"I'm very sorry indeed to disturb you, Inspector, but I'd like something from the Chief's files. It's rather urgent."
Permission given, he came in.
"This coast's lively in the season, sir," he said, as he ran through the files. "Positively continental. Here's the chef at the Marine — it's just outside the town, so it's our affair — the chef at the Marine's stabbed a waiter because he had dandruff, it seems. The waiter, I mean, sir. Chef on the way to prison and waiter on the way to hospital. They think maybe his lung's touched. Well, thank you, sir. Sorry to disturb you."
Grant eyed Tisdall, who was achieving the knot in his tie with a melancholy abstraction. Tisdall caught the look, appeared puzzled by it, and then, comprehension dawning, leaped into action.
"I say, Sergeant, have they a fellow to take the waiter's place, do you know?"
"That they haven't. Mr. Toselli — he's the manager — he's tearing his hair."
"Have you finished with me?" he asked Grant.
"For today," Grant said. "Good luck."
Chapter 5
"No. No arrest," said Grant to Superintendent Barker over the telephone in the early evening. "But I don't think there's any doubt about its being murder. The surgeon's sure of it. The button in her hair might be an accident — although if you saw it you'd be convinced it wasn't — but her fingernails were broken with clawing at something. What was under the nails has gone to the analyst, but there wasn't much after an hour's immersion in salt water…'M?…Well, indications point one way certainly, but they cancel each other out, somehow. Going to be difficult, I think. I'm leaving Williams here on routine inquiry, and coming back to town tonight. I want to see her lawyer — Erskine. He arrived just in time for the inquest, and afterward I had Tisdall on my hands so I missed him. Would you find out for me when I can talk to him tonight. They've fixed the funeral for Monday. Golders Green. Yes, cremation. I'd like to be there, I think. I'd like to look over the intimates. Yes, I may look in for a drink, but it depends how late I am. Thanks."