A Man Condemned by Roderic Jeffries

Author:Roderic Jeffries [Jeffries, Roderic]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2018-06-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Fusil went into Passmore’s office, which was on the ground floor of divisional HQ. It was a large, pleasant room and around it were several mementoes of his past life: framed photos of himself in army uniform, his two daughters and his wife, a jeep with Montgomery standing up in it and waving; the certificate of his entry on to the Rolls as a solicitor; a carved native head in ebony which at first glance looked merely grotesque, but at a second and more detailed look became downright evil . . .

‘I’m just back from Windleton Manor with Alf,’ said Fusil. ‘If there’s anything more in the way of security that needs doing, I’m damned if I know what it is.’

‘Then I’ll make out an official report.’

‘Have you heard when the owner’s moving in?’

‘I don’t know any more than you do—presumably the original date of the fifteenth of October still holds good . . . By the way, I’ve been wanting a word with you. How are things making out with O’Connell?’

‘The whisky came from the pub and, as it was only delivered there on the Saturday morning and it wasn’t sold or given away, it had to be stolen. The lab tests show he was tight at the time of his death.’

‘Damn!’ muttered Passmore. ‘I’d have sworn he’d never have done a thing like that.’ With untypical pessimism, he added: ‘But then it’s virtually impossible really to understand other people.’

‘Menton discovered I was “wasting” my time on the investigation and he’s ordered me to drop it.’

‘Given all the circumstances, I suppose that’s not really very surprising.’

Fusil said crisply: ‘I need a list of all the cases O’Connell was connected with during the last week of his life. Could you organize that for me?’

Passmore picked up a ruler and began to tap this up and down against the palm of his left hand. ‘You’re intending to ignore Menton’s order?’

Fusil smiled thinly. ‘He had occasion recently to point out to me that I’m in charge of CID and therefore it’s up to me to decide the course of investigations.’

‘Maybe, but when your superior gives you a definite order . . . Listen, Bob, are you being your usual bloody stubborn self or have you some reason to think the facts of O’Connell’s case aren’t what they seem?’

Fusil explained what he’d learned and what he now surmised.

Passmore laid the ruler down on the desk and shifted his weight, making the chair creak. ‘Your theory falls down the moment you don’t accept as an act of faith that he’s innocent. Men will pinch whisky even if they don’t like it, simply because they’re getting it for nothing; men will do such inexplicable things as drive miles away from home at six in the morning to have a very private booze-up. On top of that, the wife could easily have missed the damage to the car, or it could have happened here, in the courtyard, on Saturday night and she wouldn’t know about it.

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