"Nor can I, exactly. But I can give you the sense of it. It said: 'I can't stand it any longer. Don't be angry with me. "
"Yes. Yes, that was the tenor of the message."
"And where in that is the mention of suicide?"
"The suggestion surely is-One would naturally infer-The letter was found on the cliff-top with the boy's coat."
"The cliff path is the short cut to the harbour."
"The harbour? You mean — "
"It was a running-away note; not a suicide one."
"But-but the coat?"
"You can't leave a note on the open down. The only way to leave it is in the pocket of something."
"Are you seriously suggesting that-that-that you are Patrick Ashby, and that you never committed suicide at all?"