“What time do you usually get up, Mrs Matthews?”
“Oh, when I have had my breakfast! I never take anything but tea, and a little toast, so —”
“Quite. But I want to know when you get up in the morning, please.”
“Really, Superintendent, you cannot expect me to keep a detailed timetable of my —”
Edward Rumbold spoke for the first time. “I think you always get up at about the same time, don't you, Mrs Matthews? Somewhere between half-past nine and ten, isn't it?”
“Yes, generally,” she said reluctantly. “Oh—this is Mr Rumbold, Superintendent, a very great friend of ours. He has been most kind —”
“You know, I don't think the Superintendent wants to hear about my so-called kindness, dear Mrs Matthews,” said Rumbold. “Stella, can you perhaps help over this question of time?”
She said hesitatingly: “You mean—when Mummy put Aunt Harriet to bed?”
“Yes. Your mother is feeling too upset to remember very clearly, but naturally the Superintendent must know when it was,” he said reassuringly. “If you know, tell him.”
She looked at him in rather a frightened way, but he repeated calmly: “Do you know, Stella?”