It took a further two months for Warburger to determine upon the Romanov and Zarrins Collections. They were unusual enough and their disposal in America between 1926 and 1967 meant they were traceable by the Bureau.

Warburger was an expert in the internal government of Washington, which meant it would have been unthinkable of him to confine the operation only to Terrilli’s arrest. There had to be political side benefits and he employed himself in obtaining them while his agents traced the stamps to their scattered ownership. By the time Warburger had the location of nearly every item, he had a senator ambitious to be Attorney-General set up as a front man and therefore the protection of the F.B.I. guaranteed for several years.

It was a full twelve months from the Sans Souci hangover before Warburger was completely happy with the preparations.

‘There’s nothing I haven’t anticipated,’ he boasted to his deputy, Peter Bowler.

At that stage it would have been as difficult for him to predict the involvement of Charlie Muffin as it had been to learn of the Guajira killings.

Charlie Muffin, who was a realist and therefore aware of the social gulf between himself and Rupert Willoughby’s friends, was curious about the reason for his invitation. He still went to the party, of course; a man officially listed as a dead traitor by the Intelligence Services of both Britain and America and wishing to remain that way doesn’t get out much and Charlie liked company, even company which seemed to regard him oddly.

Realist again, Charlie accepted that it wasn’t their fault.