Gently in the Past by Hunter Alan

Author:Hunter, Alan [Hunter, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781472117038
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2016-06-29T16:00:00+00:00

EIGHT

NEVERTHELESS IT WAS a long time before he got to sleep that night. His bed was too soft, and the moaning of the surf, though distant, kept him wakeful. At Lime Walk it had been the traffic, which at Finchley he’d long ceased to notice; not because the sound had been louder at Lime Walk, but simply because it was different. Here there were no sounds at all except that vigilant, monotonous scouring. And somehow it sounded threatening, as though it were merely biding its time.

He slept at last, to wake with a throbbing head and foul mouth. But now the sun was out of the sea and the latter scaled with flashing light. He peered at it heavy-eyed for a while before collecting his toilet bag and shuffling off to the bathroom. He’d only had a couple of pints ... had they come from the lees of the barrel?

Because he was about so early they weren’t ready for him down below, and it was half an hour before the solitary waitress began to furbish his table for breakfast. He was midway through the meal when he heard a car park: Eyke. The local Inspector came in briskly, a gleam in his usually cautious eye.

‘Sir, I think we’re on to something!’

‘Sit down, and pour yourself some coffee.’

‘Sir, this could be important ...’

Gently nodded to the waitress, who lounged at the hatch a short distance away.

‘Miss, another cup.’

Eyke sat down, but clearly he was holding himself in with difficulty. He gulped his coffee, and watched impatiently while Gently spread honey on a second piece of toast. But the waitress continued to hover, and Gently to avoid his eye. Finally, it was in the empty lounge that Gently stuck his pipe in his mouth and said:

‘Now!’

‘It’s the lab boys, sir. They were out early this morning at the scene.’

‘Looking for what?’

‘They’d got a theory, sir, which they wanted to check out. They were a bit narked because we were chasing them and they tried what you said with a lump of horse-meat. That gave them a bright idea, and they wanted to check if it was on.’

‘And what was the bright idea?’

‘That Quennell was shot with an arrow, sir, by a chummie concealed in that hollow bush.’

‘An arrow ...!’

‘Yes, sir, a sharpened arrow, probably one with a metal tip. I met them out there just now, and they’re pretty certain that’s what happened. As Quennell walked past the bush, chummie let fly into his back.’

Gently dragged hard on his pipe. An arrow ... was it credible? It would certainly answer all the queries, about both the weapon and the scene. The latter especially: it had gone on bothering him how chummie had successfully approached his victim, soundlessly emerging and stalking him until in a position to strike the blow. But waiting in the bush with a drawn bow ... that was an answer to every objection. And through the gap cut in the bush, hadn’t he seen Eyke’s back come into view

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