Ransom Town by Roderic Jeffries

Author:Roderic Jeffries [Jeffries, Roderic]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2018-06-14T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

It was trite to say that large events hinged on small happenings, but it was true. If on Friday Helen had not gone to spend the evening with her parents at Farnleigh, if Kerr had not been so late in leaving the station it had not been worth bussing to Farnleigh, if Hanna had not lived close to the bus route from the station to Kerr’s house . . . But Helen had gone to Farnleigh, Kerr didn’t leave the station until eight-forty, and Hanna’s house was only five minutes’ walk from the bus stop outside the Chinese take-away food shop.

The woman who opened the door of Hanna’s house to the extent of a chain had a high, sharp voice. ‘Who are you and what do you want?’

A bit of a welcome for a start, thought Kerr. He identified himself.

‘Let me see your warrant card.’

He handed this in. After a short while, the door was shut and he heard the chain being released. The door was then opened fully. The photograph on Hanna’s desk had not done his wife real justice: she was twice as sternly angular in real life. Oliver Twist would never have dared ask her for more.

‘It is inconsiderate of you to call at this time,’ she informed him. ‘My husband likes to spend his evenings in peace.’

And obviously the only way he’d be able to do that would be to keep his mouth tight shut. ‘May I have a word with him?’

‘What is it about?’

‘I have some questions I want to ask him.’

‘Questions about what?’

‘I think it’s best to leave that until I speak to him.’

She looked at him with cold dislike, then reluctantly showed him into the sitting-room. There was a large fire of smokeless fuel and the room was warm. The television was on. The furniture was not luxurious, but it was attractive and every piece had the look of being exactly in its right and proper place.

Hanna stood up and his expression was first one of astonishment, then one of uneasiness.

‘Sorry to bust in on you at this time of night,’ said Kerr, with a breeziness undiminished by his reception, ‘but there just hasn’t been time before now to get to have a word with you. We’re over the tops of our eyebrows in work.’

‘I told Mr Kerr that it was most inconvenient, but he insisted on speaking to you,’ said Mrs Hanna.

Hanna looked from Kerr to his wife, then back again at Kerr and belatedly he realized Kerr was still standing. ‘Do sit down. Come over here where it’s warm.’ He stood up in a flurry and as a result half knocked over an occasional table, only just catching it in time. He cleared his throat, then said: ‘There’s nothing more I can tell you, you know.’

‘Nothing more about what?’ demanded his wife.

‘About the bank robbery, dear.’ He turned to face Kerr. ‘That’s what you’ve come about, isn’t it?’

Kerr settled back in the chair. ‘That, among other things.’

‘Other things? But what else .

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