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with danger, and I envisage conflict with the locals, the police…or both. I cannot ask any of you to come with me on this venture.’
    ‘Nor could you stop us, Mr Quaint,’ chirped a Chinese fellow from the back of the office. His identical twin sat next to him, and patted him on the back in firm agreement with his brother.
    ‘Thank you, Yin…I hoped you would say as much,’ Quaint said.
    ‘It’s Yang, sir,’ said the Chinese man.
    ‘My apologies, Yang. I do wish you two would wear name badges,’ Quaint said warmly, his black eyes twinkling in the half-light. ‘It would make identifying you somewhat easier!’
    A beautiful woman with dark-brown tresses and large dark-brown eyes, wearing a peach-coloured sequinned dress, raised her hand in the middle of the room.
    ‘Mr Q, I’ve got a question. It’s about what happened to Twinkle,’ she said, her voice faltering as she spoke. ‘I don’t understand…of all people, why do the police think that
Prometheus
did it?’
    ‘Because they have no other suspects, Ruby,’ replied Quaint. ‘As far as they’re concerned, they have their murderer—now all they have to do is find the evidence.’
    Ruby raised her hand again. ‘Just tell us what we can do to help, Mr Q. Anything you need us to do, and we’ll do it. We’re a family after all, right?’
    ‘That is very sweet of you, Ruby, thank you. In fact, I aim to take you up on it,’ Quaint nodded sharply, his affection for his team reaffirmed. ‘Our first task this night is to be reconnaissance only. I don’t have enough confidence of our footing to do anything more risky. We have a starting point, my friends, but we will need to act with haste if we wish to find anything that could help Prometheus.’ Quaint stood up from his chair and clapped his hands loudly. ‘Now, if you would please return to your duties.’ Quaint watched his troops depart his office until only a handful was left, and then he stepped in front of the door. ‘Not you, Ruby, Jeremiah, Yin and Yang—I need a word.’
    After Quaint’s office was emptied of the various performers, crew members and technicians, the circus owner stood with his arms crossed, surveying the four remaining performers. The stunning woman in the sequinned dress, a middle-aged man with a balding pate and long sideburns, plus the Chinese twins, all waited behind in their seats, as did another woman who wasseated at the rear of the room. Her face was concealed behind a dark lace veil, held in place by a golden headband adorned with a variety of tiny charms and trinkets. She sat bolt upright in her chair, silently observing the room. This woman watched Quaint intently, stroking the charms on her golden bracelet as if she were biding her time patiently to speak.
    Quaint began: ‘Folks, here’s my proposition: following a lead given to us by Prometheus himself, tonight we are going to start at The Black Sheep tavern in Crawditch, and search for clues. Prometheus claims he was drugged by whisky given to him by the establishment’s landlord, so finding out what
he
knows is our objective. We’ll do this quickly and quietly, as we can ill afford the spotlight of the police falling upon ourselves,’ said Quaint with a resolute clap of his hands. The room snapped to attention immediately, and all eyes and ears were transfixed by the man. ‘Ruby and I will enter the establishment at eleven o’clock and with a bit of luck the place won’t be too busy. We don’t want an audience. With Ruby’s looks and the right attire, she’ll hopefully grab the attention of the landlord.’ Quaint pointed to the two young Chinese men. ‘Meanwhile, our acrobatic twins, Yin and Yang, will enter the tavern via the rooftops and search the landlord’s living quarters and office. Searching for what, I don’t know, but somehow that man is linked to what happened to Prometheus—and so logic dictates, he knows something about Twinkle’s killer also…gentlemen, lady…I want to find