“I still don’t understand what the argument was about.”

“Pamela wanted me to go to see Charlie to ask if he had talked to the family about seeing us together. It was the sort of thing he might have done. He would have thought that it was amusing. He came back to the island on that Friday evening, and she went to see him then, but he only teased her. He said that he’d had a very important conversation with her uncles. ‘What an immoral bunch the Todds are, to be sure.’ That’s what he said to her, but she didn’t know what to make of it. She was always concerned about what the family thought of us.” His voice was resigned. “ They pass a lot of work on to her husband, who’s a solicitor. And they were always reasonably generous when she needed money.”

“Did she need a lot of money?”

“Yes,” he said. “It seemed to me that she needed a lot of money. I suppose that was why she would never leave her husband for me. I didn’t have a secure enough income.”

He spoke without bitterness.

“But you refused to go to see Charlie?”

“I didn’t think that it would do any good. He had probably forgotten all about it. Talking to him would only remind him.”

“Do you know what happened when she did go to the Wendy House after you’d argued on the night of the fire?”

“It was as I’d thought. He’d forgotten all about it. He was so excited by the canal idea that he hardly knew what she was talking about.”

“Did she mention seeing or hearing anyone while she was out?”

“No.”

“Did she say if Charlie had given her anything to drink?”

Jerry thought. “ She didn’t say, but Charlie would have offered her something. He was very hospitable.”

“Did you hear anything last night? You were sleeping next door to Pamela. You must have heard something.”

“I know,” Jerry said. “I’ve been trying to think. I’d drunk quite a lot of Paul’s whisky. It was a pretty awful evening. It was the only way I could get through it. I didn’t hear voices. I’m sure that I would have remembered if there had been voices. I heard her moving about. And I heard her light the tilly. You know, the sound of it being pumped to prime it.”

“But wouldn’t it have been lit already?”

“I suppose so. Perhaps she put it out, then decided she couldn’t sleep, so she put it on again to read.”

“Perhaps. When did you hear the sound of the tilly?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps a quarter of an hour before Nick screamed, perhaps a bit longer. As I say I was a bit drunk.”

“You didn’t seem drunk. You got to her room pretty quickly.”

“A sight like that would sober anyone.”