‘Yes, we do, and the snow must have been falling at the time they carried Mrs Whittier,’ said Jonathan. ‘He would have needed that to cover his tracks – the accomplice, I mean.’

‘Yes, I can see that, of course. Besides, if it was snowing and you wore protective colouring, you might easily not be seen, either,’ suggested Sally.

‘Oh, as to that, the chances are that nobody would be about, anyway. These hills are lonely in bad weather,’ said Deborah.

‘The curry did the trick, of course,’ said Jonathan, ‘and that would account for the disappearance of the dogs. You couldn’t have poisoned dogs and a poisoned woman. The inference would be obvious.’

‘Well, he murders Mrs Whittier because she knows something about him which she may mention in an anonymous letter. Why does he murder Bill? – a row, or to get Bill’s property, or to leave a clear field to propose again to Miss Fielding?’ Sally enquired.

‘The answer might come if a claimant now came forward for that five thousand pounds’ insurance. That is, if the money was the motive,’ said Mrs Bradley.

‘Who are Bill Fullalove’s executors, by the way?’ demanded Sally.

‘Baird and Daventry,’ said Jonathan. ‘Bill once asked me, but I dodged the job. I’m jolly glad now that I did. I say, it would put the cat among the pigeons if some woman came forward and proved she had a claim to the money! That is, if Tiny is guilty, and the money was the motive.’

‘I still don’t think Tiny is a murderer,’ said Deborah, ‘whatever Aunt Adela may say about there being no particular type. But it’s queer that the anonymous letters should have stopped after Tiny went into the nursing home. I do admit that rather goes against him. But it’s probably only coincidence. As for the curry, you can’t prove whether it was poisoned.’

The report from the handwriting expert to whom Jonathan’s letter and Mrs Dalby Whittier’s ration book had been sent, stated, without doubt or condition, that the address on the ration book and on Jonathan’s anonymous letter had been written by the same hand.

‘The thing to find out now is whether Mrs Dalby Whittier wrote out her own address on her ration book,’ said Jonathan. His wife and Sally looked at him in great admiration.

‘That certainly is a point. It can be cleared up by sending her identity card for comparison,’ said the latter. But the police had been intelligent enough to anticipate Jonathan’s thought. The first anonymous letter had undoubtedly been written by Mrs Dalby Whittier, but whether, as Jonathan pointed out, of her own free will or under duress had still to be proved.