‘She also saw Miss Rickerby-Carrick peel off from the main party, run down the hill and excitedly latch on to Dr. Natouche who was walking down the lane. She seemed to show him something that she held in the palm of her hand. Troy couldn’t see what it was.’

‘That’s interesting,’ said Fox.

‘Dr Natouche has subsequently told Troy that she asked him about some sort of tranquillizer pill she’d been given by Miss Hewson. He did not, I think, actually say that she showed him this pill when they were in the lane: Troy simply supposes that was what it was.’

‘Might it,’ Tillottson ventured, ‘have been this what-you-call-it—furbished jewel?’

‘Fah-ber-zhay,’ murmured Mr Fox who spoke French. ‘And she wore that round her neck on a cord, Bert.’

‘Yes.’

‘Well,’ Alleyn said, leaving it, ‘that night she disappeared and in my opinion, that night, very late, she was murdered.

‘The next day, Natouche told Troy he was concerned about Miss Rickerby-Carrick. He didn’t say in so many words that he thought she might commit suicide but Troy got the impression that he did in fact fear it.

‘I’ll round up the rest of the bits and pieces gleaned by my wife, most of which, but I think not all, you have already heard, Tillottson.’

‘Er—well—yerse.’

‘Here they are, piecemeal. Pollock started life as a commercial artist and changed to real estate. He does a beautiful job of lettering when told exactly what’s wanted.

‘Natouche makes pretty maps.

‘Miss Hewson was shown the Fabergé bibelot by its owner.

‘Miss Hewson seems to be very keen on handing out pills.

‘The Hewsons were disproportionately annoyed when they heard that the return visit to Tollardwark would be on early-closing day. They hired a car from Longminster to do their shop-crawl in Tollardwark and on that trip bought their stuff at Jo Bagg’s in Ferry Lane.

‘In their loot was an oil painting, purporting to be a signed Constable. Hewson said they’d posted it on to their address in London but I saw it in one of their suitcases.

‘The cyclists watched the Zodiac sail from Norminster and re-appeared that evening at Ramsdyke. Troy thought she heard them—but says of course she might be wrong—during the night in Tollardwark.

‘Mrs Bagg complains about cyclists hanging round their yard on Tuesday. A screech, as of the cupboard door, attracted her attention.

‘The Baggs say the roll of prints was not in the cupboard a few days before the Hewsons found it there.