She invited him in for a gin and tonic and they sat in the window to look out over the valley as the sun set.
‘What do we need to do?’ he asked. ‘You need some tissue for blood grouping, though we’ll have to search for Albert Barnes’s group.’
‘He was in the army, he should have it in his records,’ she said. ‘Trevor Mitchell should know how to go about getting it. Where will you look at the remains?’
Richard sipped his drink appreciatively. He was no drunkard, but he liked a glass of something every day.
‘Ledbury is in Herefordshire, not Meredith’s area, but he’s got a permanent arrangement with his counterpart in Hereford to use the County Hospital. Hopefully, we’ll need to have a bone or two X-rayed and then compare them with the Barnes’s films that were taken when he had his accident.’
Business talk finished, they sat and talked for a while, mainly about their families. Angela had a much younger sister who lived at home in Berkshire, but she had taken up with a man of whom her parents disapproved.
‘I’d better go up there next weekend and listen to all the angst,’ she sighed. ‘After the collapse of my romance, they’re dead scared of another fiasco!’
Richard had never probed into her failed engagement to a detective superintendent in the ‘Met’ and she had never volunteered any details. Angela seemed to sense what he was thinking and smiled at him over the rim of her glass.
‘This is an odd situation, isn’t it?’ she mused aloud. ‘Here we are, two red-blooded people staying together in the same house with no chaperone. The village people must think we’re living in sin!’
Richard’s lean face creased in a grin. ‘I always make sure my bedroom door’s locked every night!’
His partner prodded him in the leg with her pointed court shoe.
‘One of these nights I might break it down with an axe when I’m desperate!’ she promised playfully, but they both knew that it was an empty threat. Theirs was the perfect platonic friendship – or so she told herself. As for Richard, he wasn’t so sure. She was a very attractive woman, but he would never make the first move.
‘Moira has got a real crush on you,’ said Angela abruptly. ‘You know that, Richard, don’t you?’
He stared at her incredulously. ‘Moira! Go on, she’s only known me for a week or two!’ he said scornfully.
Angela nodded wisely. ‘I’ve seen her looking at you, with eyes like a big soft spaniel! You could do worse, she’s a very smart woman.’
‘I don’t want to “do” anything, thanks! I had enough problems with Miriam to last me for a bit. You’ll be saying next that Sian fancies me!’
Angela nodded sagely. ‘Of course she does! But you’re a bit old for her, so I’m not sure if she wants you for a lover or a father figure!’
Pryor laughed and stood up. ‘You’ve had too much of that gin, madam! I’m off before you get more fantasies – or start ravishing me! Don’t forget, up early next Tuesday, you’ve got an exhumation to attend. That’ll sober you up!’
He went back to his office in a thoughtful mood.
On Thursday morning, Ben Evans had arranged to speak to the men who had recovered Linda Prentice’s body from the sea and the most convenient place to meet them was at the Signal Station at Bracelet Bay. This was perched on a rocky knoll just beyond Mumbles Head, a pair of small islands which carried the lighthouse that marked the western end of the huge sweep of Swansea Bay. The coastguard station was a low building with an observation deck above it, used to monitor all vessels passing up the north side of the Bristol Channel. The two detectives parked below and climbed the path to meet the pair of coastguards in a room below the operations level. It was half-filled with equipment, but had a table and a few chairs, along with an electric kettle. The two men were burly ex-seamen, dressed in thick blue jumpers and serge trousers. One was George, who made four mugs of tea before sitting at the table with his mate, Arthur, who did most of the talking.
‘The local police called us about eight o’clock that morning,’ he began. ‘They’d been warned of a body in the sea by a chap going to do some early fishing.’
Ben Evans had already read the police report and knew that they had called the coastguard because it was impossible to get the body out of the water without proper equipment.
‘Was it difficult to recover it?’ he asked.
