noon
I should have done just as I had planned with the body , and then made the best time I could in the car to Southampton . The difference would have been that I could n't have furnished an unquestionable alibi by turning up at the hotel at 6.30 . I should have made the best of it by driving straight to the docks , and making my ostentatious enquiries there . I could in any case have got there long before the boat left at noon . I could n't see that anybody could suspect me of the supposed murder in any case ; but if any one had , and if I had n't arrived until ten o'clock , say , I should n't have been able to answer , `` It is impossible for me to have got to Southampton so soon after shooting him . '' I should simply have had to say I was delayed by a breakdown after leaving Manderson at half-past ten , and challenged any one to produce any fact connecting me with the crime . They could n't have done it .