‘There’s a general suggestion,’ he said, ‘that none of you was very surprised by this event. May I just—sort of tally-up—the general opinion as far as I’ve heard it? It helps to keep things tidy, I find. Miss Hamilton, you tell us that your husband had a curious, an almost morbid interest in the Jupiter case. You and Mr Doré agree that Mr Bennington had decided to take his life because he couldn’t face the “dissolution of his character”. Miss Gainsford, if I understand her, believes he was deeply disturbed by the mise en scène and also by her inability to go on tonight for this part. Miss Tarne’s account of what was probably the last statement he made suggests that he wanted her to understand that some action he had in mind had nothing to do with her. Mr Doré supports this interpretation and confirms the actual words that were used. This, as far as it goes, is the only tangible bit of evidence as to intention that we have.’

Poole lifted his head. His face was very white and a lock of black hair had fallen over his forehead turning him momentarily into the likeness, Martyn thought inconsequently, of Michelangelo’s ‘Adam’. He said: ‘There’s the fact itself, Alleyn. There’s what he did.’

Alleyn said carefully: ‘There’s an interval of perhaps eight minutes between what he said and when he was found.’

‘Look here—’ Parry Percival began and then relapsed. ‘Let it pass,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t know.’

‘Pipe up, Narcissus,’ Dr Rutherford adjured him, ‘the inspector won’t bite you.’

‘Oh, shut up!’ Parry shouted and was awarded a complete and astonished silence. He rose and addressed himself to the players. ‘You’re all being so bloody frank and sensible about this suicide,’ he said. ‘You’re so anxious to show everybody how honest you are. The doctor’s so unconcerned he can even spare a moment to indulge in his favourite pastime of me-baiting. I know what the doctor thinks of me and it doesn’t say much for his talents as a diagnostician. But if it’s Queer to feel desperately sorry for a man who was miserable enough to choke himself to death at a gas-jet, if it’s Queer to be physically and mentally sick at the thought of it then, by God, I’d rather be Queer than normal. Now!’

There followed a silence broken only by the faint whisper of the young constable’s pencil.

Doctor Rutherford struggled to his feet and lumbered down to Parry.