Jack Hayward looked at the Inspector and at Powerscourt. ‘Of course,’ he began. ‘I have to warn you gentlemen that I have been over and over all this so many times in my mind that I sometimes wonder if I am making parts of it up. Anyway, it started with a knock at my door, a loud knock, very early in the morning.’ ‘Would you know what time it was? Just for the record, you understand.’ Inspector Blunden had brought a brand-new pencil with him to take notes. ‘I don’t know, I don’t have a watch and we don’t have a clock that works in the house. I would guess that it must have been between five and half past five in the morning. There was a cheap-looking envelope lying by my front door. I say cheap because I’ve seen the expensive ones Walter Savage uses when he sends important letters out from the Hall. ‘It was addressed to me and there was a message inside scribbled on the back of a page torn from a child’s notebook.
