Sauce For the Pigeon (Keith Calder Book 7) by Gerald Hammond

Author:Gerald Hammond [Hammond, Gerald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2018-07-04T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

For the next few days Keith avoided Mr Enterkin. He would have liked to discuss his fresh information with the solicitor but he was reluctant to admit how it had been obtained. He was unhappily aware that, if the police should learn from Mrs Muir that her house had been entered, he would be unable to stand up to cross-examination. Worse, he might find himself in deep trouble. Mr Enterkin was unlikely to admit that he had hinted at such a course; indeed, in retrospect Keith was not sure that he had read Mr Enterkin’s words aright.

Their only contact was one telephone call, which Keith took at Briesland House between raising the dents which a careless owner had put in the stock of a Dickson Round Action.

‘I’ve had another cable from your friend Dunbar,’ Mr Enterkin said. ‘Even after making reasonable assumptions in the hope of restoring the message to something resembling its original intent, it contributes little of use. This is understandable when you recall that he has no idea what you want to know; an ignorance, I may add, which he shares with myself. He suggests that direct discussion is the only suitable modus operandi, and mentions that he expects to finish his contract and to return home early in January. Can we leave him until then? It would give us a month in hand.’

‘That’s time enough,’ Keith said.

‘The only positive statement which I can extract from the literary garbage to which the original has been reduced is this. “Ask Calder how long he’d need between a brace of thrush.” Can you make head or tail of it, Keith?’

‘It’s only what I expected,’ Keith said. ‘Forget it.’

‘You can’t fob me off like that. Expound.’

‘Would it help if I explained that the farmer has a daughter by the name of Mavis?’

‘Oh,’ said Mr Enterkin. ‘Tell me, was everybody in Newton Lauder, with the exception of myself, dividing his time between the pursuit of Columbapalumbus and the human female?’

‘It was a special day for pigeon,’ Keith said.

‘And, it would appear, for nooky. Was the weather especially appropriate for that also? Singularly unpropitious for outdoor fornication, I would have supposed.’

‘How many sex acts would you think were going on in the world at this very moment?’ Keith asked.

‘I take your point. If it were not a frequent event the human race would die out. So much for that, then.’

‘Irrelevant,’ Keith agreed. ‘How would you like to ask Mavis whether, between transports, she happened to notice anything which might interest us?’

‘Under no circumstances,’ Mr Enterkin said firmly.

‘Me neither,’ Keith said. ‘Watty can find out for us when he gets back.’

*

Mr Enterkin, who had conducted that particular interview, had reported that neither the farmer, Andrew Dumphy, nor his wife or family had heard shots on the morning of Neill Muir’s death. But Keith now had some questions of his own. He put in a concentrated burst of work to clear his workbench and drove out to the farm.

It was some years since Keith had been to the farmhouse, and at that time it had been in other occupancy.

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.