Has it come to this? he thought. Do I have to take part in some competition with the police to prove that although I’m retired I’m still capable of logical thought, that I’ve not turned into an old gossip like Derbyshire, who can only live vicariously through other people’s scandal?

Molly would have laughed him out of his mood of self-examination. She would have said that he had agreed to help because he was there, and because he could do it. She would have said that there was nothing wrong in enjoying the intellectual challenge of the investigation. He would help the police anyway, she would say, out of his over-developed sense of duty, because he had been a public servant for so long that it had become a habit, so why not enjoy it?

Why not? he thought, and turned his mind to the facts.

The police would, he supposed, have been given a relatively accurate time of death, but it should be possible to work out an approximate time, because he knew that when Elizabeth went out on to the island at about 8.15 the seawatching hide had been separated from the island, but when John had hoisted the cone just before seven it had not been. He had asked them both specially. Mark and Nick had started their seawatch at 7.45. Because they had decided not to interrupt Charlie they had not noticed specifically if it would be possible to get to the hide, but Mark thought that the gully was starting to fill. In any event, even if they had been engrossed in their seawatch, they would surely have noticed someone wading through the gully from the hide towards the observatory. That put the latest time of death at about 7.35. He had an idea, and went into the bedroom. There was a small alarm clock by Charlie’s bed. The alarm was set for six o’clock. How long would it have taken him to get to the hide? George walked through to the kitchen.

It was a thin room, narrow as a corridor, only wide enough for cupboards on one of the long walls. The sink was built in there too. On the wooden worktop he found one dirty cup, empty, a dirty spoon, a jar of instant coffee and an opened packet of biscuits. It seemed that Charlie had only had a cup of coffee and a biscuit before going out. Presumably he had been expecting to have breakfast in the observatory. Surely he would have reached the seawatching hide by 6.30? Would it have been light then? Just. George Palmer-Jones decided that he could work on the assumption that Charlie Todd had been killed between 6.30 and 7.35. The ease of the deduction pleased him. He looked again at the kitchen. On the draining board by the sink, washed but not dried, were three glasses and three mugs. Who had been sharing Charlie’s hospitality? John and Elizabeth certainly. But would he have offered an alcoholic drink and coffee? George would have to ask them.