“I suppose there’s not much hope nowadays,” he said, “for anybody to get into detection. I suppose you have to be rather super at everything.”
“Are you thinking of it?”
“As a matter of fac’ I am, rather. But I suppose I’m too much of a fool to be any use.”
“It’s largely a matter of training. What sort of memory have you got?”
“He’s the most forgetful boy I ever had the training of,” said Nanny. Mike gave Alleyn a man-to-mannish look.
“Let’s see how you shape,” Alleyn suggested. “Have a stab at telling me as closely as you can remember just exactly what happened, let’s say from the time you picked up the parcel and onwards. Go along inch by inch and tell me exactly what you saw and heard and smelt for the next fifteen minutes. That’s the sort of stuff you have to do at this game.” He opened his notebook. “We’ll say you’re an expert witness and I’m taking your statement. Off you go. You picked up the parcel? With which hand?”
“With my left hand because I had a Hornby signal in my right.”
“Good. Go on.”
“Everything?”
“Everything.”