“It was in Afghanistan! Half the children still haven’t come back! He bought headache pills that actually gave you a headache and food parcels where the parcels tasted better than the food. I’m telling you, Diamond, Lenny Smile was so crooked he makes an evening with Jack the Ripper sound like a nice idea! And I was this close to arresting him.” Snape held his thumb and forefinger just an inch apart. “I already had a full-time police officer watching his apartment. It’s like I say. We were just going to arrest him—but then he got killed.”

“Suppose he isn’t dead,” I said.

Snape shook his head. “There were too many witnesses. Mrs. Lovely, the woman who lived next door, saw him leave the flat. Hoover and Lee were with him. There was Barry Krishner, the driver. And Boris . . .”

“Wait a minute!” I interrupted. “Mrs. Lovely didn’t actually see anything. Barry Krishner has gone mad. I’m not sure Hoover and Lee can be trusted. And someone has just killed Boris.” I remembered what Mrs. Lovely had told us. “Mrs. Lovely said that someone had been asking questions about the balloon seller,” I went on. “I thought she was talking about you . . . the police! But now I wonder if it wasn’t someone else. The real killer, for example!” Snape stared at me. “I think Boris saw what really happened,” I concluded. “And that was why he was killed.”

“Who by?” Snape demanded.

“By Lenny Smile!”

There was a long silence. Snape looked doubtful. Boyle looked . . . well, the same way Boyle always looks.

“What do you mean?” Snape demanded at length.

“It all makes sense. Lenny Smile knew that you were after him. You say you had a policeman watching his apartment?”

Snape nodded. “Henderson. He’s disappeared.”

“Since when?”

“He vanished a week before the accident with the steamroller . . .”

“That was no accident!” I said. “Don’t you get it, Snape? Smile knew he was cornered. You were closing in on him. And Joe Carter was coming over, too. Carter wanted to know what had happened to all the millions he’d given Dream Time. So Smile had to disappear. He faked his own death, and right now he’s somewhere in London. We’ve seen him! Twice!”

That made Snape sit up. “Where?”

“He was at the circus. He was in the crowd. We saw him about a minute before Boris was killed. And he was at the cemetery. Not underground—on top of it! I followed him and he ran away.”

“How do you know it was Smile?” Snape asked.

“I don’t. At least, I can’t be sure. But I’ve seen a photograph of him and it looked the same.”

“We don’t know much about Smile,” Snape admitted. “Henderson was watching the apartment, but he only saw him once. We know when he was born and when he died. But that’s about all . . .”