‘We’ve had much worse places,’ replied Arthur. ‘But without ropes and safety lines, it would have been bloody hard to get her up. She was obviously dead by the time the police responded to the chap’s call, so there was no question of resuscitation.’
‘Where exactly was she?’ asked Lewis Lewis.
‘At the foot of the last bit of cliff west of Pwlldu. There was a steep valley going down over the grass and scrub to the rocks, but then there was a ten-foot drop down to the water – a lot more at low tide.’
‘Why would a fisherman want to go down such a hairy place?’ asked Evans.
Arthur shrugged. ‘You can get some good bass in those deep gullies.’
‘Was she being knocked about much when you got there?’ asked the inspector.
‘It was near high tide and there was a fair swell running. She was close in to the rocks, being washed back and forth, rubbing against them sometimes,’ explained George.
‘The gully went in a long way, so she wouldn’t have gone out to sea until the tide ebbed and pulled her back out,’ said his mate.
Lewis wrote away in his notebook, while Ben drank some tea and thought of his next question.
‘How long d’you think she’d been in the water?’
Arthur rubbed his bristly beard. ‘Not all that long, but no way of saying exactly. She was still fresh, no signs of decay. The skin on her hands and feet was wrinkled badly, but that can happen in a couple of hours.’
‘If she had gone swimming the previous day, could you guess where she went in, given where you found the body?’ queried the detective superintendent.
Arthur grimaced. ‘These chaps who claim to tell you that exactly are talking a lot of bullshit!’ he declared.
‘There’s so many factors like tide, wind and coastal streams. With the usual westerly wind and the tidal drift along there, she would have gone eastwards, but I can’t say how far.’
As the police had later found Linda’s robe and towel at the bottom of Broad Slade, Ben knew the point was academic.
‘No doubt in your mind that she drowned?’ he asked.
‘None at all – when we hauled her out on to grass, the movement brought up some froth from her nose and mouth. That goes with her not being in all that long, as when bodies reach a bad state, it’s too late for that.’
‘Do you get many drownings like this along that bit of coast?’ asked Lewis.
The coastguard shook his head. ‘Very few, thank God, only one or two a year. We get more damn fools who fall down the cliffs or get caught by the tide.’
‘She was said to be a strong swimmer – and she went in along there very often. So why d’you think she might have drowned?’ asked Evans.
Again, Arthur gave a shrug. ‘Hard to say! She might have got cramp. The water’s still cold even though it’s June. Or she might have taken a knock on the head against the rocks if the swell caught her at the wrong moment.’
There was very little else they could extract from the men, helpful though they were and after some more chat and a refill of tea, the two detectives left, wondering what decision their senior officers in police headquarters in Bridgend were going to make about Michael Prentice.
ELEVEN
On Friday, Richard Pryor drove down to Newport and caught the train to London, where he had a meeting in St Mary’s Hospital of the organizing committee for the conference in Cardiff in November. It was pouring with rain, but at least he had only a few yards to walk from Paddington Station to the hospital medical school in Praed Street. He got back to Garth House in time for supper, which he ate alone, as Angela had already left for her paren
ts home to help sort out their problems with her sister over the weekend.
On Saturday, he went fishing further up the Wye, at a riverside farm where Jimmy Jenkins had got him permission to put a rod in the river. He had not used his kit for many years, though when he was a junior pathologist in Cardiff before the war, he had been quite keen on both river and sea angling. He had brought his rods from Merthyr, where they had languished since 1940, but he must have lost the knack, as he caught nothing during his six-hour vigil on the riverbank up beyond Llandogo. Still, he consoled himself, it had stopped raining and he enjoyed the solitude, with a Thermos of tea, a box of sandwiches and a couple of bottles of beer.
Once again Sunday seemed empty without any of the three women in his life – he especially missed the quiet company of Angela. If she had not been so damned good-looking and elegant, he thought, he would have liked her for a big sister! Richard Pryor liked women, not necessarily in the lustful sense, for he enjoyed their looks, their femininity and their company. In Singapore, since his wife left him prior to their divorce, he had had a few flings amongst the expatriate community, but after coming back six months ago, he had led a rather monkish life, being too absorbed in setting up his new forensic venture.
