‘Killed Bill, watched for Jonathan to leave the bungalow, carted the body through deep snow and flung it over the gate before Jonathan got there, staged his own injury, crawled back, and waited to be found by the people who brought home his cousin’s body … the snow having blurred, or, with luck, covered up all traces … yes, I know,’ said Mrs Bradley. ‘But there’s no proof that Bill was killed, Sally. The death was by misadventure. He died of cold and exposure. No exhumation will prove otherwise.’

‘I know. But just suppose! Nothing has gone wrong, so far, and once it is clear that there is never going to be any claimant for Bill’s five thousand pounds, Tiny will be entitled to collect it, and there is the motive for murder. That’s how it seems to me, anyway.’

‘Your remark about your maid, the too-clever one, opens up a field for speculation,’ said her aunt. ‘You see, if Tiny has anything to hide, one would imagine that the last thing he would want is to have his cousin’s body exhumed. Therefore, unless he also is trying to be too clever, he is not the author of the anonymous letters. Yet the letter sent to Anstey was typed on the same machine as all the anonymous letters which have been shown to the police. Now it seems more and more certain to me, as time goes on, that Anstey’s note must have been sent by Tiny, whether he did the actual typing or not. I wish we could see the letter which he himself is supposed to have received at the nursing home. According to the matron there, it really did come by post and it really did give him a bad shock.’

‘There’s no doubt that by getting Bill exhumed he thinks he can dispose once and for all of any doubts about Bill having died a natural death,’ said Sally, ‘but—’

‘Why should he suppose that people would suspect anything else, though?’ Mrs Bradley enquired. ‘The verdict at the inquest was quite clear. I don’t think for one moment that Tiny wants Bill’s body exhumed.’

‘Well, somebody evidently does. And, look here, Aunt Adela! This business that the anonymous letters have ceased! It means that Tiny did write them, only he now has no opportunity of getting them posted secretly. All his correspondence is sent out from the nursing home, and is posted by one of the staff, so he daren’t send the anonymous ones out, or somebody might suspect! How’s that for a reconstruction? And you’re wrong about the cold and exposure! Tiny poisoned Bill and somebody found it out – Mrs Dalby Whittier, I expect.’