Grant hung up and went to join Williams for a high tea, it being too early for dinner and Williams having a passion for bacon and eggs garnished with large pieces of fried bread.
"Tomorrow being Sunday may hold up the button inquiries," Grant said as they sat down. "Well, what did Mrs. Pitts say?"
"She says she couldn't say whether he was wearing a coat or not. All she saw was the top of his head over her hedge as he went past. But whether he wore it or not doesn't much matter, because she says the coat habitually lay in the back of the car along with that coat that Miss Clay wore. She doesn't remember when she saw Tisdall's dark coat last. He wore it a fair amount, it seems. Mornings and evenings. He was a 'chilly mortal, she said. Owing to his having come back from foreign parts, she thought. She hasn't much of an opinion of him."
"You mean she thinks he's a wrong 'un?"
"No. Just no account. You know, sir, has it occurred to you that it was a clever man who did this job?"
"Why?"
"Well, but for that button coming off no one would ever have suspected anything. She'd have been found drowned after going to bathe in the early morning — all quite natural. No footsteps, no weapon, no signs of violence. Very neat."
"Yes. It's neat."
"You don't sound very enthusiastic about it."
"It's the coat. If you were going to drown a woman in the sea, would you wear an overcoat to do it?"