"I tell you what: you might inquire of Outhwaite, you know the man I mean, the man who used always to be getting fined for furious driving. He was a friend of Loudwater, the only friend I ever heard him mention, indeed. If he ever confided in any one, that would be the most likely man," said Colonel Grey.
"Thank you. That's an idea. I'll certainly try him," said Mr. Flexen, and he turned as if to go.
But Olivia stopped him, saying: "Do you think, then, that a woman did it,
Mr. Flexen?"
"Well, there is a certain amount of evidence which lends some colour to that theory, but I don't want any one to know that," said Mr. Flexen.
And then he could have sworn that he heard Olivia breathe a faint sigh of relief.
But Colonel Grey broke in in a tone of some acerbity and more anxiety: "It's nonsense to talk of any one having done it in face of the medical evidence—any one, that is, but Loudwater himself. He committed suicide."
"You think him a likely man to have committed suicide, do you?" said
Mr. Flexen.
"Yes. A man of his utterly uncontrollable temper is the very man to commit suicide," said Colonel Grey firmly.
"It is, of course, always possible that he committed suicide," said Mr.
Flexen in a non-committal tone.
"It's most probable," said Colonel Grey curtly.