She frowned slightly. "I'm not entirely sure. I fancy not."
"Had he returned, can you remember, by the time Finch brought out the tray of cocktails?"
She made a little gesture with her hand. "Again, I am uncertain. I don't think I noticed his return. He was certainly on the terrace just before one. That is all I can say."
Harding looked up. "He might have been absent for half an hour, in fact?"
"Oh no!" she said. "I should certainly have noticed that."
"And no one else left the terrace until you yourself went to fetch Sir Arthur?"
"No," she answered. "No one."
"Thank you, Mrs. Twining. Now as to your own movements: you went to fetch Sir Arthur on to the terrace. Had you any particular reason for wanting to see him?"
She raised her brows a trifle haughtily. "Particular reason?" she repeated. "I don't think I quite understand you, Inspector. What precisely do you mean?"
"Nothing very much," said Harding, with his rather charming smile. "It merely strikes me, a stranger, as a little odd, if the only reason for fetching Sir Arthur was as you informed the Superintendent yesterday — that he should not miss his cocktail, that it was not Lady Billington-Smith who went to him, or even Miss Fawcett."