“So what happened after you started blackmailing Blunt?”

“Steady on, old boy. I wouldn’t call it blackmail, exactly. I mean, I never threatened to send the letters and the picture to the newspapers or anything like that. You might even say I was trying to help the poor fellow out. To stop them from falling into the hands of anyone else. To give him peace of mind. Yes, I could have destroyed them, but then he might always have wondered what became of them, and if one day they might come back to haunt him. You do see the difference.”

“You’re a much better blackmailer than you think you are, Robin.”

Robin Maugham leaned forward and stubbed out his cigarette with fury, as if he wished the ashtray had been my eyeball.

“Fuck you, Walter,” he said.

“I’d rather you didn’t. So, then; Blunt bought what you were offering so very cheaply. Prints, negative, letters, the whole package wrapped with a nice pink ribbon. Cash?”

“Yes. Cash. He moaned about it quite a lot but yes, eventually, he paid. So, naturally I was more than a bit surprised when this fellow Hebel turned up here with the photograph asking for fifty thousand dollars. I mean, fifty thousand dollars? Jesus. That rather puts my amateur effort in the shade.”

“Have you spoken to Blunt about this?”

“Yes. He says the photograph was stolen from his flat at the Courtauld Institute soon after I sold it to him.”

“Do you believe that?”

“Yes. Maybe. His place is always full of rent boys. Any one of them could have pinched it. Besides, I can’t see why he would hand the picture to someone who might easily blackmail him. It strikes me that Anthony Blunt has as much to lose as my uncle.”

“But a lot more to gain, perhaps. Is Blunt rich?”

“No, not especially. I mean, he has some rather valuable pictures, and some rich friends, but not much money of his own.”

“So, not as rich as your uncle Willie?”

“Lord, no. Not many people are.”

“So then. Has it occurred to you that Blunt and Hebel might be in this together? After all, Blunt could hardly threaten to send the picture to the newspapers himself. Your uncle would never believe he would risk doing that. But he would believe someone else was capable of it. Someone like Hebel, with nothing to lose. This might also explain how Hebel came to be in possession of this tape recording of Guy Burgess. Perhaps the friendship between Blunt and Burgess extended to more than just sharing a flat. We don’t know for sure that it was recorded on this Russian ship and not at a flat in London.”