"Might I ask what you know of this man who has come here calling himself Jimmy Crocker?"
Mrs. Pett started. She remembered that she had used almost that very expression to Ann. Her suspicions, which had been lulled by the prompt recognition of the visitor by Skinner and Lord Wisbeach, returned. It is one of the effects of a successful hunch that it breeds other hunches. She had been right about Jerry Mitchell; was she to be proved right about the self-styled Jimmy Crocker?
"You have seen your nephew, I believe?"
"Never. But—"
"That man," said Lord Wisbeach impassively, "is not your nephew."
Mrs. Pett thrilled all down her spine. She had been right.
"But you—"
"But I pretended to recognise him? Just so. For a purpose. I wanted to make him think that I suspected nothing."
"Then you think—?"
"Remember what I said to you yesterday."