Nothing of interest until he came to an entry for May of the previous year. ‘V. der V. Confirmed. Wait.’ From now on there appeared at intervals entries of large sums of money with no explanation but bearing a relationship to the dates of shipment. He plodded on. The Agente yawned over his book. Entries for the current year. ‘Perugia. K.D. L. 100,000.’ Several entries under K.D. After that: merely a note of the first and subsequent Il Cicerone tours.

Alleyn completed his search of the desk. He found in a locked cash box a number of letters that clearly indicated Mr Mailer’s activities in the blackmailing line and one in a language that he did not know but took to be Dutch. This he copied out and then photographed, together with several entries in the diary. It was now half past eleven. He sighed, said good morning to the Agente and set out for Valdarno’s office, reflecting that he had probably just completed a bare-faced piece of malfeasance but not in the least regretting it.

III

At noon Mr Mailer’s unhappy band of pilgrims assembled in the Questore Valdarno’s sumptuous office.

Lady Braceley, Kenneth Dorne and Major Sweet all bore shattering witness to the extravagances of the previous night. The Van der Veghels looked astonished, Barnaby Grant anxious and Sophy Jason shocked. They sat in a semi-circle on imitation renaissance chairs of great splendour and little ease while Valdarno caused wine to be handed round on a lordly tray. Lady Braceley, Kenneth Dorne and Major Sweet, turned sickly glances upon it and declined. The rest of the party sipped uncomfortably while the Questore addressed them at length.

Alleyn sat a little apart from the others who, as the Questore proceeded, eyed him with increasing consternation.

Without much elaboration, Valdarno told them of the discovery of Violetta’s body and remarked upon Sebastian Mailer’s continued non-appearance. He sat behind his magnificent desk. Alleyn noticed that the centre drawer was half-open and that it contained paper. The Questore had placed his folded hands negligently across the drawer but as he warmed to his theme he forgot himself and gestured freely. His audience shifted uneasily. Major Sweet, rousing himself, said that he’d known from the first that there was something fishy about the fellow Mailer. Nobody followed this up.

‘My Lady, Ladies and Gentlemen,’ the Questore concluded, ‘you will, I am sure, perceive that it is important for this Mr Mailer to be traced. I speak from the highest authority when I assure you of our great concern that none of you should be unduly inconvenienced and that your visit to Rome, we hope a pleasurable one, should not be in any way—‘ he paused and glanced into the drawer of his desk ‘—diminished,’ he said, ‘by this unfortunate occurrence.’

He made the slight mistake of absent-mindedly closing the drawer with his thumb. Otherwise, Alleyn thought, he had managed beautifully.