‘It’s more comfortable here,’ she said, ‘and I’m a bit tired. I was out at the crack of dawn at me sketching. Down on the front, ‘twas, and those steps are enough to break your heart.’

‘There must be some very pleasant subjects down there,’ murmured Alleyn. ‘At the end of the jetty, for instance.’

‘You’ve a good eye for a picture,’ said Miss Darragh. ‘That’s where I was. Or perhaps you saw me there?’

‘I think,’ said Alleyn, ‘that you passed me on your way out. I was in the garage yard.’

‘You were. But the garage yard does not overlook the jetty.’

‘Oh, no,’ said Alleyn vaguely. ‘Now, Miss Darragh, may we get down to what I’m afraid will be, for you, a very boring business. It’s about the night of this affair. I’ve seen your statement to the police, and I’ve read the report of the inquest.’

‘Then,’ said Miss Darragh, ‘I’m afraid you’ll know all I have to tell you and that’s not much.’

‘There are one or two points we’d like to go over with you if we may. You told the coroner that you thought the wound from the dart had nothing to do with Mr Watchman’s death.’

‘I did. And I’m positive it hadn’t. A little bit of a puncture no bigger than you’d take from a darning-needle.’

‘A little bigger than that surely?’

‘Not to make any matter.’

‘But the analyst found cyanide on the dart.’

‘I’ve very little faith in ‘um,’ said Miss Darragh.

‘In the analyst? It went up to London, you know. It was the very best analyst,’ said Alleyn with a smile.

‘I know ‘twas, but the cleverest of ‘um can make mistakes. Haven’t I read for myself how delicate these experiments are with their fractions of a grain of this and that and their acid tests, and their heat tests and all the rest of it? I’ve always thought it’s blown up with their theories and speculations these fine chemists must be. When they’re told to look for prussic acid they’ll be determined to find it. Ah, well, maybe they did find poison on the dart, but that makes no difference at all to me theory, Mr Alleyn. If there was prussic acid or cyanide, or somebody’s acid on the dart (and why, for pity’s sake, can’t they find one name for ut and be done with ut), then ‘twas put on in the factory or the shop, or got on afterwards for ‘twas never there at the time.’

‘I beg your pardon?’ asked Alleyn apologetically. ‘I don’t quite—’

‘What I mean is this, Mr Alleyn. Not a soul there had a chance to play the fool with the darts, and why should they when nobody could foretell the future?’