by Roger Keevil
“Molly?” Andy Constable smiled. “I wonder, would you by any chance be the Molly that this young man has told me about?”
As the sound of loud and meaningful throat-clearing came from the sergeant standing alongside her, Molly blushed in confusion. “Well, I don't know what he's been saying ...”
Constable took pity on her. “Don't worry,” he said, “nothing incriminating. And it's very nice to meet you. I would shake hands, but obviously ...” He nodded to his heavily bandaged right arm. “But perhaps you ought to find time to let him tell you all about what he's been up to today. He's been quite the hero. Maybe you could find a free evening. Not now, of course … you're very busy, I'm sure.”
“Yes … er … I've got to ...” With a bob of her head, Molly was gone.
“Guv, ...” began Copper reproachfully.
“Sorry, sergeant. Just a little harmless fun. You'll have to forgive me. It's the kind of thing we poor bed-ridden invalids get up to.”
“Bedridden invalid my foot!” snorted Copper. “If you'll pardon the expression, sir. Walking wounded at worst, from what I've been told.”
“No sympathy to be had here, then,” remarked Constable.
“So tell me, guv,” said Copper, eager to move the conversation on to safer ground. “We never really got a chance to chat in the back of that ambulance. How did you figure it all out?” He perched on the hard plastic chair alongside the inspector's bed.
“Partly by a process of elimination,” replied Constable. “We'd practically run out of suspects anyway, but eventually a pattern emerged. What was confusing us, of course, was the over-supply of motives for each of the individuals involved, but once we'd cleared a few of those out of the way, it came down to a choice between two of the oldest motives of all … love and hate. And in this case, it turned out to be love. I think somebody once said something clever about more crimes being committed in the cause of love than anything else. Well, they certainly got that right.”
“So talk me through it, guv. It's still all a bit of a tangle in my mind.”
“There was a time when I seriously thought that Bob Farmer might be in the frame. I mean, slightly older man, pretty younger wife, and three guys drooling over her to a greater or lesser extent. Jealousy can be a pretty powerful motive, and with his military background he could easily have been capable of drastic action. Of course, Phyllis Stein didn't fit into that pattern, but once the suggestion had been made that her death was an accident, and particularly after it looked as if an attempt had been made on Sam Booker while Bob was nearby, then Bob was starting to look increasingly plausible.”
“Did you never seriously consider Penny? After all, she might have got just as sick of being pursued.”
“There was no way she could have killed Rex Hope, and if she wasn't responsible for that, there was no logic to what followed.”
“You said there were three guys drooling over her, but in fact, Sam was the least drooly. He struck me as shy more than anything.”
“Yes, that misled us. They say the shy ones are the worst. We should have paid more attention to what Phyllis said. She told us that he was obviously head-over-heels in love with Penny, and we didn't pick it up. And there's another thing I should have picked up right at the start, and I didn't. I blame myself for that.”
“What's that, sir?”
“Don't you remember the first time we spoke to the runners on Sunday? Mark said that he and Sam were together all the time, except for when Sam nipped behind a tree to relieve himself. And Sam went on to say that he carried on following Mark, and that he could see him ahead all the way until he caught up with him at the stile. It sounded as if he was giving Mark an alibi. In fact, he was giving himself one. I walked that course. I followed the route through the wood, and it twists and turns all the way. It would have been impossible for Sam to see Mark all the time unless he was hard on his heels. If you look at that big map you drew, you'll see that the runners followed the path which goes round the whole wood in a big loop. But there are forks in the path at several points. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for Sam to take one of those short cuts and catch up with Mark just as he got to the stile.”
“Giving him the time he needed.”
“Exactly. And I should have realised that.”
“So do you reckon Rex was just phase one of a plan, guv?”
“I think he was. I believe that Sam had somehow got it into his head that if he got rid of all the other men in her life, Penny would turn to him for consolation. So first Rex was killed, and then when Mark went into the Three Blind Mice to check how Penny was, prior to setting off on his second run after he called in to see us, Sam saw his chance. While Mark was going the long way round, Sam went out the inn the back way, met Mark as he emerged from the woods, killed him, and was back at the inn within minutes.”
