"Well, we've collected them all, I think," the sergeant said. "Now we'll go and search the garden for footprints or whatever clues there may be." He glanced professionally at the soles that Bill and Stanley held up at his request, and went out with his aide to the garden, as Mrs. Sharpe came in with a steaming jug and cups.
"Ah, Mr. Blair," she said. "You still find us stimulating?"
She was fully dressed-in contrast to Marion who was looking quite human and un-Joan-of-Arc in an old dressing-gown-and apparently unmoved by these proceedings, and he wondered what kind of occasion would find Mrs. Sharpe at a disadvantage.
Bill appeared with sticks from the kitchen and lighted the dead fire, Mrs. Sharpe poured the hot liquid-it was coffee and Robert refused it, having seen enough coffee lately to lost interest in it-and the colour began to come back to Stan's face. By the time the policemen came back from the garden the room had acquired a family-party air, in spite of the waving curtains and the non-existent windows. Neither Stanley nor Bill, Robert noticed, appeared to find the Sharpes odd or difficult; on the contrary they seemed relaxed and at home. Perhaps it was that the Sharpes took them for granted; accepting this invasion of strangers as if it were an every-day occurrence. Anyhow, Bill came and went on his ploys as if he had lived in the house for years; and Stanley put out his cup for a second helping without waiting to be asked. Involuntarily, Robert thought that Aunt Lin in their place would have been kind and fussy and they would have sat on the edge of the chairs and remembered their dirty overalls.
Perhaps it was the same taking-for-granted that had attracted Nevil.
"Do you plan to stay on here, ma'am?" the sergeant asked as they came in again.
"Certainly," Mrs. Sharpe said, pouring coffee for them.
"No," Robert said. "You mustn't, you really must not. I'll find you a quiet hotel in Larborough, where—"
"I never heard anything more absurd. Of course we are going to stay here. What do a few broken windows matter?"
"It may not stop at broken windows," the sergeant said. "And you're a great responsibility to us as long as you are here; a responsibility we haven't really got the force to deal with."