'I've told you. Between ten o'clock and midnight.'
'I know that's what you said. But it wasn't my question. I asked you what you personally thought.'
'Off the record, eh?'
'Yes.'
'All right. My guess would be in the neighbourhood of eleven o'clock.'
'That's what I wanted you to say,' said Battle .
'Glad to oblige. Why?'
'Never did like the idea of her being killed before ten-twenty. Take Barrett's sleeping-draught — it wouldn't have got to work by then. That sleeping-draught shows that the murder was meant to be committed a good deal later — during the night. I'd prefer midnight myself.'
'Could be. Eleven is only a guess.'
'But it definitely couldn't be later than midnight?'
'No.'
'It couldn't be after 2.30?'
'Good heavens, no.'
'Well, that seems to let Strange out all right. I'll just have to check up on his movements after he left the house. If he's telling the truth he's washed out and we can go on to our other suspects.'
'The other people who inherit money?' suggested Leach.
'Maybe,' said Battle . 'But, somehow, I don't think so. Someone with a kink, I'm looking for.'
'A kink?'
'A nasty kink.'
When they left the doctors house they went on to the ferry. The ferry consisted of a rowing boat operated by two brothers, Will and George Barnes. The Barnes brothers knew everybody in Saltcreek by sight and most of the people who came over from Easterhead Bay . George said at once that Mr. Strange from Gull's Point had gone across at 10.30 on the preceding night. No, he had not brought Mr. Strange back again. Last ferry had gone at 1.30 from the Easterhead side and Mr. Strange wasn't on it.
Battle asked him if he knew Mr. Latimer.
'Latimer? Latimer? Tall, handsome young gentleman? Comes over from the hotel up to Gull's Point? Yes, I know him. Didn't see him at all last night, though. He's been over this morning. Went back last trip.'
They crossed on the ferry and went up to the Easterhead Bay Hotel.
Here they found Mr. Latimer newly returned from the other side. He had crossed on the ferry before theirs.
Mr. Latimer was very anxious to do all he could to help.
'Yes, old Nevile came over last night. Looked very blue over something. Told me he'd had a row with the old lady. I hear he'd fallen out with Kay, too, but he didn't tell me that, of course. Anyway, he was a bit down in the mouth. Seemed quite glad of my company for once in a way.'
'He wasn't able to find you at once, I understand?'
Latimer said sharply: 'Don't know why. I was sitting in the lounge. Strange said he looked in and didn't see me, but he wasn't in a state to concentrate. Or I may have strolled out into the gardens for five minutes or so. Always get out when I can. Beastly smell in this hotel. Noticed it last night in the bar. Drains, I think! Strange mentioned it, too! We both smelt it. Nasty decayed smell. Might be a dead rat under the billiard-room floor.'
'You played billiards, and after your game?'
'Oh, we talked a bit, had another drink or two. Then Nevile said, 'Hullo, I've missed the ferry,’ so I said I'd get out my car and drive him back, which I did. We got there about 2.30.'
'And Mr. Strange was with you all the evening?'
'Oh, yes. Ask anybody. They'll tell you.'
'Thank you, Mr. Latimer. We have to be so careful.'
Leach said as they left the smiling, self-possessed young man: 'What's the idea of checking up so carefully on Nevile Strange?'
Battle smiled. Leach got it suddenly.
'Good Lord, it's the other one you're checking up on. So that's your idea.'
'It's too soon to have ideas,' said Battle . 'I've just got to know exactly where Mr. Ted Latimer was last night. We know that from quarter-past eleven, say — to after midnight — he was with Nevile Strange. But where was he before that — when Strange arrived and couldn't find him?'
They pursued their inquiries doggedly — with bar attendants, waiters, lift boys. Latimer had been seen in the lounge between nine and ten. He had been in the bar at a quarter-past ten. But between that time and eleven- twenty he seemed to have been singularly elusive. Then one of the maids was found who declared that Mr. Latimer had been in one of the small writing rooms with Mrs. Beddoes — that's the fat North Country lady.'
'That tears it,' said Battle gloomily. 'He was here, all right. Just didn't want attention drawn to his fat (and no doubt rich) lady friend. That throws us back on those others — the servants, Kay Strange, Audrey Strange, Mary Aldin and Thomas Royde. One of them killed the old lady, but which? If we could find the real weapon — '
He stopped, then slapped his thigh.
'Got it, Jim, my boy! I know now what made me think of Hercule Poirot. We'll have a spot of lunch and go back to Gull's Point and I'll show you something.'
X
Mary Aldin was restless. She went in and out of the house, picked off a dead dahlia head here and there, went back into the drawing-room and shifted flower vases in an unmeaning fashion.
From the library came a vague murmur of voices. Mr. Trelawny was in there with Nevile. Kay and Audrey were nowhere to be seen.
Mary went out in the garden again. Down by the wall she spied Thomas Royde placidly smoking. She went and joined him.
'Oh, dear.' She sat down beside him with a deep, perplexed sigh.
'Anything the matter?' Thomas asked.
Mary laughed with a slight note of hysteria in the laugh.
'Nobody but you would say a thing like that. A murder in the house and you just say, 'Is anything the matter?''
Looking a little surprised, Thomas said: 'I meant anything fresh?'
'Oh, I know what you meant. It's really a wonderful relief to find anyone so gloriously just-the-same-as-usual as you are!'
'Not much good, is it, getting all het up over things?'
'No, no. You're eminently sensible. It's how you manage to do it beats me.'
'Well, I suppose I'm an outsider.'
'That's true, of course. You can't feel the relief all the rest of us do that Nevile is cleared.'
'I'm very pleased he is, of course,' said Royde. Mary shuddered.
'It was a very near thing. If Camilla hadn't taken it into her head to ring the bell for Barrett after Nevile had left her — '
'Then old Nevile would have been for it, all right.'
He spoke with a certain grim satisfaction, then shook his head with a slight smile, as he met Mary's reproachful gaze.
'I'm not really heartless, but now that Nevile's all right I can't help being pleased he had a bit of a shaking up. He's always so damned complacent.'
'He isn't really, Thomas.'
'Perhaps not. It's just his manner. Anyway, he was looking scared as Hell this morning!'
'What a cruel streak you have!'
'Anyway, it's all right now. You know, Mary, even here Nevile has had the devil's own luck. Some other poor
