“Yes. During the summer season at Blackpool. I didn’t see a lot of him over those few months, but I’ve never seen him so glad as when it was over and he could come home to stay. Or so he thought. He would have stayed at home, too, but Danny Caxton wanted him back, and Tony’s boss wanted to keep the client happy. So off he went to Leeds for Christmas panto season.”

“What exactly did he do?”

“He handled the press, of course, interviews, TV appearances and the like, he arranged visits to open supermarkets and so on, booked hotels, arranged transportation if it was necessary, decided who should and who shouldn’t be admitted to The Presence.”

“Quite a responsibility. Didn’t Caxton have others to do all that for him?”

“Nothing was too much for Danny Caxton. He said that Tony was his right-hand man and he’d be lost without him, so back Tony went. He was uneasy about it, but he was doing well in the firm, and he didn’t believe his contract with Caxton would last forever, so he just thought he’d grit his teeth and see it through, do his job, then maybe the promotion he’d been after would materialize.”

“He’d been promised a promotion for working with Caxton?”

“Not in so many words, but his boss certainly gave the impression that it wouldn’t do his future career prospects any harm.”

“Is he still alive, this boss?”

“Walter Philby? I’ve no idea. Given that he was about fifty in 1967, I doubt it.”

“Did Tony confide in you about what was bothering him?”

“Not at first, no. He just didn’t seem himself. There was something on his mind. On his conscience. He wasn’t himself. When he came home from the summer season, he was very pale and withdrawn. Listless. I actually thought he was ill, depression or something, and I made him go to the doctor’s. The doctor said he was just jittery and edgy from pressure at work. He prescribed some pills.”

“Did they do any good?”

“Not much. Oh, there were moments when the old Tony shone through and made me laugh again. It wasn’t all doom and gloom. But he wasn’t home for long. The call for the Christmas season came in pretty soon after he’d returned from Blackpool.”

“And?”

“That upset him. He didn’t want to go. He even argued with Walter about it, which he never usually did. But Walter was adamant. Danny Caxton wanted Tony, and Danny Caxton got what he wanted. At least from Philby, Leyland and Associates.”

“What was the problem? Was Caxton difficult, demanding?”