“Think about it. Leo is taking over as the new master. He has ambitions, a new plan, and he contacts the scattered members of Zodiac to let them know that they are once again under orders. That might be a very unpleasant thought if you were you’d spent the last four months worrying about being caught and attempting to hide your guilt. Or if you just wanted to count your money, and Leo was the fanatical type with some murderous scheme. We know his proposal didn’t go down well with the fellow who tried to turn King’s Evidence. Suppose it didn’t go down well with Fairfax either?”

“He’d already had his tattoo covered up, and he was doing nicely for himself,” Will said. “He didn’t want to be called back in, but he’d be for the chop if he refused, so he decided to run instead. Is that why he tried it on with Yoxall, for a bit of extra cash to fund his escape? Only Leo got him first.”

“With a vicious killing, brutal enough to make sure everyone hears about it, but a neat scapegoat in Chingford,” Kim agreed. “If a new master was looking to assert his power, wouldn’t that be a way to do it? Kill the defector, and make another man—a wealthy, well-born one—take the blame in a spectacular public manner. Demonstrate to the people who need to fear you that disobedience will be fatal, and you can get to them, whoever they are. It’s perfect.”

“Well, it might be,” Will said. “Only, first, Chingford still had a good reason to kill him, and second, we don’t actually know Fairfax was Virgo.”

“Spoilsport.” Kim sat back. “You’re right of course, and this is the problem. The Met have found nothing suspicious, and my chances of persuading them that this clearly blameless man was leading a double life, without any evidence—”

“Yes, but—” Phoebe came in.

“Yes, but he was!” Maisie said over her. “That’s what I wanted to tell you! It’s why we came, quite apart from Phoebe wanting to be a support, because I knew there was something funny going on when I saw the papers.” She paused dramatically. “His name wasn’t Fairfax!”

Kim blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

“I mean, it might have been,” Maisie said, slightly less dramatically. “It wasn’t only Fairfax, is what I mean. He called himself Mr. Alderney.”

Kim’s expression was a thing of beauty. Will said, “Called himself that when, Maise?”