘No, he frequently appeared at odd hours for the same reason.’

‘Can you imagine what a good defence counsel would do with that?’

‘All right,’ Miller said. ‘It’s circumstantial – all of it, but there are too many contributing factors to ignore. Take this pattern of violence for example. Unusual in a man of his background. I’ve got the medical report on him here.’

He handed it across and Mallory shook his head. ‘I haven’t got time. Tell me the facts.’