"You--you don't think it was Miss Natalie, sir ?" "No, I do not, Sexton.

I have my own reasons for saying that.

Yet naturally she is the one to be first suspected.

Do you know anything ?" "Only that I am sure she was in the garden, sir, when the shot was fired.
I saw her there just after you drove away." "That is conclusive then, so far as her personal actions are concerned.
But there is an odd angle to this matter, and I might as well explain it to you first as last.

Perhaps you can help figure the oddness out.