19 Speak, Memory! ‘Don’t know what to make of Aunt Hortense,’ Major Payne said. ‘Would you say she was as cunning as the coiled cobra she used to wear round her wrist?’ ‘I am not sure. That would be overrating her, I think.’ He started the engine. ‘Toute vérité n’est pas bonne à dire indeed … Does she really believe that telling half-truths or distorted truths is better than telling no truth at all? It’s pretty much the same thing, isn’t it? No – it’s worse!’ ‘She was quivering like a twig in a gale,’ Antonia said thoughtfully. ‘Could she be the killer?’ ‘Technically speaking she could be. She wasn’t in the room at the crucial time.’ ‘She said she’d gone to the loo … She’d watched their rehearsals. That means she must have been familiar with the exact position of the body on the chaise longue and so on,’ Antonia mused. ‘She knew Lord Remnant would be in a direct line to the french windows. She was actually caught on camera drawing the silk curtains across the windows just before the sketch started.
