"I shall have to ask you gentlemen to come in with me," the inspector said. "Hope you don't mind, sir."
"No, it's all right," Charles said, and got out of the car.
They went into the cottage, and the sergeant, producing a note-book began to write in it, his eyes lifting from it from time to time to observe everything in the room. None of the three men paid any attention to Charles or Peter for some time, but when the body had been taken down and laid on the floor, the inspector seemed to become aware of them again, and said kindly: "Not very pleasant for you two gentlemen, but we shan't keep you very long, I hope Note the position of that chair, Matthews. Looks as though deceased must have stood upon it, doesn't it?" He glanced down at the doctor who was kneeling beside the body, making some sort of an inspection. "Clear case of suicide, eh, doctor? As soon as the ambulance comes we'll get the body away."
The doctor spoke over his shoulder. "Hand me my bag, will you, inspector?" He opened it, and took out a pair of forceps. As far as Peter could see, from his place by the door, he was doing something inside the dead man's mouth. Then the doctor shifted his position slightly, and Peter could see only his back. At length he got up, and closely scrutinised something that his forceps had found. He took a test-tube from his case, and carefully dropped the infinitesimal thing the forceps held into it. Then he corked it tightly.
The inspector watched him with the air of an inquisitive terrier. "Got something, doctor?"
"I shall want to do a more thorough examination," the doctor replied. He glanced down at the body. "You can cover it, sergeant. I've finished for the present." He replaced the test tube in his case. "I'm not satisfied that 1 his is a case of suicide," he said. "I found a scrap of cotton wool in the deceased's nostrils, very far back."
The inspector pursed his lips into a soundless whistle. "Nothing in the mouth, doctor?"
"Nothing now," said the doctor significantly.
"Better go over the place for finger-prints," the inspector said. "Now, Mr. Malcolm, if you please, I'd like to hear just how you happened to find the body."
Charles gave him a clear and concise account of all that had passed that evening, up to the time of the discovery of the corpse. He neither omitted any relevant point nor became discursive, and at the end of his statement Sergeant Matthews, who had taken it down, looked up gratefully.