“Yes, he said he was making notes for a new book, and he planned to begin the writing as soon as they were home in the States. He said he planned to call it Dead in the Water.”

This was news to Stone, something else Forrester hadn’t mentioned. He decided to mine this vein. “Did he mention that he was keeping notes in a book?”

“Yes, he showed me a leather-bound book that he had bought in a shop in Las Palmas.”

“Would the bailiff kindly show Prosecution Exhibit Number One to the witness?”

The bailiff handed Forrester the book.

“Is this the book Paul Manning showed you?”

Forrester leafed through the early pages. “Yes.” He held up the open book. “You see, he wrote the title, Dead in the Water, at the top of the first page.”

“Mr. Forrester, you are a professional writer. Please look through the text of the book and tell me if what you read might correspond with the sort of notes a writer might make prior to beginning to write a book. Take your time.”

Forrester read several pages while the courtroom waited. “Yes,” he said finally, “this seems very much to me to be a set of notes, though an incomplete one.”

“Does it appear in any way to be a diary?”

“Certainly not. It does not describe the relationship between man and wife that I saw in Las Palmas.”

“After the Mannings sailed from Las Palmas, did you see them again?”

“Yes, on the island of Puerto Rico, to the south.”

“Would you describe the occasion, please?”

“We were there gathering information for my article, my photographer and I, and I saw the yacht in the marina there. Paul asked me on board for a drink and told me that they were sailing almost immediately.”

New information again. Stone wished that Forrester would stop elaborating on what he had said earlier. “Was Mrs. Manning present?”

“Yes, she was.”

“Had anything in their relationship changed that you could observe?”

“No, they still seemed to be the same happy couple I had seen a couple of days before.”

“Were you present when they left the harbor?”

“Yes, I was standing on the quay, watching them.”

“Did they still seem to be a happy couple?”

“Yes, they were laughing as they sailed past the quay. They waved and called out a good-bye.”

“Did anyone but Allison Manning ever see Paul Manning after that?”

“No. I believe I was the last to see him.”

“You have interviewed Mrs. Manning extensively about their experiences after leaving Puerto Rico, have you not?”

“Yes, I have.”

“Did you question her closely about the events that occurred on the occasion of Paul Manning’s death?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Did Allison Manning say anything to you about those events that you found to be inconsistent with the impression you had formed of the couple in the Canary Islands?”