Character based on: Natasha M?lk. (Aiden told me the full name of the maid who found the body and the initials match.) Notes: Not much to go on here as although Conway would have met Natasha, I never did. Nancy’s affair with Francis doesn’t seem to have any echoes in real life. Frank, after all, was gay!

Madeline Cain

Name taken from: James M. Cain.

Character based on: Melissa Conway?

Notes: There are no obvious similarities beyond the MC initials, but it might have amused Alan to turn his ex-wife into a crazed film fan and a killer. Alan had decided to get rid of Madeline anyway – he wanted James Fraser to appear in book 4.

Dr Leonard Collins

Name taken from: hard to be sure. It could be Michael Collins, pseudonym of American author Dennis Lynds, who wrote detective short stories. Or possibly Wilkie Collins, author of The Woman in White and The Moonstone?

Character based on: Lionel Corby (LC) Notes: This is puzzling. Dr Leonard Collins is a murderer and a major character in APTTC. But he kills Melissa James, not Francis Pendleton. So is Alan deliberately saying that Lionel Corby did not kill Frank?

Also, there’s one killer involved in the murder at Branlow Hall, but two killers at the Moonflower. I can’t quite make sense of this.

Samantha Collins

Name taken from: same as Leonard Collins.

Character based on: Cecily Treherne?

Notes: It’s quite difficult to see where Samantha has come from and although she is briefly suspected, she only plays a small part in APTTC. The names Cecily and Samantha begin with the same homophone and on page 29 her face is described as ‘square and serious’, which would fit both women.

Simon Cox (Sīmanis ?aks)

Name taken from: Anthony Berkeley Cox, who wrote The Poisoned Chocolates Case in 1929. A second link with APTTC – another of his books was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock into the 1941 film Suspicion.

Character based on: Stefan Codrescu.

Notes: It’s interesting that Simon Cox has only a relatively small part to play in APTTC, even though Stefan Codrescu is the central figure in the murder of Frank Parris. He isn’t even a suspect really.

At the same time, Alan Conway takes a mean delight in characterising him not just as an Eastern European (Stefan from Romania, Simon from Latvia) but also as ‘a small-time gangster who had just been released from jail’, which is how Melissa describes him on page 35.

Did Alan believe Stefan was guilty of the crime? Or did he know he was innocent and just take pleasure in taunting him?

Lance Gardner/Maureen Gardner

Name taken from: Erle Stanley Gardner – creator of Perry Mason.

Characters based on: Lawrence and Maureen Treherne.

Notes: Lance and Maureen depicted as petty crooks … probably for Alan Conway’s personal amusement. They have no involvement in either murder. Lawrence would have been right to sue!

Eric Chandler/Phyllis Chandler

Name taken from: Raymond Chandler Characters based on: Derek Endicott – and presumably his mother.

Notes: As with the Gardners, Alan Conway doesn’t seem to connect Derek Endicott to the murder of Frank Parris, although there’s something he may have missed. Suppose Parris wasn’t the intended target …?

The ‘Peeping Tom’ subplot plus poking fun at people with disabilities is vintage Conway. Did he meet Derek’s mother? Maybe I should!

Algernon Marsh

Name taken from: Dame Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand’s greatest crime writer, creator of the Roderick Alleyn detective stories.

Character based on: Aiden MacNeil, obviously … as he had noticed (AM).

Notes: Aiden refused to talk to Alan. ‘I met him … for about five minutes. I didn’t terribly like him.’ In return, Alan turns him into a minor crook, close to a caricature. Alan’s revenge? No suggestion, though, that he is a killer.

So much for the names. If Alan Conway had wanted to make it easy for me, then Francis Pendleton would have been killed by a character with the same initials as someone at Branlow Hall and that would have told me who had killed Frank Parris.

And now that I thought about it, that was exactly what had happened. Madeline Cain had killed Francis. So did Melissa Conway kill Frank? They were both ‘MC’.

