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But Holmes arrived even before Lestrade, and we left them to it, and I stumbled off to Mycroft's guest-room bed without even waiting to see which of Lestrade's sheaf of portraits Sarah Chessman picked out.

TWENTY-TWO

chi

It was light in the room, despite the curtains, when a small noise woke me. After a moment, I spoke into my pillow.

"It occurs to me that I am condemned rarely to awaken normally under this roof. I am usually disturbed by loud and urgent voices from the sitting room, occasionally by a particularly horrendous alarm clock at some ungodly hour, and once by a gunshot. However," I added, and turned over, "of all the unnatural noises which serve to pull me from slumber, the rattle of a cup and saucer is the least unwelcome." I paused. "On the other hand, my nose tells me to beware a detective bearing coffee, rather than the more congenial beverage of tea. May I take this as a wordless message that my presence is required, in a wide-awake state?" I reached for the cup.

"You may. Lestrade is sending a car for us. He has made an arrest. Two arrests."

"The Rogers grandsons?"

"One Rogers grandson, and one friend of a Rogers grandson. A friend who has been known to carry a long and unfriendly knife, whose taste in clothing is towards the extreme, and who has in the past had contact with the long arm of the law over such varied disagreements as stolen property, driving a car in which a pair of unsuccessful bank robbers attempted to make their escape, and an argument over a lady in which blood was shed, but no life lost, at the end of the aforementioned knife."

"And Erica Rogers?"

"She has been brought down from Cambridgeshire for questioning. It took some time to arrange a nursemaid for the mother."

"Why, what time is it?"

"Five minutes before eleven o'clock." I'd slept for twelve hours.

"Good Lord, the colonel will think I've walked out on him. I told him I'd stay until Friday."

"I took the liberty of telephoning him at eight o'clock, to tell him you would not be to work today. He wished you well."

"Yes. I have some explanations to make there, I fear. But why the coffee?"

"Your presence is requested by Mrs Erica Rogers."

"Mrs Rogers? But why?"

"She told Lestrade that she would not make a statement without you present. My presence, though not required, is to be permitted."

I shook my head in a futile attempt to clear it.

"Does she know who you are, then? That her gardener and the hero of 'Thor Bridge' are one and the same?"

"It would seem so, although I could have sworn she did not know while I was there."

"But why me?"

"She did not tell Lestrade why, just that you must be there."

"How extraordinary. And Lestrade didn't object?"

"If it persuades her to make a statement, no. She's a stubborn old lady, is Mrs Erica Rogers."

"So I gathered. Here, take my cup. I must bath if I'm to deal with her."

* * *

Inspector Lestrade's office was not the largest of rooms, and with seven people seated there on that warm morning, all of whom were to some degree anxious, it became a claustrophobe's nightmare and stifling besides. Not everyone present had bathed that morning, and the windows were totally inadequate.

On closer inspection, two people presented a front of cool composure. One was Holmes, inevitably; the other was Mrs Rogers, who shot us a glance that would have stripped the leaves from an oak tree before turning back to face Lestrade. Her solicitor was red-faced and damp-looking, and I thought that his heart was probably not in the best of condition. Lestrade was without expression, but the furtiveness of his eyes and the nervous way his small hands shuffled his papers made me think that he was apprehensive about the coming interview. The young uniformed policeman to his side held his notebook tightly and clasped a pencil as if it were an unfamiliar weapon— recent graduate of a stenographer's course, I diagnosed, and fished my own pad out of my bag to hold it up unobtrusively,