‘All right, let’s look at the facts as the prosecution would present them to a jury. First of all there’s your uncontrollable temper, your convictions for violence. The medical report when you were in Wandsworth said you needed psychiatric treatment, but you refused. That won’t look good for a start.’

‘Go on – this is fascinating.’

‘You bring Grace Packard back here late at night and give her ten pounds to pose for you for two or three minutes.’

‘The simple truth.’

‘I know that – I believe it because it’s typical of you, but if you think there’s a jury in England that would swallow such an explanation you’re crazy.’

‘You’re not leaving me with much hope, are you?’

‘I’m not finished yet.’ Morgan carried on relentlessly. ‘No more than a couple of minutes after she left you went out after her. You bought cigarettes at that coffee stall in Regent Square and she was killed not more than two hundred yards away a few minutes later. And you had her gloves – can you imagine what the prosecution would try to make out of that one?’

Faulkner seemed surprisingly calm considering the circumstances. ‘And what about the ten-pound note? If it didn’t exist why should I bother to mention it in the first place?’

‘A further complication … all part of the smokescreen.’

‘And you believe that?’

‘I think a jury might.’

Faulkner went to the bar, reached for the gin bottle and poured himself another drink. He stood with his back to them for a moment. When he finally turned, he looked calm and serious.

‘A good case, Jack, but one or two rather obvious flaws. You’ve laid some stress on the fact that I had Grace Packard’s gloves. I think it’s worth pointing out that I had them before she was killed. In any case, the gloves are only important if you maintain that Grace Packard was killed by the Rainlover. Have you considered that?’

‘Yes, I’ve considered it,’ Morgan said gravely.

‘But if I am the Rainlover then I killed the others and you’d have to prove that was possible. What about the woman killed the night before last for example? As I told you when you called for me last night, I’d been working two days non-stop. Hadn’t even left the studio.’

‘The body was found in Jubilee Park no more than a quarter of a mile from here. You could have left by the back stairs and returned inside an hour and no one the wiser. That’s what the prosecution would say.’

‘But I didn’t know about the murder, did I? You had to tell me. Don’t you remember? It was just after you arrived. I was dressing in the bedroom and you spoke to me from in here.’