‘Who planted the empty aspirin packet? – I can’t attempt to solve your cryptogram.’

‘It seems to have been Emming, and that is where more villainy comes in. Emming was not only determined upon his mother’s death and upon the death of Bill Fullalove, but he is now also bent upon incriminating his fellow-conspirator.’

‘When did you first tumble to the notion that Tiny and Robert Emming were in league?’

‘Well, I soon noticed a physical resemblance which set me wondering. At Christmas time I remarked that Emming reminded me of someone, and I was not content until I had worked out who that was. It did not take very long, in spite of the fact that Emming looks effeminate.’

‘I still don’t see why that should have indicated to you that they were in league.’

‘It did not, at first, but I soon realized how much each stood to gain if Bill and his legal wife, Mrs Whittier (so-called) were out of the way. Bill’s was the first-planned death, although it came second in point of time. It was very well planned. It was to appear accidental. All the conspirators needed was cold weather. Tiny made the plan, I fancy, but he had to have an accomplice to help him carry it out. He found out, I think, (mind, this is mostly a theoretical reconstruction), that Emming was blackmailing Mrs Whittier and so proceeded to blackmail him into helping to murder Bill.’

‘I begin to see the point of your chains and trees now. How utterly horrible!’

‘Indeed it was. Well, the terrible plan being made, the conspirators got rather a shock. Bill and Tiny quarrelled. Bill not only gave Tiny a black eye, but told him that the insurance policy was of no use to him, as he (Bill) had a wife. That sealed Mrs Whittier’s doom. To do Emming justice, I think the only hand he had in her death was to help transport her body from the bungalow to where it was found.’

‘Yes, I see. Now what about the fraud? – that intrigues me very much.’

‘Well, as I see it, it hinges on Mrs So-Called Bill Fullalove. She is, of course, wife to Robert Emming, and as part of the plot she was given Mrs Dalby Whittier’s marriage certificate after the woman’s death. This gives her the necessary claim to the insurance money. Armed with it, she can come in as an unknown but unimpeachable claimant to the Fullalove five thousand pounds. This she is to share with her husband, Emming, and also with Tiny Fullalove.

‘That arrangement, of course, in reality suited nobody. Five thousand pounds is not such a very large sum that it can be shared with much advantage among three people; therefore it became necessary for Tiny and Emming to make chess-like moves in order to …’

‘Double-cross one another?’