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told him that unless we all adhered to the correct procedures we might as well hand in our resignations. Sir Noah had entrusted me to conduct things in a proper manner and I intended to go on doing so. In fact, Sir Noah would be most upset were he to return and find that we had deliberately flouted his ruling. So until I received further instructions from Sir Noah himself or some authorized person acting for him, there would be no question of ordering a new centrifuge or anything else.”
    “So Dr. Trent retired defeated?”
    “Oh, yes! Oh, yes, indeed!” His eyes glinted behind the half lenses.
    “Do you have any ideas about who might have killed Dr. Trent?”
    McEvoy came down to earth again from his flight of virtuous triumph. “No, of course not. How could I?”
    “Think about it, will you? And let me know immediately if anything occurs to you.”
    “Oh, yes, I most certainly will.” He half rose, assuming the interview was at an end.
    “Would you mind telling me what you were doing last evening?” Kate said.
    McEvoy slumped back into the chair, his pale face whitening. “Why ... why? You can’t possibly suspect me of killing him.”
    “My question implies no suspicion,” she explained. “It would merely be helpful for me to know your movements last night for elimination purposes. I shall be asking everybody the same question.”
    “Oh ... oh, yes, I see.” McEvoy struggled to regain his composure. “I’m sorry, you just took me by surprise, and I thought it meant ... Of course I don’t mind telling you. Not a very interesting programme, I’m afraid. My wife and I lead a quiet life and go out very rarely. So last night I went home as usual, had my tea, and spent the evening quietly with my family. Oh no, I was forgetting. It was my younger daughter’s night for guides and I went to the church hall to collect her afterwards. I don’t like her to walk home alone, not these days. You can’t be too careful, can you? That was at seven forty-five.”
    “Thank you. And now, Mr. McEvoy, there’s the question of Sir Noah’s disappearance. Have you any theory to explain that?”
    He shook his head. “None at all. It’s most disturbing.”
    “You must have come to know Sir Noah well in the course of your work here. He’d have relied on you, I imagine, to keep him au fait with the week-by-week financial state of the company.”
    “Well, yes. I am the chief clerical officer here.”
    “That’s what I meant. So you would know better than anybody if he had any business worries. Was he at all concerned about how things were going?”
    “Absolutely not! Croptech is in a very healthy state—as it has been for a number of years.” He spoke with stiff pride, as if he alone were responsible.
    “Can you think of anything else that might have so preyed on Sir Noah’s mind as to make him behave irrationally? Was he at all preoccupied or visibly upset just lately?”
    “On the contrary. He was very pleased with the way things were going. Though I must admit he was a trifle short-tempered on Friday afternoon. As a matter of fact the question of the centrifuge came up then, and he told me that Trent would have to wait for a decision on that. He just wasn’t prepared to authorize such expenditure on the laboratory at the moment without being convinced that the need was justified.”
    “Is Sir Noah usually cautious about expenditure?”
    “Not at all, when he can be shown the justification for it. Last year, for instance, when I put up a plan to computerize our whole accounts system, he was perfectly ready to agree, and that involved a very large sum indeed.”
    “So how do you explain his different attitude about laboratory equipment?”
    The prim mouth pursed. “He would know that he could rely on me not to suggest any expenditure that wasn’t totally justified.”
    “But not on Dr. Trent?”
    “I didn’t say that, Chief Inspector,” he said, flustered.
    “You implied it, though.”
    McEvoy