matter.'
'And you are something of an expert on the difference,' murmured Pascoe making for the door.
The telephone rang. Elgood snatched it up as though relieved at this reunion with the outside world.
'Yes?' he snapped, turning his back on Pascoe who opened the door. He felt his exit if not ignominious was at least undistinguished.
'Pascoe!' said Elgood. 'It's for you. Try to keep it short.'
It was Wield.
'Hoped I'd catch you, sir,' he said. 'I had a moment this morning, so I thought I'd knock off one or two of these little jobs from your list. First up was Mrs Burke's finances. Her husband left her comfortable, but not really comfortable enough for a motive. But I checked on that market stall of hers. The word is it's a little goldmine. More interesting though is how she got the lease in the first place. There was a bit of queue-jumping there, I gather. A bit of calling in of old favours.'
'I'm listening,' said Pascoe.
He listened for another three of four minutes, ignoring Elgood's terpsichorean expressions of impatience.
'Thanks, Sergeant,' he said finally and replaced the receiver.
'Finished, Inspector?' said Elgood. 'Perhaps I can have my office back, eh?'
For answer, Pascoe sank slowly on to the hard chair once more.
'Just one more question, Mr Elgood, if you don't mind,' he said.
'I do bloody mind!' exploded Elgood. 'Can't you take a bloody hint?'
'I'm quite good at hints,' said Pascoe. 'I've just had a couple. Mr Elgood, before I go, I'd like to discuss with you for a little while the precise nature of your relationship with Mrs Mandy Burke.'
While her husband was not being offered coffee by Dick Elgood, Ellie Pascoe was sitting drinking her second cup in the Chantry with only Rose for company.
Not by nature a nervous woman, she had approached this meeting with the trepidation of one who feels herself in the wrong with little clear idea of how she got in it and less of how she can get out of it. She would dearly have loved to talk things over with Peter, but that had been impossible without revealing the cause of her concern, which would have made her undeniably guilty of the treachery she stood accused of. Yet she had sensed something evasive in her husband's manner also which suggested to her that he already knew of the liaison between Daphne and Elgood.
Nervously she lit a cigarette. It was a silly and expensive habit but the body had its needs which were often as dangerous to deny as to satisfy.
She found herself beginning to hope Daphne would stand her up again. Not that it would put her any more in the right, but it would place Daphne just a little in the wrong. Rose, peevish at having only her introspective mother for company, was beginning to turn and twitter in search of a wider audience. Any moment now she would advertise her neglected state by a bellow which would set the tinted coiffures of the Chantry clientele a-bobbing their disapproval.
Time to go. Ellie stubbed out her cigarette and finished her coffee. The door opened. Daphne came in.
She looked untypically flustered and sank into her tweed-upholstered chair with a sigh of relief. Rose let out a gurgle of welcome.
'Sorry I'm late,' she said. 'Hello, Rosie. Yes, please, two coffees, I think. No, no scones.'
The waitress who, like all of her kind, leapt forward eagerly the instant Daphne appeared, went off to the kitchen.
'Nothing the matter, I hope?' said Ellie.
'Not really. It's just that I was coming straight into town after dropping Diana at St Helena's, but I realized I'd forgotten my purse, so I had to drive home for it. Not that that would have made me so late, but when I got back to the house, there was a car in the drive and a man wandering round the side of the house. I asked him what he wanted and he said he was from the Water Board and he was just trying to locate the house's main stop-cock. When I asked him why, he said that our water-rate bill hadn't been paid and he'd called round to say that if it wasn't paid instantly, proceedings for recovery would be taken, and not finding anyone at home, he thought he would locate the stop-cock in case it became necessary to cut the water off!'
'Good Lord!' said Ellie. 'What did you say?'
'I sent him away with a flea in his ear, of course. I would have rung Patrick, but he's gone off to London today, won't be back till Saturday morning. I poked around in his desk and found the water bill. Sure enough, it wasn't paid, but that can't give them the right to wander round at will, can it?'
'Depends on how many threatening letters you've had,' said Ellie. 'This man, did he show you any authority?'
'A badge or something, you mean? No. He didn't get the chance.'
'And he was driving a car, you say, not one of those blue and white vans?'
'No. An old Ford Escort. What's the point of all these police-type questions, Ellie?' demanded Daphne.
'Something Peter said last night,' answered Ellie. 'Look, I really shouldn't be saying this, but in the circumstances . . . And he's going to be coming round to see you in any case. There's been quite a lot of break-in's recently at medium to big houses, a bit isolated, and they've had a tip that Rosemont's on the list.'
'What!'
'Yes, but Peter thinks there's a good chance there'll be nothing in it. Only it struck me, this chap you saw this morning might have been casing the place.'
Daphne looked so alarmed that Ellie was sorry she'd spoken.
