“Presumably because it had blood and hair on it?” Darcy said, glancing across at me.

“Criminals aren’t usually that squeamish,” the sheriff said. “He could have wiped it off. Instead he’s left us the murder weapon and if we tie in prints on the candlestick with that bloody print on the window frame, we’ll have us a murder conviction.”

He looked around the group as if he wanted everyone to know he had just made a good point. “So those candlesticks were valuable, right?”

“Extremely,” Ronnie said. “They were solid gold, decorated with real jewels.”

The sheriff whistled. “I thought that would just be gold plating. Solid gold, huh? Must be worth a fortune.”

“The strange thing is that an El Greco painting was also in the room and I presume it must be a lot more valuable than the candlesticks but that wasn’t touched.”

The sheriff looked at him with pity. “Golden candlesticks can be melted down, boy,” he said. “It’s not as easy to fence a stolen painting.”

He tilted back in his chair to a point that I thought he might topple over backward. “So let’s get back to where we were. You were smoking and drinking and examining these candlesticks. Then what?”

“One by one we left the library,” Darcy said. “I think Ronnie went first, then Craig and I followed him and then Algie . . .”

“Who?” the sheriff demanded. I realized we’d all overlooked Algie again. He had sat silent and unnoticed in the shadows.

“Me,” Algie said in a squeak. “Algernon Broxley-Foggett. Another English aristocrat over here helping Mr. Goldman with the script of the picture. And a close friend of these other English people.”

I looked at Darcy, who was about to open his mouth to deny this, but then he changed his mind.

“So how come I missed you before when I was going around getting names?” the sheriff asked angrily.

“Happens all the time, I’m afraid,” Algie said. “The trouble is I’m rather forgettable. Always been my misfortune to be overlooked. Just a likable, ordinary chap, I suppose. Easy to overlook me among all these glamorous types.”

“So you were the last to leave the library?”

“I wandered out behind O’Mara and Craig Hart,” Algie said. “Then I lingered on because I was interested in the suit of armor and it looked about my size. Unfortunately I got the helmet stuck on my head and knocked over the whole bally thing. Typical of me, I’m afraid.”

“And what about Mr. Goldman? Did he stay in the library after you left?”

“He did,” Craig said. “He told us to go ahead and he’d better put the candlesticks in the safe or there would be hell to pay from his wife. So we left him there and went to join the others in this room.”

“So would you say you were the last to see Mr. Goldman alive?”