Where is Shimoga?
– I beg your pardon? – Shimoga, where is it? Well, it’s a bit off my track. I’m a Northwest Frontier man myself. But Shimoga’s down south, in Mysore. Why? Does it possess a mission? How the hell should I know? India’s pustular with missions. You are returning on leave from India to England? – Yes. – Why overland? Why not? Because the sea route by P and O is more usual. I chose to come overland for reasons of my own. Colonel Arbuthnott, in a murder inquiry, no suspect’s reasons are exclusively his own. I stopped for one night to see Ur of the Chaldees, and for three days in Baghdad with the A.O.C., who happens to be a friend of mine. The English Miss Debenham also has traveled from Baghdad. It is possible the murder was committed by a woman or by a man and a woman in collaboration. From your acquaintanceship with Miss Debenham, would you have thought that she was capable physically or emotionally or…? – That’s a bloody irregular question. – I know, but I ask it. Miss Debenham is not a
