‘And I’m sure you, Elliot and Andy had a great evening together. In whatever private dining room you’d hired. In black tie no doubt. Yes, I can well imagine the three of you in some oak-panelled private room in a fancy pub somewhere near here. All togged up, all in agreement at what a disgrace it was you can’t smoke cigars indoors these days. But here’s the thing. Monday the fifth was the same day that Elliot went to see Stefan at his gallery. I bet Elliot was fuming when you saw him. In fact, he must have been, knowing what then followed.

‘You see, I think he told you everything. How Stefan was a crook, which, I’m sad to say, I now realise was the truth. Because he stole a valuable Rothko painting from Elliot decades ago. And Elliot told you all about it. How he’d argued with Stefan at Henley a few weeks before. But he must have also told you what he’d done since then. You see, Elliot was so incensed by his argument with Stefan at Henley that he had decided to wreak revenge.

‘He wanted his Rothko back. But how to do it? Well, since Elliot has always been so desperate to prove his talent, he decided he’d paint a forgery of it. But, again, how could he do that? He’d not seen the picture in decades. And he’d have to somehow get the real frame from the real Rothko onto his forgery so Stefan wouldn’t notice the difference. So Elliot broke into Stefan’s house. Just to take photos of the Rothko, I think. And to measure the frame and see how it all fastened together and so on. But once he’d done that, he left. Which was why, when Stefan returned later on and called the police because there’d been a break-in, he couldn’t prove that anything had been stolen. Nothing had been stolen. It had simply been a fact-finding mission for Elliot.

‘Next, Elliot set about rediscovering his ability at painting Rothkos. Reminding himself of the technique and palette required. Which explains all of the Rothko-style paintings we found him burning in his garden much later on. He was getting rid of his practice canvases.

‘But Stefan worked out that Elliot had been behind the break-in. Maybe he saw that his Rothko wasn’t hanging quite as straight on the wall as it should have been. Or maybe Elliot saw Stefan and taunted him somehow. We’ll never know, but whatever it was that tipped Stefan off, it was enough to make him want to get Elliot into his office and accuse him of the break-in. And also to threaten him that he could go to the police.