afterwards, passing from comedy to tragedy, I am embroiled in a murder.'
He lit a cigarette, inhaled deeply, and said:
'Not that it concerns me in any way, this murder. Indeed, I am at a loss to know why you should want to interview me.'
'You arrived here as a stranger, Mr De Sousa -'
De Sousa interrupted:
'And strangers are necessarily suspicious, is that it?'
'No, no, not at all, sir. No, you don't take my meaning. Your yacht, I understand, is moored in Helmmouth?'
'That is so, yes.'
'And you came up the river this afternoon in a motor launch?'
'Again – that is so.'
'As you came up the river, did you notice on your right a small boathouse jutting out into the river with a thatched roof and a little mooring quay underneath it?'
De Sousa threw back his handsome, dark head and frowned as he reflected.
'Let me see, there was a creek and a small grey tiled house.'
'Farther up the river than that, Mr De Sousa. Set amongst trees.'
'Ah, yes, I remember now. A very picturesque spot. I did not know it was the boathouse attached to this house. If I had done so, I would have moored my boat there and come ashore. When I asked for directions I had been told to come up to the ferry itself and go ashore at the quay there.'
'Quite so. And that is what you did?'
'That is what I did.'
'You didn't land at, or near, the boathouse?'
De Sousa shook his head.
'Did you see anyone at the boathouse as you passed?'
'See anyone? No. Should I have seen anyone?'
'It was just a possibility. You see, Mr De Sousa, the murdered girl was in the boathouse this afternoon. She was killed there, and she must have been killed at a time not very distant from when you were passing '
Again De Sousa raised his eyebrows.
'You think I might have been a witness to this murder?'
'The murder took place inside the boathouse, but you might have seen the girl – she might have looked out from the window or come out on to the balcony. If you had seen her it would, at any rate, have narrowed the time of death for us. If, when you'd passed she'd been still alive -'
'Ah, I see. Yes, I see. But why ask me particularly? There are plenty of boats going up and own from Helmmouth. Pleasure steamers. They pass the whole time. Why not ask them?'
'We shall ask them,' said the inspect 'Never fear, we shall ask them. I am to take it, then, that you saw nothing unusual at the boathouse?'
'Nothing whatever. There was nothing to show there was anyone there. Of course I did not look at it with any special attention, and I did not pass very near. Somebody might have been looking out of the windows, as you suggest, but if so I should not have seen that person.' He added in a polite tone, 'I am very sorry that I cannot assist you.'
'Oh, well,' said Inspector Bland in a friendly manner, 'we can't hope for too much. There are just a few other things I would like to know, Mr De Sousa.'
'Yes?'
'Are you alone down here or have you friends with you on this cruise?'
'I have had friends with me until quite recently, but for the last three days I have been on my own – with the crew, of course.'
'And the name of your yacht, Mr De Sousa?'
'The Esperance.'
'Lady Stubbs is, I understand, a cousin of yours?'
De Sousa shrugged his shoulders.
'A distant cousin. Not very near. In the islands, you must understand, there is much inter-marrying. We are all cousins of one another. Hattie is a second or third cousin. I have not seen her since she was practically a little girl, fourteen – fifteen.'
'And you thought you would pay her a surprise visit today?'
'Hardly a surprise visit, Inspector. I had already written to her.'
'I know that she received a letter from you this morning, but it was a surprise to her to know that you were in this country.'
'Oh, but you are wrong there, Inspector. I wrote to my cousin – let me see, three weeks ago. I wrote to her from France just before I came across to this country.'
The inspector was surprised.
'You wrote to her from France telling her you proposed to visit her?'
'Yes. I told her I was going on a yachting cruise and that we should probably arrive at Torquay or Helmmouth round about this date, and that I would let her know later exactly when I should arrive.'
Inspector Bland stared at him. This statement was at complete variance with what he had been told about the arrival of Etienne De Sousa's letter at the breakfast table. More than one witness had testified to Lady Stubbs having been alarmed and upset and very clearly startled at the contents of the letter. De Sousa returned his stare calmly. With a little smile he flicked a fragment of dust from his knee.
'Did Lady Stubbs reply to your first letter?' the inspector asked.
De Sousa hesitated for a moment or two before he answered, then he said:
'It is so difficult to remember… No, I do not think she did. But it was not necessary. I was travelling about, I had no fixed address. And besides, I do not think my cousin, Hattie, is very good at writing letters.' He added: 'She is not, you know, very intelligent, though I understand that she has grown into a very beautiful woman.'
'You have not yet seen her?' Bland put it in the form of a question and De Sousa showed his teeth in an agreeable smile.
'She seems to be most unaccountably missing,' he said. 'No doubt this espece de gala bores her.'
Choosing his words carefully, Inspector Bland said:
'Have you any reason to believe, Mr De Sousa, that your cousin might have some reason for wishing to avoid you?'
'Hattie wish to avoid me? Really, I do not see why. What reason could she have?'
'That is what I am asking you, Mr De Sousa.'
'You think that Hattie has absented herself from this fete in order to avoid me? What an absurd idea.'
'She had no reason, as far as you know, to be – shall we say? – afraid of you in any way?'
'Afraid – of me?' De Sousa's voice was sceptical and amused. 'But if I may say so. Inspector, what a fantastic idea!'
'Your relations with her have always been quite amicable?'
'It is as I have told you. I have had no relations with her. I have not seen her since she was a child of fourteen.'
'Yet you look her up when you come to England?'
'Oh, as to that I had seen a paragraph about her in one of your society papers. It mentions her maiden name and that she is married to this rich Englishman, and I think 'I must see what the little Hattie has turned into. Whether her brains now work better than they used to do.'' He shrugged his shoulders again. 'It was a mere cousinly politeness. A gentle curiosity – no more.'
Again the inspector stared hard at De Sousa. What, he wondered, was going on behind the mocking, smooth facade? He adopted a more confidential manner.
'I wonder if you can perhaps tell me a little more about your cousin? Her character, her reactions?'
De Sousa appeared politely surprised.
'Really – has this anything to do with the murder of the girl in the boathouse, which I understand is the real matter with which you occupy yourself?'
