Guy N. Smith by Blood Circuit

Author:Blood Circuit [Circuit, Blood]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Published: 2012-01-07T14:16:53+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

MARK SLADE was awakened from a heavy slumber by Lee Hammerton in the late afternoon.

The police are here.’ She leaned over him, their lips touching. They’ve interviewed me, and everybody else as well. They’ve been pretty helpful really, and they also seem to think that somebody is out to stop us getting to the States. I’ve dropped the name Seamark Cruises to them with a loud clang, and they’re going to make a few enquiries.’

‘And good luck to ‘em if they can find anything out,’ Slade grinned wryly. ‘Seamark is a past-master at covering up.’

They want to see you again.’ ‘I’ll be right down.’ She waited whilst he dressed, and then accompanied him downstairs.

Detective-Inspector King and his assistant, the CID constable who had taken Slade’s statement earlier that day, were in the study. They nodded, but neither smiled.

‘You didn’t tell me you’d had a brush with a couple of thugs recently.’ King’s tone was reproaching. ‘Neither did you mention that you had crashed on a test-drive…

‘It wasn’t a test-drive,’ Slade snapped. ‘I was merely getting the feel of the car over a couple of laps… ‘

‘Which you didn’t finish. A fault with the tracking, and very conveniently for somebody that tracking has disappeared.’

There may be no connection.’

‘We think there is. Also, we’ve identified the dead man.’

That’s interesting. Anybody we know?’

‘It depends in which social circles you mix. His real name is Fred Hine. In London’s East End he’s known as “The Snipe”. Served a five-year stretch for manslaughter. The line between murder and manslaughter is so fine these days that it’s an even bet which side one lands on. A “hired gun”, in melodramatic terms. Not very clever, and not a particularly good marksman, either. We wanted to question him about another shooting, but I guess it’s too late for that now. He had a partner, a tall thin guy known as “Benny the Leg”. According to Walter Jackson’s description of the second man in Coldharbour Wood it was Benny, all right. I’d give anything to know just where he’s gone to ground. We picked up the Hillman Avenger in Colney Heath. It was reported stolen in Hertford yesterday. The driver’s seat was saturated with blood, so Benny has the choice of either dying in hiding, or else seeking medical attention and being picked up. We’ll just have to wait and see. By the way, Mr Slade, you were, until recently, Seamark Cruises’ number one driver.’

That’s right.’

Tell me - ‘ the inspector paused to light his pipe yet again, - ‘why did you leave a successful team, and, if you’ll forgive me for saying so, join an almost unknown one?’

The implication, the suspicion, was not lost on Slade.

‘I’d finished with Seamark before I came here. I quit driving.’

‘Yet you’re still driving.’

‘I’m not here as a driver.’

“You were at the wheel of Miss Hammerton’s car when it crashed.’

‘You’ve got it all wrong, Inspector.’ Irritation was creeping into Mark Slade’s voice. ‘I was merely doing a very casual couple of laps, or almost, because she asked me to.

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