"You knew he was dead?" asked the Inspector.
Mrs. Parker nodded. "I saw it in the paper."
"Then why didn't you get in touch with someone? You were his nearest relative."
"Well, it's like this," said Mrs. Parker, with a suspicion of a whine in her voice. "We'd been separated so long. During the war he married me, when he was staying on my mother's farm to get over his wound. He was a bit above me, I suppose; I didn't hit it off with his friends, I admit. It might have been different if there'd been a child, but there wasn't, and we used to quarrel. I'm not a saint myself, and I reckon it was six of one and half a dozen of the other. Be that as it may, we agreed to separate seven years ago; and I'll say this, he sent me money as regular as clockwork. I settled down here and went back to m