When things settled down more, he told himself, he would get himself a social life, join a golf or tennis club and maybe look around for a new wife. Angela’s suggestion that Moira was keen on him seemed ridiculous. Attractive though she was, she was just their housekeeper-cum-secretary and he hardly knew her.
He mooched about all day on Sunday, feeling a little lonely, but occupied himself with cleaning his car and listening to the radio. Television was becoming more popular, now that the new BBC transmitter was broadcasting from near Cardiff, but he had not discussed with Angela whether they could afford to get one, even if they could get a decent signal in the confines of the deep Wye Valley. That evening, Leonard Massey phoned to say that the police had finally decided to investigate the death of his daughter.
‘They have interviewed him and intend following it up,’ said the barrister. ‘Is there anything more you can do on the pathology side?’
‘Not really, those older bruises are the main evidence for some previous form of assault,’ replied Pryor. ‘The cause of death is not in dispute, but I wonder about that rather nasty impact on the back of the head. Are the police going to examine the house?’
Massey followed his reasoning straight away. ‘You mean there could be some physical evidence of what caused the blow?’
‘Not necessarily a blow, a fall would be equally likely. The fact that it was a recent injury, not long before death, means it could have occurred in the sea, but it could have happened hours earlier and caused unconsciousness.’
‘I’m sure that the CID will have a good look at the house and the surroundings,’ replied Massey. ‘They are having him in at their station to make a statement tomorrow. I think they are also going to talk to the friend who wrote the letter to Linda – and to this woman he’s been carrying on with.’
Pryor had no more to contribute and after the lawyer had rung off, he sat wondering if the police had enough to proceed much further with Massey’s claim that his son-in-law had murdered his wife. He also wondered if the father had not been an eminent Queen’s Counsel, but a bus driver or a steel worker, whether the police would have pursued the matter on what was so far, rather scanty evidence. Richard decided that was probably an unfair thought, but still wondered if there was anything more than grounds for a domestic dispute, leaving a few bruises.
Still, more immediate matters took his attention and he went to the kitchen to attack the cold chicken and warm up the cooked vegetables which Moira had left in the refrigerator, amongst the other sustenance for the weekend.
On Monday morning, Michael Prentice grudgingly arrived at Gowerton Police Station to make a statement.
He parked his black Jaguar in the yard of the Victorian-vintage building and was directed to a gloomy interview room on the ground floor, where Ben Evans was waiting for him at the door. The detective had half-expected Prentice to come armed with a solicitor, but he was alone. The businessman looked with distaste at the room, which contained only a plain table and three chairs, on one of which a uniformed police constable was sitting, a notebook at the ready.
‘Where’s your other chap?’ he asked coldly.
‘Inspector Lewis? He’s otherwise engaged,’ replied the superintendent. In fact, Lewis was already in a small industrial estate in the shadow of Kilvey Hill, near Swansea Docks.
Ben Evans waved Prentice to one of the hard chairs and sat down opposite.’ We need a statement from you about the circumstances of your wife’s death, sir.’ He pushed a few sheets of lined paper with a statutory heading across the table.
‘I’ve already given all this to the coroner’s officer for the inquest,’ said Prentice testily.
‘I’m not the coroner’s officer, sir,’ said Evans placidly. ‘And then we were not aware of the old bruises on your wife’s body.’
‘Those were nothing to do with me,’ snapped Michael.
‘Our doctor says they were typical of an assault within a few days before her death. So have you any knowledge of anyone else injuring your wife during that time?’ asked the detective.
‘She said nothing about it,’ said the other man defensively, then realized how silly it sounded. ‘No, of course not, there must be some mistake.’
