‘I felt certain that it could only be one thing. His wife must have died. But we could find no letters or cables at all, so he must have destroyed whatever message he had been sent by Anthony Banks. The next thing that happened was that Paddy’s solicitors received five thousand pounds from Australia and a letter from Anthony Banks to say it was forwarded in accordance with Paddy’s instructions. In the meantime I had written to Anthony Banks. I told him of Paddy’s death but wrote as a cousin of Paddy’s. He replied with the usual sort of letter. He didn’t, of course, say anything about Paddy’s wife, but he did say that a letter from him must have reached Paddy just before he died and that if it had been found he would like it to be destroyed unopened. You see, Roderick, Anthony Banks must have been honest because he could have kept that five thousand pounds himself quite easily, when she died. And he didn’t know Paddy had remarried.’

‘Yes, that’s quite true. Are you certain from what you knew of Paddy that he would have destroyed Banks’s letter?’

‘No. I’ve always thought he would have kept it to show me.’

‘Do you think he asked the people in the vicarage or at the hospital to destroy his letters?’

‘They had found his name and address on other letters in his wallet, so it wasn’t that.’ For the first time the quiet voice faltered a little. ‘He only spoke once, they said. He asked for me.’

‘Do you remember the name of the people at the vicarage?’

‘I don’t. I wrote and thanked them for what they had done. It was some very ordinary sort of name.’

‘And the cottage hospital?’

‘It was at Falconbridge in Buckinghamshire. Quite a big hospital. I saw the superintendent doctor. He was an elderly man with a face like a sheep. I think his name was Bletherley. I’m perfectly certain that he was not a blackmailer, Roderick. And the nurses were charming.’

‘Do you think that he could possibly have left the letter in the case, or that it could have dropped out of his pocket?’

‘I simply cannot believe that if he kept it at all it would be anywhere but in his wallet. And I was given the wallet. It was in the breast pocket of his coat. You see, Roderick, it’s not as if I didn’t try to trace the letter. I was desperately anxious to see the message from Anthony Banks. I asked again and again if anything could have been overlooked at the hospital and endless enquiries were made.’

She stopped for a moment and looked steadily at Alleyn.

‘You can see now,’ she said, ‘why I would go almost to any length to keep this from Bridget.’

‘Yes,’ said Alleyn, ‘I can see.’

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The Element of Youth