“I agree with you,” said Hannasyde. “I have ascertained, Mr Vereker, that you were a passenger on board the SS Pride of London, which docked at Liverpool on 16th June — the day before that on which your brother was murdered.”
Roger leaned back in his chair. “Well, if you've ascertained it, that's that,” he observed. “It's silly to argue points like that with detectives, so I'll tell you right away that the parrots were just a little joke of mine.”
“I am aware of that,” replied Hannasyde. “We shall get on better and faster if you don't make any more jokes.”
“A lot of people think that speed is the curse of the age,” said Roger. “I can't say I'm keen on it myself. Mind you, I'm not at all sure there isn't something in the parrot scheme. The more I think of it the more I think there might be. Supposing people started trimming hats with parrot-feathers, for instance?”
“Mr Vereker, I am not quite fool enough to believe that you are the fool you pretend to be. Shall we abandon the subject of parrots?”
“Just as you like,” said Roger amiably.
“You admit that you landed in Liverpool on Friday, 16th June?”
“If you've been nosing round the shipping agents, there's no point in asking me whether I admit it or not. It's a great pity you've been so inquisitive, because you're bound to waste a lot of time trying to make out I murdered Arnold, and I can tell you at the start I didn't.”
“If you are so sure that I shall be wasting my time, Mr Vereker, why did you try to conceal the fact that you were in England on the 17th June?”
“Now that's what I call a damned silly question,” said Roger. “It's obvious that if it was known that I was in England then I should have had the police after me like a pack of bloodhounds. Well, what I mean is, look at the way you're behaving now! Not that I blame you, because naturally you're bound to do it. But that's just it. I turn up one day, broke to the wide, and Arnold gets himself murdered the day after. I should be a bigger fool than any I've ever met with if I didn't see who was going to be suspected once that leaked out. I don't like unpleasantness, and I don't like policemen. What's more, I find all this sort of thing very exhausting, because I'm not one of these people who always want to be using their brains, trying to remember a lot of unimportant details. It makes my head ache. All I want is peace and quiet.”