‘Come in. What do you want?’

The room was sparsely furnished with a table and two chairs and an iron bedstead in the corner. A linnet in a wicker cage sang at the window.

‘Do you know where I can find William Hubbard?’

‘In the cemetery.’

‘What happened?’

‘’Twere a good few months ago. I heard shouting and then a scream. That was during the night. But there’s often screaming and shouting here. In the morning, I went out to buy milk. He lived in the room below this one. The door was standing open and he was lying there, all blood. He’d been stabbed.

‘I was ever so shook. I went out and saw a policeman and told him. More police came and then detectives. But nobody said anything. Well, most of them are villains, so they wouldn’t. Then his pore sister came. Such a taking she was in. I took her up to my room and made her tea.’

‘Do you know where she lives?’

‘She wrote it down on a slip of paper and told me if I remembered anything at all to contact her.’

‘Do you still have it?’

She went over to the mantelpiece and extracted a piece of paper from behind a plaster statue of the Virgin Mary.

‘May I take this?’

‘Yes, I’ve no use for it. I couldn’t tell her any more than I’ve told you.’

Outside, Harry looked at the paper. A Miss Emily Hubbard was lady’s maid to a Mrs Losse and there was an address in Launceston Place in Kensington.

He drove to Launceston Place and rang the bell. When a butler answered, Harry handed him his card and said he wished to speak to Miss Hubbard.

‘Wait there,’ said the butler, letting him into a hall which was little more than a narrow passage.

Harry waited. Then the butler came back downstairs, followed by a vision. This surely could not be the lady’s maid.

‘Captain Cathcart,’ she cooed in a husky voice with a slight accent. ‘I’ve always wanted to meet you. I am Mrs Losse. Please come into the parlour and tell me why you want to speak to Emily.’

Mrs Losse had masses of glossy auburn hair piled up on her small head. Her excellent bosom and tiny waist were displayed to advantage in a green silk gown which matched her very large and sparkling green eyes.

She listened while Harry told her of the murder of William Hubbard. ‘I feel it is connected to another case I am investigating.’

‘How thrilling. I read about you in the newspapers. So brave! All those people you rescued in that dreadful train crash.’ They were sitting together on a sofa. She put her hand on his arm and leaned towards him. She was wearing a heady perfume. Harry thought briefly of his chilly fiancée with a flash of dislike.

‘May I speak to Miss Hubbard?’ asked Harry. Something seemed to have happened to his voice and it came out as a croak. She gave him a languorous smile and rang a little silver bell on the table in front of her.