In the novel Sparkling Cyanide, Roberts is a waiter at the upscale Luxembourg restaurant. On the night that George Barton died, a junior waiter Pierre was passing Barton's table carrying sauce for Roberts when he noticed that Iris Marle had swept her handbag off the table as she got up to dance so he stoped to pick it up and put it back on the table. Roberts, impatient with the delay, signaled frantically to Pierre to hurry up.