‘Well, I may have seen it unconsciously,’ I said, ‘but I was too horrified to notice any details that I can remember.’
‘I see, sir. I believe you were the manager of a swimming pool before you went over to Paris.’
‘That’s right, yes.’
‘You must have been pleased when you found you had a natural bathing-place at the bottom of your lawn.’
‘Yes, of course, but one hardly uses it at this time of year.’
‘Not even an experienced swimmer such as yourself?’
‘I’m not keen enough to want to catch pneumonia.’
His questions, no doubt, would have alarmed a guilty man even more than they alarmed me, but they made me very uneasy.
‘Do you
‘Yes, in an indoor swimming pool where they warm the water, and there is nothing of the sort in these parts.’
‘But you never swim in the open sea?’
‘Not in the winter, no.’
‘You attended the inquest on the body?’
‘Of course. Besides, I was one of the witnesses.’
‘Quite so. There was one item of information which we asked the coroner not to mention. You will recollect that the medical evidence was of death by drowning.’
‘Well?’
‘Well, sir, haven’t you something you would like to tell me about that?’
‘There is nothing I can tell you about it. We thought she had attempted to drown herself, thought better of it, got as far as her bed and then collapsed.’
‘And the state of her head, sir? How do you account for that?’
‘I don’t have to account for it. I suppose a burglar broke in and hit her in case she wasn’t quite dead. It doesn’t sound likely, but it’s the only conclusion we could reach.’
‘You used to swim in your little cove in the summer, of course?’
‘Oh, yes, frequently, but the water was warm in the summer.’
‘Did any of your tenants do the same?’
‘They may have done. The bathing here is free. I don’t keep track of everything my tenants do.’
‘Did you ever know Miss Minnie to do anything of the sort? – to go bathing in the sea?’
‘I knew almost nothing about her. In any case, the answer to that is the same as I have given you in connection with the other tenants. I had neither the time nor the inclination to keep tabs on their activities.’
‘Your housekeeper has mentioned some obnoxious letters which came for you.’
‘Not only for me. She herself had a couple and so did two of my tenants, two girls. There may have been others.’
‘Two girls? Who would they be, sir?’
‘A Miss Kennett and a Miss Barnes. They moved out a few weeks ago. I think the letters were the cause of their leaving.’
‘Can you give me their present address, sir?’
‘Sorry, but no. They didn’t tell us where they were going to live. No doubt the Post Office would have an address for forwarding letters.’
‘No doubt, sir. About the window-fastenings: you said, I think, that they were only a precautionary measure.’
‘That’s right.’
‘But not entirely true, sir. I understood that you suspected the deceased of breaking into the house at night and prowling about in the other tenants’ rooms.’
‘I think that was other people’s idea, not mine. I saw nobody prowling around, but I had the fastenings put on as a precautionary measure, just as I said.’
‘Quite so, sir. You will forgive a very personal question, I hope? How did you come into possession of this property and the money to repair and convert it?’
‘I told you that, the last time you were here. I was left the money and the estate by a Mrs Dupont-Jacobson who entertained the remarkable theory that I had saved her from drowning.’
‘In the sea, sir?’
‘Yes, off Funchal, Madeira.’
‘We know that the deceased claimed to be Mrs Dupont-Jacobson’s next of kin. Are you sure she proposed to contest the will?’
