let's go home."
"Very soon we will, but not just yet. Things are coming along. As I told you, Tina's coming this afternoon."
He went on, hoping to turn her thoughts into a new channel: "I've great hopes of Tina."
"In what way?"
"Tina knows something."
"You mean - about the murder?"
"Yes."
"But how can she? She wasn't even here that night."
"I wonder now. I think, you know, that she was. Funny how odd little things turn up to help. That daily, Mrs. Narracott - the tall one, she told me something."
"What did she tell you?"
"A bit of village gossip. Mrs. Somebody or other's Ernie - no - Cyril. He'd had to go with his mother to the police station. Something he'd seen on the night poor Mrs. Argyle was done in."
"What had he seen?"
"Well, there Mrs. Narracott was rather vague. She hadn't got it out of Mrs. Somebody yet. But one can guess, can't one, Polly? Cyril wasn't inside the house, so he must have seen something outside. That gives us two guesses. He saw Micky or he saw Tina. It's my guess that Tina came out here that night."
"She'd have said so."
"Not necessarily. It sticks out a mile that Tina knows something she isn't telling. Say she drove out that night. Perhaps she came into the house and found your mother dead."
"And went away again without saying anything? Nonsense."
"There may have been reasons... She may have seen or heard something that made her think she knew who'd done it."
"She was never particularly fond of Jacko. I'm sure she wouldn't have wanted to shield him."
"Then perhaps it wasn't Jacko she suspected... But later, when Jacko was arrested, she thought that what she had suspected was quite wrong. Having said she wasn't here, she had to stick to it. But now, of course, it's different."
Mary said impatiently: "You just imagine things, Philip. You make up a lot of things that can't possibly be true."
"They're quite likely to be true. I'm going to try and make Tina tell me what she knows."
"I don't believe she knows anything. Do you really think she knows who did it?"
"I wouldn't go as far as that. I think she either saw, or heard - something. I want to find out what that something is."
"Tina won't tell if she doesn't want to."
"No, I agree. And she's a great one for keeping things to herself. Little poker face, too. Never shows anything. But she's not really a good liar
-not nearly as good a liar as you are, for instance... My method will be to guess. Put my guess to her as a question. To be answered yes or no. Do you know what will happen then? One of three things. She'll either say yes - and that will be that. Or she will say no -and since she isn't a good liar I shall know whether her no is genuine. Or she will refuse to answer and put on her poker face - and that, Polly, will be as good as yes. Come now, you must admit that there are possibilities with this technique of mine."
"Oh, leave it all alone, Phil! Do leave it alone! It will all die down and be forgotten."
"No. This thing has got to be cleared up. Otherwise we'll have Hester throwing herself out of windows and Kirsty having a nervous breakdown. Leo's already freezing up into a kind of stalactite. As for poor old Gwenda, she's on the point of accepting a post in Rhodesia."
"What does it matter what happens to them?" "Nobody matters but us - that's what you mean."
His face was stern and angry. It startled Mary. She had never seen her husband look like that before.
She faced him defiantly.
"Why should I care about other people?" she asked.
"You never have, have you?"
"I don't know what you mean."
Philip gave a sharp exasperated sigh. He pushed his breakfast tray aside.
"Take this thing away. I don't want any more."
"But Philip -"
He made an impatient gesture. Mary picked up the tray and carried it out of the room. Philip wheeled himself over to the writing-table. Pen in hand, he stared out of the window. He felt a curious oppression of spirit. He had been so full of excitement a short while ago. Now he felt uneasy and restless.
But presently he rallied. He covered two sheets of paper rapidly. Then he sat back and considered.
It was plausible. It was possible. But he wasn't entirely satisfied. Was he really on the right track? He couldn't be sure. Motive. Motive was what was