“He said that it was quite clear to her that you were one of those lady newspaper reporters and she warned me that I should be careful what I tell you.”

For once we both laughed.

“That’s wonderful,” I said. “Now I really have been given carte blanche to poke my nose around the village. But what she said was interesting, wasn’t it?”

“About the ghost? Absolutely. It might hint that someone has been creeping around for some time now.”

“And doing what? Stealing the odd piece to sell? In which case the whole murder could have quite a different complexion. A petty criminal, helping himself to the odd item he could sell in London or Dublin, is caught off guard by Mr. Roach. The American is strong, maybe. Threatens to overpower him and have him arrested. The burglar grabs the nearest weapon and hits out, accidentally killing Mr. Roach.”

“Interesting,” Darcy said. “I wonder if they would allow my father and me to look around and see if anything obvious is missing. Then we can put forward that theory and they can start looking for known criminals in the area and checking with fences.”

“And removing suspicion from your father,” I added.

“We’ll have to see about that.”

He went to climb back into the motorcar.

“So where to now?” I asked. “The stables, do you think?”

“If you like.” Darcy didn’t seem too enthusiastic.

“Well, what do you propose that we do? We must come up with a line of defense for him.”

“Your suggestion of an interrupted burglary was a good one,” he said. “I’d like to find out a bit more about this Roach fellow. Until we know more about him and his previous life we don’t know who might have a motive for wanting him dead.”

“And how do you plan to do that?”

“I could visit the American embassy in Dublin, I suppose. They must have had to find out about his next of kin.”

“It seems silly to rush into Dublin now we are here,” I said. “Why don’t you drive into that clearing among the trees over there and then you can show me the secret gate and we can look for clues up to the castle. We might even be able to get inside.”

“Breaking and entering during broad daylight?” Darcy said. “Yes, that will certainly help my father’s case.”

“All right. We won’t go into the house until the police guard is removed. But we can see if there is any evidence that your father returned drunk from killing Mr. Roach.”