‘Sure.’ She drank from her glass and a dribble of liquid ran from the corner of her mouth down her chin. She dabbed it with the back of a paw.

‘But when it became clear that Mr Salton was missing, didn’t it occur to you to tell someone?’

She shook her head muzzily. ‘I didn’t know David Salton was missing. And if Mrs Salton thought he was, then she kept her troubles to herself.’

That fitted. I couldn’t see Mrs Salton confiding in a woman like this, the addled wife of her husband’s employee. Haslam called from the house. I said, ‘Excuse me,’ to Mrs Haslam and went across.

‘Mrs Salton would like to talk with you,’ he said, and led me inside the house to the telephone.

I picked it up. ‘Kemp here.’

Her voice was cool and pleasant. ‘After your flight would you like to come back to the house and make use of the pool?’

‘That would be very nice.’ I paused. ‘I have no trunks with me.’

She sounded amused. ‘I think we can find something for you. In about an hour, then.’

I put down the telephone and went back to Haslam. ‘Would you like to go right away?’ he asked.

‘If you’re ready,’ I said.

He nodded abruptly and went back to the pool. He had a few words with his wife and then came back. I fell into step with him and we walked across the airstrip towards the distant hangar. He was silent and seemed to be brooding about something. At last he said, ‘Bette … my wife … She’s not usually like that. It’s just that she’s upset.’

‘About Mr Salton?’

He shrugged. ‘In a way. She’s worried about me.’

‘I don’t see that you can be blamed for anything,’ I said.

Haslam stopped in mid-stride and turned to me. ‘It’s not that. She’s worried about my job. Mrs Salton doesn’t use the airplane much – it was his baby – and Bette thinks I may be out of a job pretty soon. She may be right, at that.’

‘Did you like working for Mr Salton?’

‘Hell, yes. He was a real nice guy. Very considerate, not like some bosses I’ve had. Wherever we went – and we went to some weird places – he always saw that the aircrew were okay before he went about his business.’

We began to walk again, and I said, ‘How many in the crew?’

‘There’s me as pilot, and Les Philips. He’s the engineer and does the routine ground servicing but he has his pilot’s ticket too, so he comes along as co-pilot. I do the navigating. House servants are on board as stewards – one or two, depending on the number of passengers. And there was usually Mr Salton’s secretary.’

‘Who was?’

‘Mrs Forsyth.’

‘Is she around here now?’