‘Speaking parts. It’s easier than it looks. The old Colonel Blimpish chap and his son. Never had a chance. The son was “dead” and lying on the stage, hidden from the audience, and the old boy was stiff-upper-lipping on the stairs while the murder was done.’

‘So much for the Siwards. And Malcolm was on stage and speaking. Now I’m going to reiterate. Not for the first and I’m afraid not for the last time. Gaston Sears was offstage at the crucial moment and talking in a whisper to the King and Miss Gaythorne. Young William was with them.

‘The witches had come on for the curtain call and were waiting upstage on the rostrum. Macduff, now. Let’s look a bit closer at Macduff. At first glance he seemed a possibility. He’s a man with a temper and there’s been some sort of trouble between him and Macbeth. He ended the fight by chasing Macbeth off. His story is that Macbeth screamed and fell down as usual and he went straight off and was seen to do so by various actors. Confirmed by the actors. By which time Macbeth was dead. I tried it out with you, Br’er Fox, and I was well over four minutes. We played the scene with Gaston as Macbeth and the cast and it was three. Moreover, Morten – Macduff – would have had to get the dummy head off the claidheamh-mor before killing Macbeth with it while Macbeth – I’ve said this ad nauseam – stood or lay there waiting to be beheaded. It does not, Br’er Fox, make sense. As Macduff himself pointed out, it would have been a whole lot easier for him to have done a Lizzie Borden on Macbeth during their fight and afterwards say he didn’t know how he’d gone wrong.’

‘His weapon’s blunt.’

‘It weighs enough for a whack on the head to fix Macbeth.’

‘Yerse. But it didn’t.’

‘No. We’ll move on. Banquo. Banquo is a very rum fellow. He’s devious, is Banquo, and he was “dead” all this long time and free, up to the second curtain call, to go wherever he liked. He could have gone into the OP corner and waited there in the dark with the claidheamh-mor when Gaston left it there for the stagehand to put the dummy head on it. The stagehand did put it there. Banquo removed it and did the deed. There’s no motive that I can see but he’s a possibility.’

‘And are you going to tell me that Banquo is the perpetrator of the funny business with the dummy heads? And the typed message?’

‘I rather think so. I’m far from happy with the idea, all the same.’

‘Humph,’ said Fox.