Dalgliesh, who was occupied at Stone Cottage, left the initial questioning to Kate and Benton. It was three-thirty before they arrived to begin their enquiries and, again with the consent of Mr. Chandler-Powell, used the library for the majority of their interviews. For the first few hours, the results were disappointing. Dr. Glenister couldn’t be expected to give a precise assessment of the time of death until after the post-mortem, but, given the accuracy of her preliminary estimations, they could work on the assumption that Boyton had died the previous day sometime between two o’clock and six. The fact that he hadn’t had time to wash his plates after a meal that was clearly more likely to be lunch than breakfast was less helpful than it seemed since there were in the sink unwashed crockery and two saucepans which looked as if they had been there from the night before.

Kate decided to ask people where they were the previous day from one o’clock until dinner, which was served at eight. Nearly everyone could provide an alibi for part of the time, but none for the whole seven hours. The afternoon was a time when people were generally free to follow their own interests or inclinations, and most had been alone for some of the time, either in the Manor or in the garden. Marcus Westhall had driven into Bournemouth to do some Christmas shopping, leaving shortly after lunch, and had not returned until seven-thirty. Kate sensed that the rest of the household thought that it was a little odd that, whenever there was a dead body to be explained, Marcus Westhall had the good fortune to be absent. His sister had worked with Lettie in the office in the morning and after lunch had returned to Stone Cottage to garden. She had been sweeping leaves, building up the compost heap and cutting away the dead branches of the bushes until the light began to fail. She had then returned to the cottage to make tea, entering by the door into the conservatory, which she had left open. She had seen Boyton’s car parked outside but had seen and heard nothing of him the whole afternoon.