“No. But I can't say I disbelieve it either. I'm doing what I can to check up on it, of course - without much hope of success. I'm also making inquiries at all the likely restaurants - so far without any success at all. I can't discover where Arnold Vereker dined on the night of his death. That's what I really want to know. All these suspects, promising as they seem to be, with their motives and their lack of alibis, are nothing but a lot of blind alleys. If Kenneth Vereker didn't exist, everything would point to Roger. But Kenneth does exist, and there's not a penny to choose between him and Roger. Both had the same motive, neither has a credible alibi. But which am I to arrest?” He took a salted almond from the dish in front of him and ate it. “I'm pinning my hopes to the finding of the restaurant where Arnold Vereker dined that night, if he did dine at one. Hemingway has a photograph of him, which he's trotting round, and of course we've made inquiries at all his usual haunts. But we have to face the fact that he may have dined at a private house - with one of his lady-loves probably. I think I've seen most of them, but you never know. At Cavelli's where he seems to have been a pretty frequent visitor, they tell me he had been in the habit, lately, of bringing a new lady to dine there - dark, good-looking girl, unknown to Cavelli. On the other hand, the head waiter at the Cafe Morny says that the last time Vereker was there he had an ash-blonde in tow. It isn't very helpful, is it?”
“The trouble is, it was too simple a murder,” said Giles. “Now had you found my cousins's body in a locked room, the key on the inside, all the windows bolted -”
Hannasyde smiled. “Oh, yes, that would have been easy compared with this,” he said. “We should at least have had something to go on. It's always the straight forward killings that present the worst difficulties. Once people start being too clever, and try to present us with insoluble mysteries, they are apt to give themselves away. These apparently impossible murders are like a good chess problem - mate in three moves, and only one possible solution. But when you get a perfectly simple murder like this, you can see at least half a dozen ways of bringing off a mate, and the Lord only knows which is the right one!”
Giles picked up the decanter, and refilled both the glasses. “I see I shall have to take a hand in this myself!” he said meditatively.
The Superintendent laughed. “Talented amateur, eh? I wish you luck!”
“You never know,” murmured Giles.
Hannasyde looked up quickly. “Have you got hold of something?”
“No,” said Giles. “Can't say I have.”
“I don't trust you,” said Hannasyde bluntly. “For two pins you'd conceal some vital clue from me - if you could.”
“Oh no!” said Giles. “Not unless I thought divulging it would lead to a family scandal. But don't be alarmed: I haven't discovered a vital clue.”