Even so, I just couldn’t believe that Alan was deliberately pointing the finger at his ex-wife. First of all, by the time of the murder she had changed her name back to Johnson. Secondly, what motive would she possibly have had to kill Frank Parris? Anyway, there’s another Melissa in the book – Melissa James, strangled in Chapter 4. She, too, could have been inspired by Melissa Conway. Alan seems to be thinking of his ex-wife as both a murder victim and a murderess.

Why did it all have to be so complicated?

There were two other clues that appeared in Atticus Pünd Takes the Case that had been deliberately drawn from the real-life events at Branlow Hall. I wrote them down on my notepad.

THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO.

THE DOG THAT BARKED IN THE NIGHT.

It can’t have been a coincidence that in Atticus Pünd Takes the Case, Francis Pendleton lies about going to a performance of the same Mozart opera mentioned by Frank Parris when he talked to Cecily Treherne. This time, even the initials match. It was still a mystery why Frank made up that story. Where had he really gone – and why bother making up a story at all? As for the dog, both Kimba at Clarence Keep and Bear, the golden retriever at Branlow Hall, had barked at around the time of the murders. Again, I was sure Alan was trying to tell me something and I made a note to ask Derek when I saw him again more about what had happened that night.

*

The next time I looked out of the window, it was completely dark and I was suddenly hungry. I closed my notebook and laid it next to my paperback copy of Atticus Pünd Takes the Case.

I was about to go down to dinner when I remembered something. I flicked back to the first page of Alan’s novel and sure enough there it was. I was annoyed with myself. It was staring me in the face but I had almost managed to miss it altogether.

The dedication.

For Frank and Leo: in remembrance.

Frank was obviously Frank Parris. Leo had to be the rent boy that James Taylor had mentioned when I met him in London. Frank and Leo and Alan and James had all had dinner together. Frank Parris had helped Alan explore his sexuality. He had also enjoyed kinky sex with Leo.

In remembrance.

The words leapt off the page at me. Frank had been killed at Branlow Hall. Had Leo also died?

On an impulse, I took out my phone and fired off a text.

James – did I ever thank you for lovely dinner

at Le Caprice? Great catching up with you

again. One quick follow-up question. You

mentioned a friend of Frank Parris’s called Leo.

Do you know anything more about him? Is

it possible he died? Notice Alan’s book was

dedicated to his memory. Thanks. Susan. X

I didn’t have to wait long. About a minute later, my phone pinged and there was the answer on my screen.

Hey Susan. Not much I can tell you about

Leo. He worked out of a swish flat in Mayfair

(God knows how he afforded it) but I heard

he’d left London and no idea if he’s alive or

dead. He was quite a regular with Frank but

I’m surprised the book was dedicated to him.

Alan never mentioned him to me. Can’t tell

you very much more as only met him once.

He was blond (dyed?) and pretty. Short. I

never saw him undressed so I can’t tell

you how well endowed he was … cut or uncut –

I’m sure you’re dying to know!!! He worked out

a lot. In good shape. BTW, Leo may not have

been his real name. A lot of us used false ones

(better safe than sorry). Stud and Nando were

always popular. Also pet names. When Alan

first met me, I was Jimmy … sweet and boyish.

Have you got anywhere yet? Frank Parris was

quite creepy, a real perve now I think about it.

He probably got what he deserved. Call me if

you come down again. Jimmy XXX

James had no idea if Leo was alive or dead. I wondered how I could find out.

Two More Days

As soon as I woke up, I tried FaceTiming Andreas. It would be half past ten in Crete and he would have finished his breakfast and gone for a swim. Then, assuming that there was nothing serious demanding his attention, he would have retreated to our terrace with a little cup of thick, black coffee (Greek, not Turkish) and a book. Andreas had been reading Nikos Kazantzakis when I left and he’d recommended him to me – as if I ever had any time to read.