"Well, I'm glad to hear it," said Fountain with relief. "I've had quite enough mysterious crimes to do with my household, I can tell you. It's damned unpleasant. The next thing I shall know is that the whole staff will leave in a body. What gave Collins the idea that the police suspected him? It seems to me so silly. He can't possibly have had any motive for killing Brown, can he?"
"Not to my knowledge," Amberley replied. "Possibly the police felt that his presence on the scene was insufficiently explained."
This aspect of the case did not seem to have occurred to Fountain. He said: "Yes, now I come to think of it, why was he there? I forgot to ask him that."
Amberley recounted, without comment, Collins' story. Fountain listened to it with a frown in his eyes and remarked at the end that it sounded so futile that it was probably true. He was not surprised the police thought it fishy. "Personally," he said, "I shouldn't be surprised if there was more to it. You know what servants are. Always keeping something back. Not that I think there was anything between him and Brown. What I do think is that he probably fell foul of Brown at the Blue Dragon one night and doesn't like to say so. And when Brown came up to the manor to do him in, he got the wind up and set about making his peace with the fellow."
"Yes," said Amberley thoughtfully. "Not a bad solution."
Fountain looked pleased. "Well, it seems more likely to me," he said. "But why the police should think he pushed Brown in, when they found him pulling him out, is more than I can fathom."
Amberley regarded his fingernails. "Well," he said slowly, "a man might do both, you know. If he was clever enough to think of it."
"Good Lord!" said Fountain in a blank voice. "What a singularly ghastly idea! No, really, Amberley, that's too much! Upon my soul, you're enough to make one's blood run cold!"
Amberley raised his brows. "Sorry to offend your susceptibilities. But that's undoubtedly how I should have planned the affair."
"Perfectly horrible!" said Fountain. He glanced at the clock. "I'd better be off. What's happening to the sister, by the way? Joan says there is one. Pretty awful for the poor girl."