‘The killer will be punished,’ said Marmion with conviction. ‘That’s one thing of which you may rest assured.’

‘How on earth will you find him? It was the random act of someone who hates all Germans. He was one of a crowd. You’ll never pick him out.’

‘I disagree, sir. This was no random murder.’

‘What else could it be, man?’

‘I think it’s the work of someone who took advantage of the situation, using the mob as his cover. He must have known that the shop was a likely target and — more to the point — that your brother might actually be on the premises at the time. There was calculation at work here,’ decided Marmion. ‘That means we’re not looking for an anonymous figure caught up in the attack. We’ll be searching for someone who knew Mr Stein and who had reason to wish him dead.’

‘Are you saying that the murder was planned?’

‘That’s my feeling, sir.’

‘What evidence do you have?’

‘Very little at the moment,’ admitted Marmion, ‘so I’m relying to some extent on intuition. But ask yourself this. If you’re simply intent on breaking into a shop and looting it, why would you carry a knife?’

‘I never thought of that,’ said Stone.

‘We’re looking for a killer who had some kind of grudge against your brother — and it may have nothing to do with the fact that he has a German background. Think carefully, sir,’ he urged. ‘You may be able to suggest some names. Did your brother have any enemies?’

Before he spoke, Stone drained the glass of brandy.

‘Of course,’ he said, resignedly. ‘Jacob was a Jew — we always have enemies.’

When Alice came downstairs for breakfast, she found her mother in the kitchen. Fried bacon was already waiting on a plate in the gas oven and eggs were sizzling in the pan with some tomatoes. Toast was slowly turning brown under the grill.

‘What time did Daddy get back last night?’ wondered Alice.

‘I don’t know. I was fast asleep.’

‘You were quite right to go to bed.’

‘Then why do I feel so guilty about it?’ asked Ellen. ‘I felt it was my duty to be here for him.’

Alice was crisp. ‘Daddy is the detective — not you. If he has to work long hours, it doesn’t mean that you have to as well.’ She grinned. ‘After all, you don’t get paid for overtime like him.’

Ellen laughed. ‘That’s one way of putting it.’

She continued to make the breakfast before sharing it out on three separate plates. By the time that Marmion arrived in his shirtsleeves, the meal was on the table for him with a cup of tea beside it. He gave Ellen a kiss of gratitude then sat beside her. Alice was opposite him.

‘Good morning, teacher,’ he said.

Alice smiled. ‘You may not be able to call me that much longer.’

‘Don’t tell me they’ve sacked you.’

‘No — but I may be handing in my resignation.’

Realising what she meant, Marmion stiffened. He hoped that he’d talked his daughter out of her plan to join the Women’s Emergency Corps. Clearly, it was still a live issue. Before he could speak, Ellen jumped in quickly to avert an argument.

‘Let’s not discuss it over a meal,’ she suggested. ‘We don’t want a row this early in the day.’

‘I’m entitled to pass an opinion, love,’ said Marmion.

‘Alice already knows what it is, dear.’

‘And you both know my opinion,’ said Alice, ‘so let’s leave it at that.’ She put sugar in her tea and stirred it with a spoon. ‘I didn’t hear you come in last night, Daddy. Where had you been?’

‘Joe Keedy and I found an illegal gambling den,’ joked Marmion, ‘and we lost a month’s wages on the roulette wheel.’ He shook his head. ‘Actually, it was a lot more serious than that. A mob raided a gents’ outfitters in Jermyn Street. They burnt it down and the owner was murdered.’

‘What a dreadful thing to happen!’

‘Do you have any suspects?’ asked Ellen.

‘At the moment, we have too many of them — forty or more.’ He looked quizzically at his daughter. ‘What do you do with your pupils, Alice? When one of them does something naughty and nobody owns up, how do you handle the situation?’

‘I threaten to keep them all in after school.’

‘Does the threat work?’

‘Every time — the children all stare at the culprit.’

‘Unfortunately, that option is not open to Joe and me.’

Ellen swallowed some bacon. ‘How is Joe Keedy?’

‘He’s in fine form.’

‘We haven’t seen him for ages. You should ask him round.’

‘Yes,’ said Alice, fondly. ‘That would be nice. Invite him to tea.’

‘There won’t be time for luxuries like tea for quite a while,’ said Marmion. ‘Joe and I are going to be working at full stretch.’

‘He can always drop in for a drink one evening,’ suggested Ellen. ‘I like him. Joe Keedy is good company. He’s got a sensible head on his shoulders.’ She shot a glance at Alice. ‘He might even be able to persuade a certain someone to abandon this urge to join the WEC.’

‘I thought we weren’t going to talk about that,’ protested Alice. ‘Besides, Joe might be on my side. The last time he was here, he told me I should think about joining the Women’s Police Service.’

Marmion pulled a face. ‘Oh no you don’t.’

‘One police officer is enough in any family,’ said Ellen, stoutly.

‘In any case,’ said her husband, ‘it was only formed last year. It still hasn’t sorted out exactly what it’s supposed to do. In essence, I think it’s a good idea but that’s not a view shared by some of my older colleagues. They feel that policing is a man’s job.’

‘Everything was a man’s job until the war broke out,’ noted Alice. ‘Then women proved that they could mend cars and drive ambulances and make shells in munitions factories and do just about anything else that a man can do. It may be one of the best things to come out of the war.’

‘I’m not convinced of that,’ said Ellen.

‘Good things do come out of bad ones, Mummy.’

‘How can you call having women car mechanics a good thing?’

‘Alice makes a fair point, love,’ said Marmion, chewing some toast. ‘Every cloud has a silver lining. Look at this business with the Lusitania, for instance. I bet the captain of that submarine thought he’d struck a blow for Germany when he ordered that torpedo to be fired. It’s led to some bad results, of course — I was dealing with one last night — but there was also a gain. Enlistment has picked up amazingly. When I went past the recruiting centre yesterday, there was a queue halfway down Whitehall. So the loss of the Lusitania was not a total disaster.’

Irene Bayard was one of the first of the survivors to return to England. Rescued by a fishing boat, she’d been taken to Queenstown where she was given food, shelter and limitless sympathy. As soon as a ship departed for Liverpool, however, she was on it with Ernie Gill and a number of other survivors. She was keenly aware of how fortunate she’d been and was upset to learn that almost all the passengers she’d looked after on the Lusitania had perished. Irene had no desire ever to go to sea again but there was no other way to reach Liverpool, so she steeled herself for the short voyage. Though irritating at times, Gill helped her to keep up her spirits.

Neither of them was prepared for the welcome they received in Liverpool docks. It was overwhelming. The pier was thronged with relatives and friends of those who’d survived the sinking, their numbers swelled by well-wishers. But it was the number of newspaper reporters that surprised Irene. There were dozens of them. She was ambushed the moment she stepped off the ship. Irene tried to pretend that she had nothing to do with the Lusitania but her uniform gave her away. She was still wearing the distinctive garb of a stewardess that she’d had on when she jumped into the sea. The seemingly endless questions were both painful and intrusive. Irene wanted to forget the tragedy, not be forced to reconstruct it for the benefit of an article in a newspaper. She was glad to escape from the harassment.