A Pocket Full of Rye

The narrative returns to Paris, where Lance Fortescue reads of his father’s death in a newspaper. Pat is upset on his behalf. At Heathrow airport in London, they are escorted off the plane by police officers.

In an interview with Neele, Lance expresses his shock and ignorance of any possible motives for murdering his father. Inspector Neele asks about the family reconciliation. Lance explains that his father wrote to suggest that they could meet again, and he actually visited three months before, where he briefly met Adele. No one else in the family knew that Lance was there or that his father had offered him a role in the business. Lance says that he suspects his father wanted to outmaneuver Percival due to their growing estrangement. Lance denies that he resented his father’s remarriage to a younger woman. He tells Pat that he will go to Yewtree Lodge to see his family but insists that she remain in a hotel, as he refuses to endanger her.

The chapter opens from the perspective of Vivian. Adele has been calling him incessantly and has now left a letter at his hotel, and he is terrified of any evidence of their affair becoming public.