'I wasn't with him. We booked in separately.'
'So you had that much sense!'
'It was Polly's idea. He said he and Cassie had stayed there before, and it was the first place she'd come to, and that's what he wanted, a showdown, and then he'd have done with her for always.'
'Poor old Cassie!' said Billie, in such dispassionate tones that Elysée gave her a terrified glance and this time did burst into tears.
'Well,' said Dame Beatrice, getting up, 'since you can tell us nothing helpful about the death of Miss Minnie, we had better take our leave.'
'Oh, don't go! Don't leave me while she's in this state!' said Billie. 'I could cope when I thought she was only suffering from-' she grinned, but it turned into a clownish grimace - 'the unwelcome attentions of a heel, but if anything's happened to Cassie McHaig, it's a different kettle of fish altogether, because-.'
'Nothing's happened to her,' sobbed Elysée, reversing a previous opinion. 'Of course it hasn't! It can't have!'
'If I were you,' said Billie, 'I'd ring up this prizefighting Casanova of yours and get him to give you the latest bulletin. You need only ask to speak to him. The hotel receptionist won't know who you are.'
'She will when she asks who's calling,' said Elysée, sniffing and then blowing her nose.
'Oh, don't be a fool! Give a false name, of course. Give mine. That will tip off this blasted Hempseed - good God! What a name! - that it's you, and he'll be ready with his story by the time they've paged him and he's got to the phone.'
'You ring him,' said Elysée. She turned to Dame Beatrice when Billie had gone out into the hall. 'What did you think I could tell you about Miss Minnie?' she asked. 'And why me?'
'Well,' Dame Beatrice replied, 'I will begin by answering your second question. Enquiries at Weston Pipers have established that, whereas Miss Kennett was accustomed to report daily at her newspaper office, you yourself spent at least three days a week in your flat.'
'Well, Niobe Nutley spent seven days a week there and, when she was there, so did Sumatra - not that she'd notice anything which went on. Irelath was her whole life, I believe. She didn't really have eyes or ears for anybody else.'
'Quite. As for Miss Nutley, I have already talked to her. Now, Miss Barnes, you are young, emotional and, I would think, kind-hearted. What was your opinion of Miss Minnie?'
'I don't think I formed one. If I thought about her at all, I suppose I looked on her as a poor lonely old thing who didn't get much fun out of life.'
'When you were alone on those three days a week, did you often go out in your car?'
'No, because the days when I didn't have to go up to Town, Billie had the car. Other days she used her moped, but that's not an all-weather vehicle exactly, and anyway, I always think four wheels are much safer than two.'
'So, although you thought of Miss Minnie as a poor lonely old thing who did not get much fun out of life, you never took her for a drive?'
'No. Oh, well, no, not for a drive, but sometimes, when I was driving to the station I used to go up to Town by train because of parking problems and because Billie used to fuss because she said it was too far to go to London and back in a day-'
'And on the way to the station you happened to pass Miss Minnie-'
'She was supposed to be going out to do her shopping, so, yes, I used to pull in and pick her up. She had to go to the bus stop otherwise and that's a good mile and a half from Weston Pipers -and the buses are very irregular.'
'She appears to have avoided contact with all the other inhabitants of Weston Pipers. Why do you think she made an exception of you?'
'I suppose it was easier to go into the town by car than wait for the bus, that's all. I suppose she had to come back by bus, but there was nothing I could do about that.'
Dame Beatrice said, 'Could not Mrs Evans have picked her up? Anyway, the journey to the station from which you caught your train is about ten miles from Weston Pipers, I believe, so if we subtract the distance she walked before you picked her up, Miss Minnie would have been in the car with you for about twenty minutes, I suppose.'
'A bit more. The roads round here twist and turn and are pretty narrow, and you can't drive fast on them. Besides I promised Billie I wouldn't, not even if it meant missing my train.'
'She seems to take every care of you.'
'She's worse than a fussy maiden aunt! Of course, she's older than I am.'
'That would explain it. She may be a frustrated mother. Some, of course, keep dogs or cats-'
'And in this case, you mean, she keeps me! Only she doesn't, you know. I can pay my way very nicely, thank you. Hers, too, if I wanted to, or she'd let me. She's rather a long time on that telephone.'
'I fancy that she is keeping out of our way while I question you. Did you drop Miss Minnie at the railway station each time?'
'No, I never took her as far as that, because the shops were on the way to it, so she got off before we reached the station.'
'Did she chat to you on the short journey?'
'Not to say chat. She asked me whether I ever took hot sea water baths, I remember.'
'And do you?'
'Heavens, no! The hot water from the bathroom tap is quite good enough for me. The papers said she was drowned in sea water, though. Did Piper do it?'
'What is your opinion?'
'Niobe Nutley might have done it. He wouldn't.'
'You think that, do you?'
'She's
