‘I’ll put these in my office for the time being,’ she said.

‘Thank you, Dot.’

‘I rather like the idea of being taken out for lunch.’

Irene laughed. ‘I didn’t say that I was paying.’

Having put the bags safely in the back room, and having given orders to one of her underlings, Dorothy led the way to the front door. As she stepped out into the street, she came to a dead halt and looked carefully in both directions before moving on.

‘What’s the matter?’ asked Irene.

‘Oh, it’s probably just my imagination.’

‘What were you looking for, Dot?’

‘I’m not even sure that he was even there.’

‘Who are you talking about?’

‘That’s the trouble, Irene — I don’t know.’

‘You’re not making much sense.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Dorothy with a gesture of apology. ‘Something happened when I got here first thing today and it’s been on my mind all morning. I don’t often get feelings like this but they were too strong to ignore.’

Irene stopped and took her by the shoulders. ‘Why don’t you tell me what happened?’

Dorothy bit her lip before blurting out a question.

‘Have you ever had the feeling that someone was watching you?’

‘Yes,’ said Irene after a pause. ‘As a matter of fact, I have.’

‘Thank you, Ray,’ she said, putting the lawnmower in the garden shed, ‘but there was no need to bring it back so soon.’

‘I always return things I borrow. Besides, Harvey has a lawn to mow as well. I don’t want him wondering where his machine is.’

‘He doesn’t have much time for the garden these days, I’m afraid. Alice has taken over from him. She loves pottering about out here. Unlike me, she’s got green fingers.’

‘You have your own talents, Ellen.’

She pulled a face. ‘I sometimes wonder what they are.’

Raymond Marmion had called in to hand over the lawnmower. Resplendent in his Salvation Army uniform, he looked as buoyant as ever. He was sad to hear the note of self-deprecation in her voice and sought to bolster her morale.

‘You’re a wonderful cook,’ he told her, ‘a supportive wife and a caring mother. That’s three things in your favour and there are lots more.’

‘I don’t feel much like a caring mother at the moment,’ admitted Ellen. ‘All that I’ve managed to do is to upset Alice.’

‘That’s only because you care for her too much.’

‘Do you think that I crowd her?’

‘Not in the least.’

‘It’s what Alice feels, I’m sure, and she resents it.’

‘Most children resent their parents at some stage,’ he argued. ‘I know that Lily and I irritate ours like mad from time to time. But they get over it.’

Raymond described some of the arguments he’d had with his children. He soon had Ellen laughing. It made her take a more relaxed view of her differences with her daughter. If Alice did join the WEC, it was not such a disastrous step. In some ways, she could see, it was an admirable thing to do. It’s just that she would have preferred her to remain in the teaching profession. What irked her was the way she’d provoked such a sharp reaction when she’d offered advice about Joe Keedy. It had been a foolish thing to do, Ellen saw that now. She recalled how angry she’d been as a young woman when her own mother had tried to manoeuvre her into a romance.

Since her brother-in-law was there, she sought his opinion.

‘What did you make of Joe Keedy?’

‘I thought he was an interesting chap,’ said Raymond. ‘He’s alert, committed to his job and obviously very efficient at it.’

‘Did you know that he’s captured an escaped prisoner?’

‘Yes, I saw a brief mention of that in the newspaper.’

‘Joe tried to play it down but Harvey was there at the time. He knows how brave and resourceful Joe was. The arrest took place in a river, so they got soaked to the skin in the process.’

Raymond smiled. ‘And I thought that my job was hazardous.’

‘It doesn’t stop you doing it.’

‘Nothing would ever stop me, Ellen — it’s a mission.’

‘I know.’ She closed the door of the shed and took him back into the house. ‘So Joe Keedy made a good impression on you, did he?’

‘He’d make a good impression on anybody, especially the ladies.’

‘Yes, he is rather dashing.’

‘Yet I suspect that he puts work before all else.’

‘Just like Harvey,’ she said.

‘It’s probably just as well. If he was on the loose, Joe Keedy would break a lot of hearts.’

It was a timely reminder to Ellen that she and Alice were not the only women to be aware of his charms. Keedy was a roving bachelor. There had doubtless been many others who’d got close enough to him to entertain hopes of a deeper and more permanent relationship with the detective. He had always let them down. Ultimately, he valued his freedom. Ellen needed to remember that. In urging her daughter to go in pursuit of Keedy, she had been setting Alice up for an inevitable disappointment. It was another reason to reproach herself for raising the subject.

‘I hope that I was able to help,’ said Raymond. ‘Joe seemed to think that I had. I don’t envy him his task. He’s courting danger.’

‘You do that all the time, Ray.’

‘Rude names and the odd missile are what I have to put up with for the most part, Ellen. That’s not the case with Joe. Some of these groups he wants to investigate are full of violent men. They pledge allegiance to a doctrine that actually encourages them to use force.’

‘Joe Keedy can defend himself.’

‘It’s just as well,’ said Raymond. ‘If he starts to probe too hard in the wrong places, he’ll be in jeopardy.’

There were so many of them. That’s what distressed Keedy. In their search for organisations with an anti-Semitic agenda, the detectives he’d assigned to the task had discovered several names to be added to the list given him by Raymond Marmion. Even more distressing than the number of groups was the propaganda that they put out. Keedy leafed through a pile of it and recoiled at its crudity and naked prejudice. Jews were reviled for things they could not possibly have done. There were absurd allegations of Jewish plots to seize power in Britain and impose punitive taxation. One pamphlet even accused them of being behind the sinking of the Lusitania. Every line of the posters incited hatred and the cartoons were grotesque. Anyone reading the literature churned out by the so-called guardians of British purity would think that the country was already overrun by Jewish immigrants and their network of spies. Keedy was appalled that such mindless bigotry still existed.

The reports on his desk suggested that most of the groups were more inclined to make vile threats than to implement them but there were those dedicated to direct action against what they saw as the relentless encroachment of Judaism. Of the names before him, Keedy took a special interest in the True British League. The headline on its leaflet was unambiguous: JEWS ARE A POISON INJECTED INTO THE NATIONAL VEINS. The leaflet went on to claim that every foreign office in Europe was controlled by Jewish moneylenders who had fomented the war in order to exploit it for profit. The charges were patently ludicrous but Keedy knew that there would always be those who believed them. It was time to get acquainted with the organisation. He had already dispatched detectives to infiltrate some of the groups that had aroused his suspicion. Keedy had saved the True British League for himself.

Sir Edward Henry was tied up in a series of meetings for most of the day. It was not until late afternoon that Marmion was able to see him. When he showed the commissioner the drawings of the shop, and told him of the deduction he’d made on the basis of them, he was given a verbal pat on the back.

‘Well done, Inspector! You’ve explained the inexplicable.’