‘Do you deny that you have been unfaithful to your wife recently? Specifically with Daphne Squires from Porthcawl, who I believe was in your house when we called on you?’
‘As I said before, it’s none of your damned business what went on in my private life,’ snarled Prentice, rising from his chair. ‘This is nineteen fifty-five, not Victorian times!’
Evans motioned him down with a wave of his hand.
‘Just write down all the events, as I asked please, sir. Then we’ll take it from there.’
Glowering, Prentice subsided and pulled out a fountain pen from his inside pocket. He grabbed a sheet of the statement paper and began to write with jerky, angry movements.
While he was doing this, a dozen miles away Lewis Lewis had parked inside a yard with a high fence, alongside a long steel-framed building with an asbestos roof. At one end, there was a two-storied brick annexe which was obviously the office block. From inside the larger building came the sound of machine tools and angle grinders. A collection of vehicles stood outside a pair of large closed corrugated doors which bore the name ‘Dragon Motor Innovations Ltd’.
He went through a small door in the annexe with ‘Reception’ written on it and entered an office with several young men and two girls working at desks.
One of these came across and he showed his warrant card.
‘Have you come about the van that was stolen?’ she asked.
Thinking that a little discretion might be advisable, Lewis nodded. ‘I’d like to see whoever’s in charge, please.’
‘Mr Prentice won’t be in until later, but Mr Laskey is here. He’s the other director,’ she added helpfully.
Upstairs, he found Laskey to be a small, cheerful man with rimless glasses on a large nose. As soon as the girl had left the room, the inspector came clean and admitted that he was not here about any stolen van, but was making enquiries about the death of Mr Prentice’s wife.
Laskey was taken aback and looked embarrassed. ‘I don’t know that I should be saying anything about that, Inspector. It’s Michael’s private business.’
‘There are certain matters which need to be cleared up, sir. I don’t want to open this up to other employees unless it’s absolutely necessary,’ said Lewis.
The director blinked at him owl-like through his glasses.
‘But what on earth can I tell you?’ he said plaintively.
‘Did your partner mention anything about his domestic affairs in recent weeks?’ began the inspector. ‘Did you know that he was involved with another lady from Porthcawl?<
br />
Laskey’s sallow face flushed. ‘That’s a very sensitive subject, Officer. And it’s none of my business.’
‘But I’m afraid it’s mine, sir. From your answer, you did know he was having some marriage problems?’
‘Well, Michael did mention it to me. He was thinking of a divorce and Mrs Prentice was dead against it.’ A look of understanding crept over his face. ‘Oh dear, do you mean she might have done away with herself because of it?’
Lewis had not meant anything of the sort, but he let it lie.
‘Was his manner and behaviour any different recently, since this problem?’
Laskey thought for a moment. ‘He was looking worried, I suppose, but that was presumably because of his troubles at home. Otherwise, nothing different as far as the business was concerned.’
‘Did he come into the factory as usual on the days leading up to the death of his wife?’
‘Yes, of course. After it happened, he was naturally away for a day or two, but he seemed to take the tragedy very well.’
After a few more questions, Lewis saw that there was nothing useful to be got from Laskey. On the way out, he casually asked what they did in the factory and full of enthusiasm – and relief at a change of subject – the other man offered to show him around. They went down to the large building, which was divided into bays, where a dozen men were working at benches and at machine tools. One part was filled with electrical equipment, including an oscilloscope. Lewis had a genuine interest in motor vehicles and asked some intelligent questions about the various operations. Laskey seemed happy to answer, keeping up the fiction to the employees that the inspector was here about the stolen van.
‘That’s where we’re working on a better ignition system than the usual induction coil,’ he explained, as they passed the electrical section. He showed Lewis a new disc-brake device and then took him into a bay where a white-coated man was using a micrometer to measure the main bearings and big-end journals of a crankshaft. The place smelt strongly of engine oil and there was some chemical apparatus on a side bench.
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