It seemed a good moment, to Joan, since Fountain would not be at home, to invite Felicity and Amberley to tea at the manor. Felicity accepted, but Mr. Amberley had a previous engagement. Pressed, he was irritatingly evasive. Felicity excused him to her friend on the score that he was probably going to hunt for clues.
Joan had not known that he was taking anything more than an ordinary interest in the murder case. She seemed pleased and asked shyly whether he thought he would be able to solve the problem.
"I think so," he answered with unusual gentleness.
"I'm glad," she said simply. "I know it is worrying Basil. It's upset him very much. It almost seems to haunt him."
When Amberley set out shortly before four in the afternoon to keep his "previous engagement', he took the road into Upper Nettlefold and bore straight through the town in the direction of Ivy Cottage.
The road was a continuation of the High Street, which ran southwards out of the town past a row of new cottages. The houses soon came to an end. The road bent to the west and ran along for a few hundred yards beside the river Nettle. Then the river took a curve to the left and the lane leading to Ivy Cottage came into sight, cutting up beside some undulating pasture-land.
Mr. Amberley had just reached the foot of the lane and had slowed down for the turn when he heard himself hailed. He stopped, and saw the burly form of Sergeant Gubbins mounted on a bicycle and pedalling strenuously towards him.
Amberley drew into the side of the road and switched off his engine. "Well, Sergeant?" he said.
The sergeant got off his bicycle, puffing, and remarked that it was a warm day. Mr. Amberley agreed.
The sergeant shook his head a little sadly. "I hoped you might run into the station this morning, sir. I saw the chief constable yesterday."