The Chief Constable had gone to lunch, and his office was empty. Hannasyde closed the door and said: “I shall want to go through the dead man's papers, Mr Carrington. Can you meet me at his house to-morrow morning?”

Giles nodded. “Certainly.”

“And the Will…”

“In my keeping.”

“I shall have to ask you to let me see it.”

Giles said, with a flickering smile: “It would be a waste of your time and my energy to protest, wouldn't it?”

“Thanks,” said Hannasyde, his own lips curving a little. “It would, of course.” He took out his notebook and opened it. “I understand that the dead man was chairman and managing director of the Shan Hills Mine? Is that correct?”

“Quite correct.”

“Unmarried?”

Giles sat down on the edge of the table. “Yes.”

“Can you tell me of what his immediate family consists?”

“His half-brother and half-sister, that's all.” Giles took out a cigarette and tapped it on his case. “Arnold Vereker was the eldest son of Geoffrey Vereker by his first wife, my father's sister, Maud. He was forty last December. There was one other son by that marriage, Roger, who would be thirty-eight if he were alive now — which, thank heaven, he's not. He was not precisely an ornament to the family, There was a certain amount of relief felt when he cleared out years ago. He went to South America, and I believe got himself mixed up in some revolution or other. Anyway, he's been dead about seven years now. Kenneth Vereker and his sister Antonia are the offspring of a second marriage. Their mother died shortly after Antonia's birth. My uncle died a month or two before Roger, leaving both Kenneth and Antonia under Arnold's guardianship.”

“Thank you, Mr Carrington: I hoped you would be able to help me. Can you tell me what sort of man Arnold Vereker was?”

“A man with a genius for making enemies,” replied Giles promptly. “He was one of those natural bullies who can yet make themselves very pleasant when they choose. Queer chap, with a streak of appalling vulgarity. Yet at the bottom there was something quite likeable about him. Chief hobbies, women and social climbing.”