Margaret Sayer was seventy-three, a former bank employee who had lived in France for eighteen years.
She was also a ringer.
Her address lay outside Calais, less than twenty miles from the port.
Relf placed the details beside Claire Hatherley's ferry booking.
"Claire stayed in Boulogne," Eleanor said.
"Then drove to Calais for the two o'clock sailing."
"That doesn't mean she saw Sayer."
"No. We'll ask."
The booking showed a vehicle and one passenger. Claire had checked in normally.
Before she reached the terminal, her telephone had connected to a mast serving the area around Sayer's village. It could not place her at the house, but it gave Relf another question.
"Yes," Claire said. "I saw Margaret."
They were at the Hatherleys' house. Bernard was not in the room.
"How do you know her?" Relf asked.
"Through ringing. We've known each other for years."
"Why did you visit?"
"Adrian asked me to."
Eleanor looked up from her notebook.
"When?"
"Before I went to France. He gave me an envelope to take."
"What was in it?"
"I don't know. I didn't open it."
"Did he say what it concerned?"
"He said Margaret would understand. If he was being ridiculous, she could throw it away."
"And if he wasn't?"
Claire looked down at her hands.
"She'd know what to do."
Relf waited before asking, "When did you give it to her?"
"The morning I came back. Before driving to the terminal."
"Did she read it while you were there?"
"She opened it."
"What did she say?"
"She asked whether Adrian was still alive."
Eleanor stopped writing.
"What did you tell her?"
"That he'd died."
"How did she respond?"
"She sat down."
Claire glanced towards the door.
"Then she said something odd."
"What?"
"'Then Eight knows.'"
Outside, Relf took out his telephone.
Eleanor touched his arm.
"Weller was already in custody when Claire visited Sayer."
"Yes."
"Margaret may not have known."
"She may not."
"But we've been treating Eight as a person. One person, always Hart."
"That's what Hale told us."
"Could it be a position someone else took over?"
Relf looked back at the house.
"Or something Sayer meant differently. We need her account."
They had evidence connecting Weller to Thomas Hart. His place in the original group, and the authority attached to the number Eight, came from Hale.
Relf dialled the station.
"Is Hale still there?"
He listened.
"When?"
Eleanor watched his face.
Hale had left during the previous hour. He had not been under arrest; he had come in voluntarily to answer further questions.
"Did he leave anything?" Relf asked.
Another pause.
"Keep it where it is. I'm coming."
On the interview-room desk lay a short piece of bell-rope sally.
Red, white and blue wool.
A luggage label was tied to it.
One number had been written on the label:
8
Eleanor stood beside Relf without touching it.
"He wants us to connect him with Eight."
"Yes."
"After telling us he was Two."
Relf asked the officer when the room had last been checked and who had entered it.
Eleanor looked at the wool.
"An admission?"
"Perhaps."
"A warning?"
"Perhaps."
She turned towards him.
"What do you think?"
"That he left us something to interpret instead of staying to answer questions."
Relf took out his telephone again.
"We still need to speak to Margaret Sayer."