‘No,’ she said, ‘I didn’t meet anyone. I might have, of course, because the grounds are open to everyone this afternoon. But on the whole, people tend to stay round the lawn and the side shows and all that. They like to go round the kitchen gardens and the greenhouses, but they don’t walk through the woodlands as much as I should have thought they would. People tend to herd together very much at these affairs, don’t you think so, Inspector?’

The inspector said that that was probably so.

‘Though, I think,’ said Miss Brewis, with sudden memory, ‘that there was someone in the Folly.’

‘The Folly?’

‘Yes. A small white temple arrangement. It was put up just a year or two ago. It’s to the right of the path as you go down to the boathouse. There was someone in there. A courting couple, I suspect. Someone was laughing and then someone said, “Hush.”’

‘You don’t know who this courting couple was?’

‘I’ve no idea. You can’t see the front of the Folly from the path. The sides and back are enclosed.’

The inspector thought for a moment or two, but it did not seem likely to him that the couple – whoever they were – in the Folly were important. Better find out who they were, perhaps, because they in their turn might have seen someone coming up from or going down to the boathouse.

‘And there was no one else on the path? No one at all?’ he insisted.

‘I see what you’re driving at, of course,’ said Miss Brewis. ‘I can only assure you that I didn’t meet anyone. But then, you see, I needn’t have. I mean, if there had been anyone on the path who didn’t want me to see them, it’s the simplest thing in the world just to slip behind some of the rhododendron bushes. The path’s ordered on both sides with shrubs and rhododendron bushes. If anyone who had no business to be there heard someone coming along the path, they could slip out of sight in a moment.’

The inspector shifted on to another tack.

‘Is there anything you know about this girl yourself, that could help us?’ he asked.

‘I really know nothing about her,’ said Miss Brewis. ‘I don’t think I’d ever spoken to her until this affair. She’s one of the girls I’ve seen about – I know her vaguely by sight, but that’s all.’

‘And you know nothing about her – nothing that could be helpful?’