02 The Quartet Murders by J. R. Ellis

Author:J. R. Ellis [Ellis, J. R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781503903098
Google: e1-sswEACAAJ
Amazon: 1503903095
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2018-08-08T23:00:00+00:00

The next day Oldroyd returned to Halifax, driving again over the same route he’d taken on that fateful night. It was a fine day with a pale-blue sky; the sun was so low that one half of the Calder Valley was in shade and would remain so all day. He decided to go a different route and took the road out of Bradford, which climbed up to Queensbury. Here there were panoramic views of the moors and hills in all directions. He stopped, got out of the car briefly and inhaled the bracing air. It was good to get out of the towns and up to what seemed like the roof of the world; somehow it gave him a perspective on things.

In Halifax, the Christmas atmosphere was intensifying; decorations festooned the streets and vans were selling hot chestnuts. Oldroyd’s absorption in this case was making him feel rather detached from it all. He arrived at police HQ and reported his findings about the violin to Armitage. The latter was chewing his way through a packet of jelly babies and he offered one to Oldroyd.

‘I’m not sure it gets us much further in narrowing down the field, Sam,’ said Oldroyd. He put the green baby he’d chosen in his mouth and chewed the soft, sweet gum. ‘We still haven’t got any definite links between anybody and the criminal things that happened that night apart from Hamilton – and he’s dead. But the most interesting thing is that someone else has been asking about Muller’s Strad.’

‘Do you think they could have been the killer?’

‘Possibly. But like just about everything else in this case we can’t be sure. I’m interested in this background story, you know, where the violin came from.’

‘You mean all that Nazi stuff?’

‘Yes, now Adamson’s confirmed it all, and how it came to Muller.’

Armitage stuffed another jelly baby into his mouth and looked unconvinced.

‘Do you think it lends weight to the idea of some organisation taking revenge?’

‘I don’t know, but I think we should check the backgrounds of people. What about Frank Dancek? He came from somewhere near that part of the world. He could be concealing things about himself.’

‘You mean he’s really Jewish? Sounds unlikely.’

‘Who knows? Let’s face it: we’ve got to follow up every possible lead, however slender. We need to know about the pasts of everyone involved with the Red Chapel. It must have been someone who knew the place and had access.’

‘OK. I’ll get people on to it.’

‘I presume you’ve already spoken to Gerald Watson and the rest of the committee?’

‘Of course; we’ve seen them all and they’ve made statements like everyone else there that night. Nothing’s come of it. No one saw anything we don’t already know about.’ He offered Oldroyd another jelly baby. This time he took a red one.

‘I think I’ll go and talk to Gerald Watson again; after all, he was the one who booked the quartet to come here.’

Armitage shrugged.

‘Fine, if you think it’ll do any good; all we can do is keep rummaging around and follow our instincts.

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