neighbouring barge owners were questioned about the sherry family but , by their very nature , the floating community was a nomadic one : no one claimed to know the sherrys well , certainly no one claimed a knowledge of ronalds illegal trade in spirits ; the only useful piece of additional information that james was able to pick up was that ronalds wife and his daughter had left the barge very early that morning with luggage suggesting at least an overnight stay , ronald having been sufficiently alive at that time to wave them off , and that since such a departure by the women folk was apparently a fairly regular occurrence that it was a commonly held belief that the two females visited a relative of mrs. sherry , at an address unknown .