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winds and snow after an evening of thick fog, and all the roads were impassable until noon of the next day. Of course the perpetrator might have used a tractor or a snowplow to make his getaway, but it would have been hard, and I know this from my own experience because we had an awful time getting our patrol cars out of the snow, both the ones from the local stations and the ones from the Greater London C.I.D. reserve that responded to our alert.”
    “So you maintain that no car could have left the Lewes vicinity until noon of the next day?”
    “Right.”
    “What about sledges?”
    “Technically it would have been possible, but not in the amount of time he had to work with. After all, a sledge can’t travel at more than a mile or two an hour, especially in a storm like the one they had that night. Even with the best horses he wouldn’t have been able to get out of the closed-off area by noon.”
    “If you say so, Lieutenant, but a moment ago you told us that this kind of net isn’t completely secure,” Sheppard said gently. “In fact, an absolutely secure cordon is only an ideal we aspire to.”
    “Besides,” Farquart commented, “he could have put the corpse in a bag and carried it through the fields on foot.”
    “Impossible,” said Gregory. He wanted to remain silent but his cheeks were burning. He could hardly keep himself from jumping to his feet.
    “No vehicles left the closed-off zone after six in the morning. I can vouch for that,” he declared. “Maybe an infantryman could have gotten through the snow but not with a load as heavy as an adult body. He would have dumped it…”
    “Maybe he did dump it,” Sorensen observed.
    “I thought of that, but we combed the whole area—there was a thaw the next day which made the job easier—and we didn’t find a thing.”
    “Your reasoning is hardly as faultless as you think,” Sciss unexpectedly broke into the conversation. “First of all, you didn’t find the dead cat, but if you had really conducted a careful search you would have—”
    “Excuse me,” said Gregory, “but we were looking for a human corpse, not for a dead cat.”
    “Exactly! But there are so many places to hide a corpse in such a large area that you might just as well conclude that it isn’t there.”
    “The perpetrator could have buried the body,” Farquart added.
    “He snatched it just to bury it?” Gregory asked with an innocent air. Farquart snorted.
    “Maybe he buried it when he saw he couldn’t get away.”
    “But how did he know he couldn’t get away? After all, we weren’t announcing the roadblocks on the radio,” Gregory retorted. “That is … unless he has a contact in the department, or unless he’s a police officer…”
    “That’s not a bad thought,” Sciss smiled. “But in any case, gentlemen, you haven’t exhausted all the possibilities. What about a helicopter?”
    “What nonsense!” said Dr. Sorensen contemptuously.
    “Why? There aren’t any helicopters in England?”
    “The doctor apparently believes that it’s easier to suspect a psychopath than a helicopter,” said Gregory, smiling complacently.
    “What about all the carcasses?” Sorensen added.
    There wasn’t a sound from Sciss, who seemed to be absorbed in his lecture notes.
    “The search for the bodies must be continued,” Sheppard went on. “We have to plan a much more comprehensive operation, including ports and dockyards. Some kind of surveillance of ships and cargoes. Do any of you have anything else to say? Any new ideas? Any theories? Anything at all? Please don’t be afraid to be outspoken, even too outspoken.”
    “In my opinion, it’s not possible—” Gregory and Far-quart began at the same time. They looked at each other and stopped.
    “I’m listening.”
    No one spoke. The telephone jangled. The Chief Inspector disconnected it and watched the men seated before him. A cloud of bluish tobacco smoke rose around the lamp. For a moment, silence