V
　　Back at Gull's Point, the two police officers received Williams' and Jones' reports.
　　Nothing of a suspicious or suggestive nature had been found in any of the bedrooms. The servants were clamouring to be allowed to get on with the housework. Should he give them the word?
　　"Might as well, I suppose," said Battle. "I'll just have a stroll myself first through the two upper floors. Rooms that haven't been done very often tell you something about their occupants that's useful to know."Sergeant¹ Jones put down a small cardboard box on the table.
　　"From Mr. Nevile Strange's dark blue coat," he announced. "The red hairs were on the cuff², blonde hairs on the inside of the collar and the right shoulder."Battle took out the two long red hairs and the half-dozen blonde ones and looked at them. He said, with a faint twinkle in his eye: "Convenient. One blonde, one red-head and one brunette in this house. So we know where we are at once. Red hair on the cuff, blonde on the collar; Mr. Nevile Strange does seem to be a bit of a Bluebeard. His arm round one wife and the other one's head on his shoulder.""The blood on the sleeve has gone for analysis, sir. They'll ring us up as soon as they get the result."Leach³ nodded.
　　"What about the servants?"
　　"I followed your instructions, sir. None of them is under notice to leave, or seems likely to have borne a grudge⁴ against the old lady. She was strict, but well liked. In any case, the management of the servants lay with Miss Aldin. She seems to have been popular with them.""Thought she was an efficient woman the moment I laid eyes on her," said Battle. "If she's our murderess, she won't be easy to hang."Jones looked startled.
　　"But those prints on that niblick, sir, were -""I know -I know," said Battle. "The singularly obliging Mr. Strange's. There's a general belief that athletes aren't overburdened by brains (not at all true by the way), but I can't believe Nevile Strange is a complete moron⁵. What about those senna pods of the maid's?""They were always on the shelf in the servants' bathroom on the second floor. She used to put 'em in to soak midday, and they stood there until the evening, when she went to bed.""So that absolutely anybody could get at them! Anybody inside the house, that is to say."Leach said with conviction: "It's an inside job, all right!""Yes, I think so. Not that this is one of those closed circle crimes. It isn't. Anyone who had a key could have opened the front door and walked in. Nevile Strange had that key last night - but it would probably be a simple matter to have got one cut, or an old hand could do it with a bit of wire. But I don't see any outsider knowing about the bell and that Barrett took senna at night! That's local, inside knowledge!""Come along, Jim, my boy. Let's go up and see this bathroom and all the rest of it."They started on the top floor. First came a box-room full of old broken furniture and junk of all kinds.

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