‘Two policemen were murdered on it,’ he explained, taking a seat. ‘Not that I knew anything about it at the time. We picked them and their prisoner up at Wolverhampton station. Somewhere between there and Birmingham a shot was fired. Dirk Sowerby and I didn’t hear a thing above the roar of the engine, of course, but passengers in the next carriage did. They told the guard and he found blood all over the seat. There was a blood-covered coat in there as well.’

‘What about the policemen?’

‘They’d been thrown out of the carriage, Maddy.’

She recoiled at the thought. ‘Oh — how dreadful!’

‘It really upset Dirk.’

‘It upset both of you, I daresay.’

‘I’ve got a stronger stomach than my fireman,’ boasted Andrews. ‘And it’s not the first time a crime has been committed on one of my trains. That’s how we came to meet Inspector Colbeck in the first place, so you might say that I was seasoned.’

‘Your train was robbed and you were badly injured,’ recalled Madeleine, ‘but — thank God — nobody was actually killed on that occasion. Let’s go back to Wolverhampton. You say that you picked up two policemen and a prisoner.’

‘That’s right. He was handcuffed to one of the peelers. I saw them on the platform and pointed them out to Dirk.’

‘Was the prisoner a big strong man?’

‘Not really.’

‘Then how could he get the better of two policemen?’

‘That’s what we’ll have to decide.’

‘ We?’ she repeated.

‘Inspector Colbeck and me,’ he said, airily. ‘I’m a witness, so I’ll have to be involved. In fact, the investigation won’t get anywhere without me. What do you think of that, Maddy? Your father is going to be a detective in his own right. I’ll wager that the inspector will be tickled pink to work alongside me.’

Victor Leeming was so enthralled at the prospect of hearing the full story that he forgot all about his dislike of rail transport.