Dead Letter (Masters and Green Book 21) by Douglas Clark

Author:Douglas Clark [Clark, Douglas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2019-06-05T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

The two teams reported to each other over the fish and chips. Masters insisted on great detail at such sessions so that everybody should be as well informed as everybody else.

When both sides had finished, Reed said: “The fact that Pearce lives at Chinemouth seemed to give you great satisfaction this afternoon, Chief, and that the distance between there and Caldenham is only thirty miles also seemed to please you.”

Wanda and Doris Green had, so far, stayed out of the conversation, as though they recognized that this was a working review. But now Wanda asked: “Why should the fact that Pearce lives at Chinemouth cheer you any more than it would were he to live in Blackpool? Apart from the fact that it is nearer to home?”

“Nearer to Caldenham,” said Doris.

“What’s that got to do with it? Oh, I know you three went there today to see Mrs. Miller who is convinced her husband did not die naturally. But this case—Bill’s case, if you like—concerns Mr. Pearce and goings-on, presumably, in Chinemouth. Mr. Miller has been dead some time. Mr. Pearce’s man died only last week. They are two separate incidents. The only thing linking them is that the two men served together forty years ago. Now one is dead and one isn’t. So why should the fact that Chinemouth and Caldenham are thirty miles apart please George?”

Doris spread her hands to show she disowned all knowledge as to why Masters was pleased by this geographical proximity; she merely knew he was.

Wanda looked round at the men, other than her husband, seated at her supper table. “Doesn’t any one of you want to know the answer?”

“We all know the Chief,” said Berger to Wanda. “You better than any of us. He gets funny ideas. It’s what the Germans call having a sixth finger.”

“And the rest of you just blindly accept whatever funny ideas he gets?”

“Apart from him being our boss, yes. Though blindly accept is not the way I’d put it. Experience has taught us to respect his ideas. The DCI calls him jammy. He declared a few weeks ago that you feed the Chief exclusively on Tickler’s Plum and Apple, whatever that is.”

“Last week it was William Percy Hartley’s Golden Plum,” said Reed. “Not that I’ve ever come across either of them. But the point, although the DCI never points it out, is that in order to get jammy—on your face or your fingers—you have first to be able to nose out the jampot.”

“I am being fobbed off,” said Wanda. “William, can’t you help me?”

“I think I can, love. I think probably the sergeants misled you slightly. What I mean is, that George is delighted at finding—or at the prospect of finding—old Bung-ho Percy in Chinemouth. For a number of reasons. Some of them quite minor ones, such as the fact that there is a frequent and fast train service between there and here, so the problem of how letters could be posted in London disappears. But there are bigger reasons for George to be happy about Chinemouth.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.