“Now listen to me,” Lord Charles was saying. “There is going to be no more of this. One of you went down in the lift with Violet and with him. Which was it?”

“I d-did,” said Stephen.

“Shut up,” said Colin. “I did.”

“Do you realize,” said Henry, “that one of you is making things look just about as murky as may be for the other?”

“If you imagine,” said Lord Charles, “that the police are to be checked by a childish trick of this sort, you are…” He paused and with a deflated air added hurriedly: “you simply couldn’t be more mistaken.”

“What about fingerprints?” said Frid.

“I didn’t touch anything,” said Colin.

“I kept my hands in my p-pocket,” said Stephen.

“Whichever it was, must have worked the lift,” Frid pointed out.

“The lift’s been used twice since then,” said Stephen.

“Twice, at least,” said Colin. “There won’t be any fingerprints worth talking about.”

“At any moment now,” Henry said, “Alleyn will come in and begin to ask questions. As soon as he sees what you are up to he’ll talk to you separately. If you think you’ve one sickly misbegotten hope of taking him in, you’re bigger bloody fools than anybody outside a bug-house.”

“Mummy’ll be back in a minute,” said Frid. “Don’t let’s have this going on when she comes in.”

Lord Charles said: “Stephen, did you commit this crime?”

“No, Father, I didn’t.”

“Colin?”

“No, Father, honestly.”

“On your most solemn word of honour, both of you.”

“No, Father,” repeated the twins. And Stephen added: “We’re not sorry he’s dead, of course, but it’s a filthy way to k-kill anybody.”

“Lousy,” agreed Colin cheerfully.

“I know very well that it seems grossly stupid and fantastic to ask you,” said Lord Charles. “Of course you are quite incapable of it. What I—I implore you to believe is that it is the last word in dangerous lunacy for an innocent man to lie to the police.”

“That’s what I keep telling Colin,” said Stephen.

“Then why don’t you take your own advice?” asked Colin. “Don’t be a fool. I went down in the lift, Father, and Stephen stayed in the drawing-room.”

“Which is a complete and sweltering lie,” added Stephen.

“So there you are,” said Frid. “Come off it, twins. It’s jolly clever, we all admit it’s jolly clever, but this is a serious affair. You can’t pit your puny wits against the master brain of Handsome Alleyn. You know, chaps, if it wasn’t for the fact that Uncle G. was murdered, it’d be rather a big moment for me having Handsome Alleyn in the flat. I’ve nursed an illicit passion for that man ever since the Gospell murder. Is he really the answer to the maiden’s prayer, Henry?”

“Do stop being crisp and modish, Frid,” begged Henry irritably. “You know that, like all the rest of us, you’re nearly dead with terror.”

“No, I’m not, honestly. I may wake up in the night bathed in a cold sweat but at the moment I’m sort of stimulated. Only I wish one of the twins would stop being mad.”