My God, I sounded like a bloody schoolteacher. My mother would have been proud. My associates stood with their mouths open, gawping, but I didn’t care. Why the hell should I put up with that kind of crap? ‘You invited me to be here, Mr Bennett, you did. So don’t you dare turn around and insult me. If you took one moment to think about it, and used your brain, you should be glad we’ve come down to see you and not dragged you and your motley crew off to the police station. Then there’d be plenty of bad publicity to worry about. So for God’s sake grow up and cut it out.’ I glared up at him, hands on hips, making it perfectly clear I expected an apology. It was eventually extended.

‘Sorry,’ he mumbled. ‘It’s just we get the same old shit everywhere we go and I get sick to death of it.’ Well, accusation wasn’t the only shit following them around this time. There seemed to be a few bodies too. It wasn’t him who was getting sick to death. He seemed to have ignored that.

‘Ahem.’ The DI grabbed my attention before I got started again. ‘The detective constable is right.’ I must have made an impression; he finally got my rank right. ‘At this stage we are making initial enquiries, not finger-pointing or accusing. The sooner we get cooperation, the sooner we can have the matter cleared up and you can get on with your business. If we don’t get it, you’ll give us no option but to close down your operation until we have finished with our investigations.’

‘You can’t do that. We have shows booked out every night. It would cost us a fortune to cancel. You’d ruin us.’

‘Well, if you and your employees assist fully in our investigation, we should be able to avoid it. It’s up to you.’

It’s amazing what an incentive the almighty dollar and the bottom line can be. It prompted Bennett very quickly to oblige, however begrudgingly. ‘What do you want me to do?’ he asked in a voice laden with resentment.

It didn’t go unnoticed by the DI. ‘This is a very serious situation, Mr Bennett. For a start, we will need a full itinerary of where the circus has been and when. Days and times travelled. The times of your shows and a roster of who performed in each and when people had free time. We are going to need to speak to every member of the circus, performers and hands, and we’ll need to see the passports of all your overseas acts. It would be helpful if you could encourage them to be accommodating, and then we can be done as soon as possible.’