‘Geoffrey isn’t back.’

‘It is only twelve o’clock. He would hardly have had time.’

‘What does “further questioning” mean? I should have thought they had asked us everything in the world already!’

Miss Silver said gravely, ‘They are not satisfied with his answers.’

‘Why?’ She threw the word at Miss Silver.

‘They do not think that he is telling the truth.’ ‘-

‘What do you think?’

‘That he has not been frank with them.’

Adriana made an impatient gesture.

‘Oh, Geoffrey will shuffle if he is in a tight place. But that is not to say that he would murder anyone. He wouldn’t. He likes everything to be easy and pleasant, and if he gets in a mess he tries to blarney his way out of it. If you think he would do anything violent, you’re not such a good detective as you’re cracked up to be.’

Miss Silver infused a slight distance into her manner.

‘I am not prepared to offer any opinion at the moment.’

Adriana dropped wearily into a chair.

‘I don’t know why we’re standing, except that I can’t rest. Do you know what Edna said? That’s one of the things that has got me worked up like this. I met her on the landing after Geoffrey had gone away with the Superintendent, and she said – she had the nerve to say – that at any rate if they kept Geoffrey in Ledbury he wouldn’t be able to go running after Esmé Trent! I didn’t lose my temper – not then – but I wasn’t going to let that pass. I asked her pointblank whether she knew what she was saying – “Do you mean to tell me you would rather he was detained on a suspicion of murder?” And all she had to say was that Esmé Trent was a wicked woman and anything that kept Geoffrey away from her would be all to the good. I did lose my temper then, and I let her have it. Nothing annoys me so much as stupidity – stupidity and obstinacy! And that’s Edna all over! To hear her talk, you wouldn’t think she had a mind at all, but whatever she has got, once she gets what she would call an idea into it, nobody and nothing will ever get it out again! Don’t let’s go on talking about her – it upsets me, and I’ve got enough without that! This business of Geoffrey – I can’t think why he doesn’t come back.’

Miss Silver said gravely,

‘The Superintendent was not satisfied.’

Adriana made an impatient movement.

‘Then he’s a fool! Anyone who thinks Geoffrey is capable of violence is a damned fool! Now if it was Esmé Trent – well, I wouldn’t put it past her!’

‘You think she would be capable of a violent crime?’

‘I think she is a completely ruthless and hard-boiled young woman. Her instincts are predatory and her moral standards low. That comes amusingly from me, doesn’t it, but she neglects and ill-treats her child, and I don’t like women who do that. I think she is capable of anything which would be to Esmé Trent’s advantage, and if she thought Geoffrey was going to come in for my money, I think she would do her best to get him away from Edna and marry him.’

Miss Silver gave a slight disapproving cough.

‘Does she know the terms of your will – that you have left Mrs Geoffrey a life interest in her husband’s legacy?’

Adriana raised her eyebrows.

‘Who is there to tell her? Geoffrey knows, because I thought it would be good for him to know, but I didn’t tell Edna, and I’m perfectly sure he wouldn’t tell her – or Esmé Trent. It would take him down too many pegs! I don’t see him giving Edna the whip hand or crying down his stock to Esmé! Oh, no, he’d keep a still tongue!’ She made an abrupt change in her manner. ‘Are you going out?’

It was as if she had only just noticed that Miss Silver was in her outdoor clothes.

‘I thought I should like to walk into the village. I have a letter to post.’

Adriana laughed.

‘Geoffrey had letters to write, and you have a letter to post! The time-honoured alibi! No one believes in it, but it serves! I don’t wonder you want to get away from this house, if only for half an hour!’

On reaching the road Miss Silver turned to the left. Passing the Lodge she did not so much as glance in its direction. She had no desire to give Mrs Trent any grounds for supposing herself to be an object of interest to Adriana’s visiting friend. The point upon which her attention was fixed was the distance between the Lodge and the Vicarage, which she was now approaching. It was a very short distance, really a very short distance indeed, and both the front and the side windows of the Vicarage would command a view of the road. She had had it in her mind to call upon Mrs Lenton with an enquiry after the health of her cousin Miss Page, but when she had still a little way to go she saw Ellie emerge from the farther gate, take a few hesitating steps along the road, and turn in to the churchyard. She wore a scarf pulled forward on her head in such a way as to hide most of her face. Miss Silver caught but one partial glimpse of it, but she received a strong impression of pallor and fragility.

Slackening her pace a little, she passed the Vicarage and followed Ellie at a discreet distance. The girl walked with painful slowness and never looked round. She took a path which skirted the church and went in through a small door at the side. It always gratified Miss Silver to find a church kept open. The weary, the wayfarer, and the sorrowful should never be denied the shelter of its walls. As she opened the door and closed it again quietly behind her she found herself in a mellow twilight. Ford Church was rich in stained glass, most of it old and carefully preserved. There was a stone tomb on her right with the figure of a Crusader. There were old brasses on the walls. The step which she had crossed had been worn by the feet of many generations.

Moving quietly forward and passing a pillar which blocked the view, she was aware of a small recessed chapel on the right. It contained a large and very ugly tomb of the late Georgian period with a portly marble gentleman in a wig supported by a number of stout cherubs. Almost concealed by these funerary ornaments, there were two or three chairs, and upon one of these chairs sat Ellie Page, her face covered with her hands and her forehead pressed against the marble of the tomb. Miss Silver passed into the nearest pew and sat down. It was plain that they were alone in the church. They might have been alone in the world, the atmosphere was so dead and still. There was a smell of old hassocks and old wood and the fine imponderable dust of centuries. There was no sound at all until Ellie began to draw those long painful breaths. They went on for a while and then ceased. The choking sobs which Miss Silver half expected did not follow. Instead there was complete silence. By moving slightly nearer the end of the pew she could see the girl’s lifted profile as white and frozen as if she were part of the tomb against which her forehead had been bent. It was raised now, and her eyes stared.