“Shocking business this, sir; about the master,” Mrs. William began volubly. “Shocking! Such a thing’s never been known at Layton Court before, not in my time it ’asn’t; nor ever before that, so far as I’ve ’eard tell. An’ did you see the corpse, sir? Shot hisself in the ’ead, didn’t he?”
“Yes, shocking,” said Roger hastily. “Shocking! By the way, I was expecting a friend last night rather late, but he never turned up. You didn’t see anything of him here I suppose, did you?”
“About what time would that be, sir?”
“Oh, somewhere about eleven o’clock, I should think; or even later.”
“No, sir; that I didn’t. William an’ me was both on us in bed and asleep before half-past ten.”
“I see. And you close the gates when you lock up for the night, don’t you?”
“That we do, sir. Unless there’s orders come down to the contrary. They was shut near after ten o’clock last night, an’ not opened till Halbert (that’s the showfure) came down early this mornin’. Was your friend coming by motor car, sir?”
“I don’t know. It depended. Why?”
“Because there’s always the little gate at the side left open, which people on foot can come in by. All I can tell you, sir, is that nobody came to my knowledge, which he naturally wouldn’t ’ave done if he never came up to the house, would he? Not without he got lost in the drive, which isn’t very likely in a manner of speaking.”
“No, I’m afraid he can’t have come at all. In any case, you say that, up to the time you went to bed, no stranger at all came in? Absolutely nobody?”