"The kitchen clock was just chiming eleven as I got back to my bed."
"You are sure it was not twelve?"
"Quite sure, sir."
"Did you hear any sound upstairs?"
"No, sir. It was as quiet as the dead."
"Was it raining at that time?"
"It started to rain heavens hard just as I got back to bed, but before that the wind was moaning round the house, as it do moan in these parts, and I knew we was in for a storm. I was glad enough to get back to my warm bed."
"You might have seen something, if you had been a little later. The staircase is the only way the body could have been brought down from there." The detective pointed to the room above where the dead man lay.
The woman trembled violently.
"It's God's mercy I didn't see something," she said, and her voice fell to a husky whisper. "I should 'a' died wi' fright if I had seen it being brought downstairs. All day long I've been thanking God I didn't see anything."