"And you didn't find anything fishy in such a story?"
"I don't know that I would have believed the story from a stranger" — she was extraordinarily like her niece at that moment, the inspector thought — "but, you see, I know Jerry Lamont."
"But you knew Sorrell very much longer, and didn't know the things that mattered in his life."
"Yes, but that was Bertie. Length of time has nothing to do with it. I heard about everything that happened to Jerry, girls included."
"Well, thank you for telling me all you did," Grant said as he stood up. "If nothing you have said helps Lamont very much, at least it doesn't incriminate him any further. Did you ever have any reason to think that Sorrell wasn't going to America at all?"
"Do you mean that he was going somewhere else?"
"No; I mean that, if he contemplated suicide, his going to America might have been an elaborate blind."
"I certainly don't think that. I'm sure he intended to go to America."
Grant thanked her again, and went back to the Yard. From Simpson he learned that Mrs. Ratcliffe and her sister were still at Eastbourne, and there was no word of their return.
"Does Mr. Ratcliffe go up and down to Eastbourne, then?"