His fury was tempered by caution. When he reached the gate, he hailed a cab and ordered the driver to whip the horse into a gallop. Instead of going straight back to his lodging, he took a circuitous route, asking the driver to stop at one point so that he could get out of the cab to make sure that nobody was following him. Clambering into the vehicle once more, he was driven off. Since the first attempt on his life had failed, he feared that a second might be made at his lodging. He therefore alighted from the cab a couple of streets away so that he could approach the address with care. One hand on his pistol, he walked past the building to see if anyone was keeping watch at the upstairs window, ready to open it. It remained shut. Only when he was convinced that nobody was lying in wait for him did he enter the house by the rear entrance and creep upstairs.

Unlocking his door, he opened it on a scene of complete destruction. The furniture had been overturned, the bed linen had been ripped to pieces and every item in his wardrobe had been shredded. Worst of all was the fact that the carpet had been pulled up to reveal a gaping void. The loose floorboard under which he’d hidden the money he’d already been paid had been yanked out. The space below was empty. Denied his second payment, he’d also been relieved of his first one. They’d taken everything and would be back to claim his life. Fondling his pistol, the assassin reached his decision. He had to kill or be killed.

When he’d left Captain Golightly’s house, Paul made a detour so that he could call in at the shooting gallery to deliver an interim report. Charlotte and Ackford were struck by the amount of valuable work he’d already put in, but they differed on one point.

‘I think that you should forget that actor,’ said Ackford. ‘I don’t believe that he has any connection with the murder outside the stage door.’

‘I disagree,’ said Charlotte. ‘It’s far too great a coincidence that a dead body turns up so close to the place where Sir Roger Mellanby was killed.’

‘It’s a distraction.’

‘Why do you think that, Gully?’ asked Paul.

‘We’re dealing with a political crime. You should be concentrating all your efforts on a search for the politicians behind it.’

‘That doesn’t mean we ignore a vital piece of evidence when it falls into Paul’s lap,’ argued Charlotte.

‘I don’t see it as evidence.’

‘Well, you should do.’

‘It’s not convincing, Charlotte. All that we know is that someone was killed in that alleyway. A drunken old actor gave Paul a name. He could’ve invented it in order to get another free drink.’

‘Simeon wouldn’t lie to me,’ said Paul. ‘I trust him.’