"Are you sure Mr. Fane's at the seaside?"
"Certain. Miss Baldwin was told by Miss Mason--and she's Mrs. Fane's sister--that they would stay a month. Westcliff-on-Sea is the place. Miss Mason got a letter yesterday. Fane was there then."
"It is an easy run from Westcliff-on-Sea to this place," responded Derrick dryly. "A man can fetch this house from there in a couple of hours. But I don't suspect Mr. Fane."
"He might be the man with the latch-key."
"No." Derrick thought of the key being new. "I don't think so. Did any young man stay in this house?"
"Not that I know of. You'd better ask Miss Mason. I know nothing about this ranche. Well, doctor?"
"She's been dead nearly five hours," said Geason, rising.
"Nonsense," said Derrick. "She was alive at eleven, and it's not one o'clock yet."
"I don't know about that," persisted Geason, "but from the condition of the body and the lack of warmth, I say she has been dead five hours."
Derrick and Tracey looked at one another perplexed. If the doctor was right--and he seemed positive--this unknown person could not have been the woman who sang "Kathleen Mavourneen."