“And I had only just made the discovery myself,” I said quickly. “I was on my way into the house to call the police when my”—I was going to say “my mother” but I changed it rapidly—“when these ladies came home. I had just got back myself from an afternoon at a friend’s house.”

I saw Coco and Vera give each other a glance. I saw them comprehend what I had realized a few minutes earlier—that I had been on Sir Toby’s yacht and was probably one of the last people to see him alive. For all they knew, I only just left him a minute or two before the murder. This put me in a difficult position. I was glad that I had been with Jean-Paul. At least the police would believe him if he told them that Sir Toby was alive and well when I leaped off his boat. Oh, dear—that wouldn’t look good either, would it? I decided that for once silence would be golden.

The young gendarme began to cross the terrace on his way back to the front door. Then he turned back to us. “Does this Sir Toby live alone at his villa?”

“His wife was in town yesterday,” I said. “I saw her checking into the Negresco, so I don’t believe she was staying at the villa.”

“Why was that, do you think?” the policeman asked.

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you. I don’t know Lady Groper,” I said. “And I also met his son at the casino, but I couldn’t tell you where he was staying—with friends, I gather.”

“So none of them was staying with the poor papa?” he asked. “Does this not seem strange?”

“As I said, we don’t know the family,” Vera said firmly.

“So he would have been in the house alone, apart from the servants?”

“We don’t know,” Coco said, sounding rather irritated now. “Madame Daniels, who owns this villa, has no social contact with her neighbor.”

“Then we will trouble you no more.” The young gendarmes bowed and left us. The moment they had gone the three women turned on me. “You said you spent the afternoon with a friend. So you didn’t go to Sir Toby after all?” Coco asked.

“I did go,” I said. “I went out on his yacht. But then Jean-Paul came by in his speedboat and I went off with him to his villa.”

I saw Mummy’s eyebrows rise.

“Where he treated me like a perfect gentleman,” I said. “Unlike Sir Toby, who tried to make a horrible pass at me. Groper was a good name for him. He was all hands.”