Alleyn seemed to be lost in thought. Martyn, alone of all the company, looked at him. She thought she had never seen a face as withdrawn and—incongruously the word flashed up again—compassionate. She wondered if he had come to some crucial point and she watched anxiously for the sign of a decision. But at this moment she felt Poole’s eyes upon her and when she looked at him they exchanged the delighted smiles of lovers. ‘How can we,’ she thought, and tried to feel guilty. But she hadn’t heard Alleyn speak and he was halfway through his first sentence before she gave him her attention.

‘…So far about opportunity,’ he was saying. ‘If there were two visits to the dressing-room during the last act I think probably all of you except Miss Hamilton could have made the earlier one. But for the second visit there is a more restricted field. Shall I take you in the order in which you are sitting? Miss Tarne, in that case, comes first.’

Martyn thought: ‘I ought to feel frightened again.’

‘Miss Tarne has told us that after she left the stage, and she was the first to leave it, she stood at the entry to the dressing-room passage. She was in a rather bemused state of mind and doesn’t remember much about it until Mr Percival, Mr Darcey and Mr Bennington himself came past. All three spoke to her in turn and went on down the passage. It is now that the crucial period begins. Mr Doré was nearby and after directing the gunshot, took her to her dressing-room. On the way, he looked in for a few seconds on Mr Bennington who had just gone to his own room. After Miss Tarne and Mr Doré had both heard Mr Darcey and Mr Percival return to the stage, they followed them out. They give each other near alibis up to this point and the stage-hands extend Miss Tarne’s alibi to beyond the crucial time. She is, I think, out of the picture.’

Gay Gainsford stared at Martyn. ‘That,’ she said, ‘must be quite a change for you.’

‘Miss Gainsford comes next.’ Alleyn said as if he had not heard her. ‘She was in the greenroom throughout the crucial period and tells us she was asleep. There is no witness to this.’

‘George!’ said Gay Gainsford wildly and turned to Darcey, thus revealing for the first time in this chronicle, his Christian name. ‘It’s all right, dear,’ he said. ‘Don’t be frightened. It’s all right.’