She lifted her eyebrows. ‘Okay. Be back soon.’ She tottered unsteadily towards the house.

I turned to Haslam and took the cane chair he indicated. ‘Suppose you tell me everything that happened just before Mr Salton died.’

He shrugged. ‘I can’t tell you any more than I’ve told already.’

‘Humour me,’ I said. ‘I’m a stranger round here.’

So he told me, and there was nothing in his account that was any different from that of Mrs Salton. While he was speaking, his wife came back with a glass and a refilled jug, sat by the pool and poured me a drink, as well as one for herself. Haslam was not drinking. I sipped my margarita while listening to him and discovered that Mrs Haslam was uncomfortably heavy with the tequila.

At last he finished. ‘That’s all I know, Mr Kemp.’

From the airstrip came the sudden howl of a jet engine winding up. I said, ‘What’s happening over there?’

‘Les Philips is testing the engines. I’m taking her up this afternoon.’

‘Oh, where are you going?’

‘No place. Just around. There are a lot of moving parts in an airplane, Mr Kemp, and if they’re left alone they get sticky. An airplane needs exercise, same as a man. She’s not been up since … since we came back from the States.’

‘How long will you be gone?’

‘Maybe an hour.’

I said, ‘I wanted to look at the plane. Maybe I’ll come with you.’

He hesitated. ‘That’s all right with me, but maybe I’d better check with Mrs Salton.’ He broke into an embarrassed laugh. ‘It’s her airplane. I’m just the hired driver.’

‘Well, why don’t you ask her if it’s all right?’

‘Sure, I’ll do that.’ He got up and walked towards the house.

Mrs Haslam reached for the jug and refilled her glass. ‘You wanna ask me somethin’?’ She was drinking too fast and her voice was slurred.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘On the day that Mrs Salton came up here to ask if you’d seen her husband, you told her that your husband and Mr Salton had gone into the plane and then the plane took off. Isn’t that what you said?’

She looked at me owlishly. ‘Sure, that’s what I said.’

‘But it wasn’t so. Why did you say it?’

‘It was so, too. You making me a liar, Mr Kemp?’

‘I’m just trying to get things straightened out,’ I said.

‘It happened like I said. Mr Salton got into the airplane with Jim. The plane took off.’ She looked up. ‘But I wasn’t looking at that airplane the whole damn time.’

I said carefully, ‘You mean that Mr Salton might have left the aircraft without you seeing him, before it took off?’