"How was he dressed, ma'am?”

Her arched eyebrows rose. "Dressed? Presumably as you found him, Sergeant? What do you mean?”

"Did he have a watch, Mrs. Duff?”

"A watch? Yes. Oh, I see. He was… robbed. Yes, he had a very fine gold watch. It was not on him?”

"No. Was he in the habit of carrying much money with him?”

"I don't know. I can ask Bridlaw, his valet. He could probably tell you. Does it matter?”

"It might." Evan was puzzled. "Do you know if he was wearing his gold watch yesterday when he left?" It seemed a strange and rather perverse thing to go into St. Giles, for whatever reason, wearing a conspicuously expensive article like a gold watch, so easily visible.

It almost invited robbery. Was he lost? Was he even taken there against his will? "Did he mention meeting anyone?”

"No." She was quite certain.

"And the watch?" he prompted.

"Yes. I believe he was wearing it." She stared at him intently. "He almost always did. He was very fond of it. I think I would have noticed were he without it. I remember now he wore a brown suit. Not his best at all, in fact rather an inferior one. He had it made for the most casual wear, weekends and so forth.”

"And yet the night he went out was a Wednesday," Evan reminded her.

"Then he must have been planning a casual evening," she replied bluntly. "Why do you ask, Sergeant? What difference does it make now?

He was not… murdered… because of what he wore!”

"I was trying to deduce where he intended to go, Mrs. Duff. St.

Giles is not an area where we would expect to find a gentleman of Mr.