‘Go on, Mr Gently! You’ve put your grapefruit on them.’

And also, he remembered, he had cut his outing in the garden. With his mind fixed on the Johnsons he’d gone straight down to the breakfast table, barely pausing at the door to wish Mrs Jarvis a good morning. Was it intuition, perhaps? He read the relevant passage again. The local police had not committed themselves, but the reporter had smelt a rat. That case, apparently so watertight, had somewhere sprung a leak.

As he ate his liver and bacon he let his eye stray down the column. After the hottest news, as usual, there came a resume of the affair.

‘The questioning of Johnson follows the grim discovery on Tuesday. The body of his wife, pretty Shirley Johnson, was found behind dustbins on the City Hall car park. She was stabbed with a steel letter opener which was found still plunged in the body. The discovery was made by an old-age pensioner as he returned from the early morning fruit and vegetable auction held at the cattle market. He informed the City Police who have placed Chief Inspector Hansom, CID, in charge of the investigation.

‘It is established that the victim was attacked shortly after leaving a meeting of the Palette Group on the Monday evening. The Palette Group is composed of a number of local artists under the chairmanship of the well-known landscape painter, Charles St John Mallows, RA. The members meet on the first Monday of each month in the cellar of the George III public house, only a short distance from the scene of the crime. At the meetings they exhibit their work for criticism. They hold an annual exhibition in the nearby Castle Gardens.

‘Charles St John Mallows, RA, interviewed by our reporter, described Mrs Johnson as being one of the most talented members of the Group. Asked about the meeting on Monday, he declined to make any statement other than that it contained ‘the average amount of cut and thrust’. According to an independent source, the Palette Group meetings are noted for their frankness and forthright opinions.