‘I’ll ask you all for your attention, if you please,’ he said, and was successful in getting it. ‘I don’t say this is the way I’d have dealt with the situation,’ he continued, ‘if it had been left to me. It hasn’t. Miss Pride has set about the affair in her own style and has put me in the position where I haven’t much choice but to take up the inquiry on her lines. I don’t say it’s a desirable way of going about the affair and I’d have been just as pleased if she’d have had a little chat with me first. She hasn’t and that’s that. I think it’ll be better for all concerned if we get the whole thing settled and done with by taking routine statements from everybody. I hope you’re agreeable.’

Patrick said quickly: ‘Of course. Much the best way.’ He stood up. ‘I was late for lunch,’ he said, ‘because I was having a drink with George Pender in the bar. I went direct from the bar to the dining-room. I didn’t go near the office. What about you, Mama?’

Mrs Barrimore twisted her fingers together and looked up at her son. She answered him as if it were a matter private to them both. ‘Do you mean, what did I do when I left the dining-room? Yes, I see. I – I went into the hall. There was a crowd of people from the bus. Some of them asked about – oh, the usual things. One of them seemed – very unwell – and I took her into the lounge to sit down. Then I went across to the old house. And –’

Dr Maine said: ‘I met Mrs Barrimore as she came in. I was in the old house. I’d called to have a word with her about Miss Pride. To learn if she was,’ he glanced at her, ‘if she was behaving herself,’ he said dryly. ‘I went into the old bar-parlour. Major Barrimore was there. I spoke to him for a minute or two and then had a snack lunch in the new bar. I then visited a patient who is staying in the hotel and at two-thirty I called on Miss Pride. I found her busy at the telephone summoning this meeting. At her request I have attended it.’

He had spoken rapidly. Mr Coombe said, ‘Just a minute if you please, Doctor,’ and they were all silent while he completed his notes. ‘Yes,’ he said at last. ‘Well, now. That leaves His Worship, doesn’t it and –’