“I suppose so. I usually go that way.”

“Did you see anyone?”

“No, a couple of times I thought I heard someone, but it was probably my imagination. I’ve never been out in a fog that thick before and it was really weird. But what’s so important about the marsh track? I thought that Tom was killed by the pool.”

The question was asked politely, diffidently.

“His body was found by the pool. But someone who was walking down the road from the village saw him dead at the marsh track. I’m sure that you’ll understand that I can’t tell you who that witness is. You didn’t see anything?”

Adam shook his head.

“What time were you walking that way?”

“I should think it was about seven.”

“That would probably be too early to have seen anything. What did Rob do when you went off towards the village?”

“I don’t know. I left him in one of the hides.”

“And what did you do for the rest of the day? Until you found the lark?”

“I stayed out. I did the copse thoroughly and I’d been round the White Lodge several times before I found the bird. I was positive that there must be something good among all that stuff, I just knew it.”

“Were you on your own?”

“Yes, I don’t like birding in a crowd. I met people in the copse and the Lodge park, but only to ask them if anything had been seen.”

George lay back in his chair, forming his words carefully.

“You know the younger birders better than I do. Has anyone noticed anything odd?”

Adam seemed pleased to be consulted.

“No, nobody’s said anything to me and I haven’t heard anything on the grapevine. No rumours.”

He seemed uncertain about whether he should continue. George said nothing.

“There is one point … I wasn’t sure if I should say anything … Do you remember I met you at Trekewick, at the greenish?”

George nodded.

“There was a friend of Rob Earl’s at the bird. I’d never seen him before. His name’s Pete Littleton. He gave the impression that he’d just got to the mainland from the Scillies and that it was his first trip into the field since he’d got here.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Well, it wasn’t his first trip into the field. I’m sure that he was at Rushy on that Saturday afternoon, the day Tom died. I saw him at the Lodge park and he asked me if I’d seen anything. I wondered who he was. He seemed to know what he was talking about.”

Adam stopped, knowing that again he was talking too much, too loudly. He looked at George, whose face showed no surprise, no reaction at all.

Another connection, George was thinking. Too many connections. Tom’s mood changed when Ella told him that Pete was moving back to the mainland, and Adam saw Pete on the afternoon of the day Tom died. But what real connection is there between Pete Littleton and Tom French?