“Round about four. I was dressing the window, that’s how I happened to remember the time. He was going in the direction of Keys, all right.”
“Could you describe him?”
“A smallish man. Thin, with a reddish face. That’s all I can remember. Don’t know as I should recognize him if I saw him again. I just noticed him in passing.”
The Coroner recalled Brace.
“I understand that the deceased was identified on the Monday night?”
“I went straight from Mr. Leslie’s farm to Greycross, where I interviewed Miss Allen. At my suggestion she came at once with me to the mortuary. The body had arrived there about half an hour before and she identified it as that of her sister, Mrs. Henry Draycott, who was staying at her house.”
The Coroner dismissed Brace and called Miss Allen.
“I am sorry to have to ask these questions, Miss Allen,” he said. “I will be as brief as possible. Will you tell us the circumstances in which your sister left your house on Monday night. Was it usual for her to take a walk at this hour?”
“Very unusual, I should say. It was a long time since she had stayed with me and she had only arrived the night before, but she had never been a walker and did not care for exercise, especially in bad weather.”
“Can you think of anything which could have drawn her out on such a night?”