Sylvia and the official mind had obviously collaborated. The result enraged Colonel Anstruther. He repeated the last sentence angrily.

“She says, ‘I picked up the pistol.’ What does she mean? What’s the good of letting her make a statement like this? How could she pick it up if it was the other side of the hedge?”

Inspector Boyce gave a slight cough.

“She says it wasn’t, sir.”

“Wasn’t what?”

“Wasn’t on the other side of the hedge, sir.”

Colonel Anstruther glared.

“Does she or doesn’t she state that she was on the inside of the hedge and the two men on the outside?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And that one of them had the pistol and the other got it from him?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then how the devil could she pick it up inside the hedge?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

“Then why didn’t you ask her? If she says a thing like that she’s got to explain it, hasn’t she?”

Inspector Boyce stiffened and reverted to the extreme official manner.

“I did not omit to put that point to Lady Colesborough. She replied that she had no recollection of what occurred between the firing of the shot and the picking up of the pistol. If you will refer to the statement, sir-”

Colonel Anstruther referred to it with dislike. A most unsatisfactory document. He read in an annoyed voice:

“‘There was a shot. I don’t know what happened to the letters. I don’t know what happened to Mr. Zero. I thought I was going to faint. I thought my husband was dead. I picked up the pistol-’ ”

“Well, what about it? The pistol was outside, and she is inside, and she says she picked it up. What’s the thickness of the hedge? I suppose you’ve measured it?”

“Six foot thick mostly, sir, but this window affair is cut in and there’s not more than a four-foot thickness there.”

“What’s the size of the window?”

“Three foot high and six foot wide, sir. There’s a seat inside, put facing it to get the view, if you understand. And there’s this window, with a four-foot sill and the hedge jutting out beyond it on either side for a couple of feet. She says they were fighting just outside, but unless the man who had the pistol threw it in through the window after he had fired I don’t see how it got the same side of the hedge as Lady Colesborough, or how she picked it up.”

Colonel Anstruther looked up sharply.

“Is there any proof that there were two men on the other side of the hedge? Anything to substantiate Lady Colesborough’s story of a fight?”

Inspector Boyce coughed.

“Dr. Hammond says the pistol must have been at least a yard away from Sir Francis when the shot was fired. There aren’t any footprints. It has been dry all day and the grass isn’t marked. There’s nothing to show whether there was a fight. There might have been someone there besides Sir Francis, or there mightn’t. It all rests on Lady Colesborough’s evidence. She says this man who calls himself Zero was there, and she says he fired the shot, but there isn’t anyone else that saw him, and we can’t find anyone that heard or saw a car.”

Colonel Anstruther said “Tcha!” and added, “What did you expect to find? People in Colebrook don’t sit up at night counting cars, do they? I don’t suppose anyone heard Mr. Somers’ car either, did they?”

“Well, no, sir, they didn’t.”

“Well then, what’s the good of telling me nobody heard a car? That don’t mean there wasn’t a car to hear-does it?”

“No, sir. You asked if there was any evidence.”

Colonel Anstruther made an explosive sound.

“And there isn’t any! I take it there’s no doubt that the weapon used was Colesborough’s own pistol, because if there was another-”

“No doubt at all, sir. Sir Francis kept this pistol in a drawer on his writing-table-we found the drawer pulled out. He’d got a licence and all quite regular. Sturrock the butler says there were a pair of them, but we haven’t been able to find the other. It may be up at the London house.”

Colonel Anstruther went back to the statement with a snort. He read aloud:

“‘I picked up the pistol. I heard someone coming down the yew walk. It was my cousin, Miss Hardwicke. She came up to the seat. She had a torch. She came round the seat to look out of the window. I dropped the pistol and ran to the right along the hedge. There is a way out into the rose garden there. I went that way because I heard someone coming down the main walk and I was frightened. I ran to the house and rang the alarm bell in the hall. It rings in the servants’ wing. I told them my husband has been shot. After that I fainted.’ ”

“This walk business,” said Inspector Boyce-“I don’t know if you’ve got it clear, sir. It’s like a tunnel with the yews meeting overhead. There’s a long straight piece with the rose garden on either side of it, say fifty yards, with a seat and a window at the end, and a cross-piece, say twenty yards, on either side, with an exit at both ends. Lady Colesborough went in down the main walk and came out on the right-hand side. Miss Hardwicke came in by the main walk and out the same way. Mr. Somers came in by the main walk. It was him running in that Lady Colesborough heard. And he says he went out by the exit on the left-hand side and round outside the hedge to make sure of Sir Francis being dead, but he didn’t touch him. Then, he says, he came back to Miss Hardwicke and they both returned by the main walk to the house, meeting the butler on the way. Mr. Somers then telephoned the police. You’ve got their statements there.”

“And what were Mr. Somers and Miss Hardwicke doing in the grounds of Cole Lester in the middle of the night?” said Colonel Anstruther.

Inspector Boyce coughed.

“Mr. Somers says he drove Miss Hardwicke down because she asked him to. He says he had never heard of Mr. Zero, but, as one of Mr. Montagu Lushington’s secretaries, he was naturally aware that an important document had been stolen. He did not in any way connect the journey to Cole Lester with the stolen document. Miss Hardwicke says Lady Colesborough had confided in her that she was being blackmailed by someone she called Mr. Zero. She asked Mr. Somers to drive her down to Cole Lester because she knew that Lady Colesborough was to meet this man at the window in the yew hedge between twelve and one o’clock that night in order to hand over to him a packet of letters which she had taken from Sir Francis’ private safe. Miss Hardwicke says she tried to persuade Lady Colesborough to inform her husband that she was being blackmailed, and having failed to do so, she hoped by being present as a witness to frighten the blackmailer and induce him to leave Lady Colesborough alone. I would like to say, sir, that in my opinion Miss Hardwicke is telling the truth.”

“Well, she confirms Lady Colesborough’s story to some extent. She says her cousin spoke to her about this Zero. She didn’t see any signs of him last night-didn’t hear anything?”

“Well, if you’ll turn to her statement, sir-”

Colonel Anstruther put down the paper in his hand and took up another. His eye travelled down the page. He turned it and began to read aloud:

“‘I had just got into the tunnel and began to grope my way along it. I had a torch, but I did not want to use it, so I was going slowly. I thought I ought to be able to see the window-’ ”

Colonel Anstruther looked up sharply.

“Miss Hardwicke is familiar with the grounds at Cole Lester?”

“She says she spent a day there with Lady Colesborough rather more than a year ago, before the marriage. She says she took a particular interest in this yew walk because she hadn’t ever seen anything like it before.”

Colonel Anstruther went on reading:

“‘I thought I ought to be able to see the window. All at once I did see it, because there was a flash of light on the other side of the hedge. And I heard someone calling out. There was a lot of noise. I can’t say whether there was two people shouting or only one. It was just a sudden noise which I wasn’t expecting. I didn’t hear any words, only this noise, and then a shot. After the shot I heard my cousin scream. I ran towards the window, and when I got to the seat I remembered my torch and turned it on. Lady Colesborough was standing there with the pistol in her hand-’ ”