“I can’t go now. You don’t realize what I’ve done!”

Then, more calmly, he said: “You’re right of course. I’ll go to see her this afternoon and arrange to meet her, so that we can talk.”

He took little part in the remainder of the conversation, and made no pretence of following what was being said. George turned to Adam:

“I must know what you were doing on the morning of your accident. If you were with someone that morning you must tell me who it was. I don’t think you understand how important it is.”

His voice was almost pleading, but Adam refused to respond. He blinked and shuffled in a graceless, adolescent way.

“I’m sorry,” he said at last. “ I just can’t tell you.”

“I’ll be around all day,” George said. “If you change your mind, come and see me.”

Adam smiled sheepishly. Rob pulled himself out of his sleeping bag and stretched.

“Does this interrogation mean that you still don’t know who killed Tom French? It’s very impressive, all this information about Sally and Peter, but it doesn’t help much, does it?”

“I shouldn’t say that,” George said carefully. “All investigation is basically a matter of eliminating the irrelevant. And it all helps me to get a clearer picture of Tom French. You didn’t like him, did you?”

“What makes you say that?”

“Some of the things you said about him. No. More accurately, it was the way in which you said them. Why didn’t you like him?”

“When I told you that he was generous and kind, all that was true. He was like that. But he wasn’t sincere. He wasn’t kind through friendship. It was to prove that he was a kind person.”

Adam seemed about to interrupt, but only shook his head and let Rob continue.

“I suppose that he was desperately insecure. He assumed an almost god-like interest in other people’s moral welfare. He intruded. It was impossible to shake him from the belief that he was right. He never listened to what other people said. He just carried on talking, or rather lecturing. He was good at lecturing.”

Rob paused and considered before continuing: “But that’s not a fair picture either. With people who didn’t post any threat, like children or old ladies, he was perfectly natural. I could never understand him.” “Why didn’t you tell me that you felt like that about him?”

“It didn’t seem …” He searched for the right word. “… appropriate. And it was only my impression of him. I know that I’m not the most tolerant person in the world. Other people seemed to like him, especially if they weren’t birdwatchers. Perhaps he needed to keep his reputation as the great twitcher. You know what they say: ‘Once a twitcher always a twitcher.’ Even other birders seemed to get on okay with him. He was quite a legend with the youngsters, you know. Tom French who put Rushy on the twitchers’ map.”

“But he did,” said Adam. “ He did make Rushy a very special place, pretty well all by himself. And I did admire him. Even though he didn’t manage to get out much, he was still an excellent birder. The rest was just his attitude. He was shy, I think. He didn’t know how to speak to people.”