“The next day Molly saw Terry again, but still she couldn’t persuade him to describe the murderer.

“Unfortunately, I’d given Dennis, who is rather an unpleasant person, the impression that I was interested in the presence of cannabis on the hotel premises, and he told Terry not to speak to us. Before I could dispel the misunderstanding Terry disappeared. I gather that he saw a birdwatcher in the village, it reminded him of what had happened to Tom, he was frightened and ran away.

“It was only on the night of the storm, when Terry came home, that he told his landlady, Mrs. Black, exactly what he had seen. She tried to phone me that night, but I was in Rushy, and she couldn’t get in touch. She tried to explain to the police what Terry claimed to have seen, but she must have been upset and not very articulate, and they could not link the bicycle with Adam. If they had, we might have saved Sally an unpleasant experience.”

“Bicycle? I don’t understand.” Sally once more accepted the implied apology.

“Often when he went birdwatching, Adam used to take a small, fold-away bicycle. Terry saw a young person pushing the bicycle with Tom’s body bent double over the front. The young person was wearing binoculars. It would have been hard work, pushing the body like that, and it would have been dangerous, but it would have been possible. He couldn’t have done it, though, if he’d been carrying a heavy telescope at the same time. His is an Optylon. It’s short, but very heavy. He left the telescope where it was, planning to return for it later. We know now that Bernard Cranshaw found it, but he was feeling so guilty about having caused his mother to fall down the stairs, and so frightened of the police, that he did nothing about it.”

“Another loony,” said Rob unsympathetically.

George nodded.

“But not quite as dangerous as Adam.”

“I don’t understand why Adam moved the body,” Peter said. “ It seems a crazy risk to have taken.”

“He had to move it away from the bimaculated lark, because he was desperate to claim the lark as his own. If he had left the body where it was, one of the birdwatchers was certain to find it. Because of the lark, everyone would know that Adam had been in the area. Besides, Adam didn’t want to detract from his glory in finding the bird. The drama of a body might have done that. It was well hidden in the pool, and he timed his announcement of the bird just as the fog was clearing, so that as soon as it was possible to see anything all the birdwatchers were drawn away from the marsh.

“I’m still not quite sure why Clive Anderson asked me to investigate the case. Perhaps something about Adam’s manner made him suspicious. Perhaps, like us, he just thought that Adam was very upset.”

Rob interrupted: “But when he found the bimaculated lark he seemed so normal and natural. He must be a bloody good actor.”