How did he live?
Of course there were stories, but such stories! They simply couldn't be told.

The women he'd been seen with, the places he'd been seen in...

but nothing was ever certain, nothing definite.

Some of the women at the Bay privately thought he'd commit a murder one day.

Yes, even while they talked to Mrs.Kember and took in the awful concoction she was wearing, they saw her, stretched as she lay on the beach; but cold, bloody, and still with a cigarette stuck in the corner of her mouth.
Mrs.Kember rose, yawned, unsnapped her belt buckle, and tugged at the tape of her blouse.