Guy Staveley—Joanna Staveley

Guy Staveley and Joanna Staveley are both spouses and collaborators in medical care on Combe Island. Their relationship is shown through practical division of work, shared domestic routines, and a coordinated account of the night Nathan Oliver died; the evidence establishes their closeness in daily life without describing their private feelings in detail.

Marriage and Medical Work

Joanna introduces herself by defining her role alongside Guy’s: he deals with illness, while she supplies everyday remedies, including sticking plasters, laxatives, and placebos. She tells the investigators that the surgery is on the same floor as the sickroom, placing their work within the island’s shared medical facilities. Her brisk, lightly self-deprecating description distinguishes her contribution from her husband’s clinical role while presenting the two as parts of the same service.

Shared Domestic Life

In her account of the evening before Oliver’s death, Joanna says she and Guy attended dinner and remained for coffee in the library before returning to Dolphin Cottage. She states that they stayed together there until going to bed just before eleven, and that neither left the cottage. They also breakfasted together there the next morning, sharing grapefruit, toast, and coffee. These details make their home life part of the chronology investigated by the police, rather than leaving their marriage as background alone.

The Investigation

Joanna says that she went to the surgery after breakfast to wait for Oliver, who was expected to give blood at nine. When he had not arrived by nine-twenty, she began telephoning to find out what had delayed him. She did not join the search for him; Guy did. Joanna says she first learned what had happened when Guy returned and told her. Her account thus places the couple in different roles as the search unfolded: she remained at the surgery and sought information, while he took part in the search and then brought news back to her. She also acknowledges that they had time to fabricate a shared alibi before the investigators arrived, but maintains that her account would match her husband’s.