He looked serious for the first time since Charlie had arrived. ‘I’m not the Salvation Army, sweetheart. I help people only after money’s changed hands. Outside of that, I don’t tell and I don’t ask. I’m not curious, see. That’s the most important asset someone in my delicate position can have, let me tell you. Have I asked you who Maurice Blandford is?’ He licked his finger and tapped the air, awarding a point to himself.

‘Did you meet Blanford?’ Charlie asked. ‘Or did he send a courier for the picture, and transfer the money directly into your bank account? He did, didn’t he? Did that strike you as odd at the time?’

‘The only thing striking me as odd are your questions. And Dunning’s. Putting it all together, I’d say Aidan Seed’s mixed up in the suspicious death Dunning’s fretting about, and maybe Maurice Blandford is too, but I don’t know how, and I don’t care. Like I say, money has to change hands.’

‘I don’t suppose you’ve still got the bank statement with the account name and number on it? From the transfer?’

Kerry snickered. ‘This is what I love about you: that faint whiff of desperation—your signature scent.’

Charlie persisted. ‘How much did Blandford give you for the picture? Was it something in the region of eight thousand pounds?’

‘If you’re waiting for me to ask how you know all this, you’re in for a long wait,’ said Kerry. ‘I don’t pry, in case it leads to a conflict of interests.’ He raised his glass, clinked it against Charlie’s. ‘I’ve got my sponsor to think of, my early retirement. My name in lights outside comedy clubs . . .’

‘Sponsor?’

He patted her hand. ‘It all comes down, in life, to whose side you’re on. You’re on Simon Waterhouse’s side—that’s why your career and love life are going down the pan. Me? I’m on the side of my clients, because, at the end of the day, they pay the bills.’

‘You said “sponsor” singular.’ Kerry looked put out. Charlie licked her finger and notched up a point to herself. ‘Money seems to like you, Kerry. First you buy a painting by a guy you can’t stand for—what, a grand? Two? And a stranger offers you eight for it when you’ve had it less than a month.’

‘I talked him up to ten, actually,’ he corrected her. ‘And it was less than a week.’