“So the poisoning …?”
“He did it himself, of course, to distract attention. I remember you made some daft suggestion about Anna from the Dagger concocting a poisonous brew, and I laughed at you. I shouldn't have been so quick, because you had the right idea but the wrong person. Don't forget, Sam had been a chemistry student too, and he'd helped to set up the still at the Dagger. If he couldn't identify something in the kitchen cupboard that would produce some pretty effective results without actually being dangerous, then his education had been wasted. All evidence helpfully rinsed down the sink or flushed down the loo. And it had the supplementary effect that, once he was discharged from hospital, he'd very likely have Penny Farmer cooing over him and playing nurse.”
“But why the other murders? What did they have to do with this weird scheme?”
“Insurance, I think. As I see it, once Mark was out of sight on the run, Sam went back to the Dagger and collected Rex. You can imagine it – 'Come on, you poor old chap. I couldn't leave you on your own. Let's carry on together'. The fact that he told us Mark had cracked a gag to the same effect was something of a subconscious give-away. Then, once safely in the woods, wham! Now obviously Sam had something against Adelaide Knight anyway because she had sacked him, but there was also the possibility that she might have seen him when he went back for Rex, so that's why he decided to kill her. And from what Anna told me, she may have had a lucky escape herself, because she could also have been a witness. The same applied to Barbara Dwyer. She said in that message of hers that she'd glimpsed Sam through her cottage window. It's equally possible that he saw her, and thought that she might provide evidence that he was going back towards the Dagger. As she did, but too late to save herself. And who knows, if he'd had the time, he might even have put an end to the vicar on the same off-chance.”
“Which just left Bob.”
“Who was the final obstacle in Sam's way, as he saw it. Never mind that by now we were bound to start to realise that there were very few possible killers left for us to consider. And never mind that, when we walked in on that scene, there was never going to be any chance it would end well. By then, I think he'd lost the power of logical thought.”
“Too right, guv,” said Copper. “You were rather out of it by then, but by the time we got him cuffed and into a car, he was raving. I think from what I've heard that they're going to get the shrinks to take a good look at him before anything goes much further. So who knows how that's going to end up?”
“I'm glad that's not our province. We've done our work and we shall write up our reports, and after that I'm happy to leave the rest of it to the specialists.” Constable's face grew momentarily solemn. “By the way, David, I never got to thank you properly for getting that knife away from Sam.”
“All down to that course on unarmed combat and dis-arming criminals, guv,” said Copper modestly. “Which, if you remember, it was your idea to send me on. And just as well you did. You know, when Sam went for you and I saw the blood, I thought for a minute that it was last orders for you.” He guffawed. “Like the old gag about the Swedish barman … you know, 'Lars Torders'!�
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“I've had enough of barmen to last me quite a while, thank you very much,” said Constable with a rueful grin. “And the joke is not really that amusing anyway. Whoever thought it was funny to start making a play on words out of people's names should have his head examined.”
At that moment, Molly put her head around the curtain again. “We should be able to let you leave any minute, inspector. Doctor Sworder's on his way.”
Throughout the hospital's Accident and Emergency Department, patients and staff alike were startled by the sound of sudden and unrestrained male laughter coming from one of the cubicles.
* * * * *
THE INSPECTOR CONSTABLE MURDER MYSTERIES
MURDERER'S FETE
(First published in paperback as Feted To Die)
Constable and Copper investigate the death of a celebrity clairvoyant at the annual garden fête at Dammett Hall
MURDER UNEARTHED
(First published in paperback as Juan Foot In The Grave)
A lucky win takes Constable and Copper on holiday to Spain, but murder soon rears its head among the British community on the Costa
DEATH SAILS IN THE SUNSET
Our detectives find themselves aboard a brand new cruise liner, but swiftly discover that some guilty secrets refuse to be buried at sea.
MURDER COMES TO CALL
A trio of cases for Constable and Copper to tackle -
in Death By Chocolate, the victim comes to a sticky end at Wally Winker's Chocolate Factory; in The Dead Of Winter, there's first degree murder at Harde-Knox College; and in Set For Murder, there's a grisly shock in store at the Spanner House of Horror film studios.
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