‘I demand –’ Bimbo reiterated, but his wife cut him short.

‘All right, darling,’ she said. ‘So you’ve told us. You demand an explanation and I rather fancy you’re going to get it. So do pipe down.’ She returned to Alleyn. ‘Are you going to tell us,’ she asked, ‘that we all had red-hot motives for getting rid of Hal? Because I feel sure we had.’

‘Contrary to popular belief,’ he said, ‘the police are concerned less with motive than with opportunity and behaviour. But, yes. As it happens you all had motives of a sort. Yours, for instance, could be thought to come under the heading of maternal love.’

‘Could it, indeed?’ said Desirée.

‘By God – !’ Bimbo shouted, but Alleyn cut him short.

‘And you,’ he said, ‘wanted to invest in this project that Cartell wouldn’t countenance. Judging from the unopened bills on your desk and your past history, this could be a formidable motive.’

‘And that,’ Leonard observed, smirking at Bimbo, ‘takes the silly grin off your face, Jack, doesn’t it.’

‘Whereas,’ Alleyn continued, ‘you, Mr Leiss, and Miss Ralston, were directly threatened both by Mr Cartell and, I think, Mr Period, with criminal proceedings which would almost certainly land you in gaol.’

‘No!’ Connie ejaculated.

‘A threat,’ Alleyn said, ‘that may be said to provide your motive as well, I’m afraid, Miss Cartell. As for Alfred Belt and Mrs Mitchell, who are not present, they were both greatly concerned to end Mr Cartell’s tenancy which they found intolerable. Murder has been done for less.’

It was not pleasant, he thought, to see the veiled eagerness with which they welcomed this departure. Leonard actually said: ‘Well, of course. Now you’re talking,’ and Moppett flicked the tip of her tongue over her lips.

‘But I repeat,’ Alleyn went on, ‘that it is circumstance, opportunity and behaviour that must concern us. Opportunity, after a fashion, you all had. Miss Ralston and Mr Leiss were on the premises late that night. They had stolen the cigarette-case and the case was found by the body. The trap was laid by somebody wearing leather and string gloves and Mr Leiss had lost such a pair of gloves.’

Leonard and Moppett began to talk together but Alleyn held up his hand and they stopped dead.

‘Their behaviour, however, doesn’t make sense. If they were planning to murder Mr Cartell they would hardly have publicized their actions by singing and whistling under Mr Period’s window.’

Moppett gave a strangulated sob, presumably of relief.

‘Lady Bantling had opportunity and she knew the lie of the land. She could have set the trap but it’s obvious she didn’t do so as she was seen by Mr Bantling and Miss Maitland-Mayne, returning, across the planks, to her car. She, too, had publicized her visit by serenading Mr Cartell from the garden. Her behaviour does not commend itself as that of an obsessive, maternal murderess.’

‘Too kind of you to say so,’ Desirée murmured.