‘Yes,’ said Peter, ‘that’s typical of Micah Yeomans. He hates interference.’

‘I asked people from the Hampden Club where else I could go. Yours was the first name on their lips.’

‘Don’t forget my brother. We operate as a team.’

‘I’ve no money to pay you at the moment,’ confessed Hooper, ‘but I’m sure that I can raise it when I take the hat round.’

‘I won’t ask for a fee at this point. Paul and I choose to be paid by results. If we fail, you owe us nothing. If we succeed – and we usually do – we can decide on a fair return for our labours.’

‘Whatever it costs, I’ll find the money somehow. The question is this – will you take on the search for the killer?’

‘I can’t make that decision, Mr Hooper. I find the case intriguing, but my brother will have a much stronger claim.’

‘Why is that?’

‘Paul was actually there last night,’ said Peter, choosing his words with care. ‘My brother acts as a bodyguard to one of the actresses in the play. His task is to conduct her safely through the phalanx of admirers.’

‘I still don’t understand what Sir Roger were doing there.’

‘Didn’t he tell you that he was going to the theatre?’

‘No,’ said Hooper. ‘He told me that he was having dinner with a friend in Mayfair. There were no mention made of Covent Garden. I wonder what made him change his mind and go to see a play instead?’

Peter didn’t wish to disillusion him. It was clear that Mellanby had intended to watch Macbeth all along and had fobbed Hooper off with a blatant lie. When he was on the loose in London, the politician enjoyed himself. His behaviour there, Peter guessed, was almost certainly at variance with the image of himself that he’d carefully created in his home town. It sounded to him as if the man worshipped by Hooper might well be a voluptuary when liberated from his domestic concerns in the Midlands. Evidently, Mellanby led a complex life. The notion of uncovering it only served to heighten Peter’s interest in the case.

‘The Runners have greater resources,’ he said, ‘and they’ll have the chief magistrate urging them to secure a speedy arrest and conviction. To give him credit, Yeomans will work hard to find the killer but his overconfidence is a weakness. Because he’s so sure of himself, he’s thrown away a priceless asset.’

‘Has he?’ asked Hooper. ‘What is it?’