“And this is the corpse? A Friend of Apicius, are you saying?” He studied the close-up of the broken body with its thatch of silver hair. “Hard to make out where the blood puddle ends and the sherry puddle begins. Drinker, was he?”

“I’d say, certainly one of the Friends. An epicure, but not known to be a drinker to excess. Dr. Beaufort’s preliminary assessment is that he had in fact drunk only half a glass of sherry on this occasion. He had fallen, holding, or had thrown down after him as a distraction, a bottle of sherry the contents of which the doctor calculates—in difficult circumstances—correspond with four or five servings having been already dispensed. That would be half a bottle of that size.”

“Any idea who his drinking companions were?”

“Some. The table was laid on Friday evening for seven people, sir, so there’s a hefty clue. Here’s a photograph of it. Miss Wells counted four used sherry glasses and one that had contained nothing but water. Fanshawe was clutching a glass when he fell.”

“The seventh man?”

Redfyre shrugged. “A bloke who signed himself in the visitors’ book under a jokey pseudonym. Hardy?”

“We know he was about the place at the crucial time. He left his body behind in evidence. You can’t be clearer than that.”

“I’ve made off with the college refectory signing-in book, sir. Here, take a look.”

MacFarlane took the book he was handed and studied the page for Friday the sixteenth. “The meal started at what hour?”

“Seven o’clock on a Friday.”

“The dons—they have to sign a book like the students? Don’t they object?”

“No idea, sir. It’s only on weekends, apparently, and particular to Jude’s. It helps the chefs keep a tab on numbers and cuts down on waste. Even the colleges have to watch their budgets these days.

“The first three—no, four—signatures are H. Sackville, Quintus Crewe, Digby Gisbourne and R. Rendlesham. Hmm . . .” He pointed to the page. “You did notice the placing of these?”

“I did! And the ink. Amateurs! Still, given the circumstances, they may have been a little bit unsettled. Not their usual sharp selves. I’ve asked the science department to enlarge and evaluate.”

“These are, at least, their bona fide signatures?”