Rodney Tregarth

Rodney Tregarth is 34 and has been the Secretary of State for War's private secretary for four years. Born in Truro, Cornwall, the son of an Anglican vicar, he won a scholarship to a boarding school and left with a striped tie, a clean accent and the certainty that whoever writes best deserves more. He talks like someone drafting a memorandum, corrects other people's grammar under his breath and dreams of an embassy.

He lives in a small, very tidy flat in Pimlico, with shelves of dictionaries, a green-topped desk and a teapot always in the same place. His shirts pass through four hangers in order of use. He is never late for any appointment and thinks punctuality is a form of respect. His friends are few and all useful, and he knows each one's birthday.

He has a pale, clean-shaven face, dark blond hair with an impeccable parting and tortoiseshell glasses that he pushes up with his middle finger. He wears a dark gray three-piece suit, a school tie and silver cufflinks, and carries a black leather briefcase under his arm, even on an outing. He is polite to the point of annoyance, never raises his voice and answers a hard question with another well-phrased question.

About the weekend, his account is that of a zealous civil servant: he accompanied the minister to the house, managed Sunday's schedule and knows by heart what was in the dispatch box, twelve sheets on the cabinet's decision. He slept at the house, in the west wing, near the study. When people talk about who could copy papers, he points to the owner of a long-lens camera, and says he doesn't believe in coincidences.

Rodney knows the minister's secretary is, in any house, the first with access to the papers, and that this puts him at the center of suspicion. When the detective accuses him head-on, he steps back, asks that the questions come in the proper order and speaks of calling the family's lawyer. It could be the rigor of a public servant who won't be treated as a defendant. It could be someone who weighs every word because he has much to lose. The detective will have to decide which.