The Saint Valentine's Day Murders by Ruth Dudley Edwards

Author:Ruth Dudley Edwards [Edwards, Ruth Dudley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective, Great Britain, Mystery, Detective and Mystery Stories, Humorous, Amiss; Robert (Fictitious Character), Civil Service - Great Britain - Fiction, Amiss; Robert (Fictitious Character) - Fiction, Civil Service, Humorous Stories
ISBN: 9781590584354
Google: BP88AAAAIAAJ
Amazon: 159058435X
Goodreads: 511468
Publisher: St Martins Pr
Published: 1984-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

20

« ^ »

Amiss gripped the receiver tighter. ‘Come on. Say something. Don’t you think this rules Tiny out?’

‘I have to agree that it very much weakens any case against him.’

‘Surely, Jim, it demolishes it completely. If they had gone on with the divorce he’d have buggered off to Kenya, so what price the issue of his reputation in the rugby club? Anyway, she wouldn’t have been divorcing him for impotence. The old rat-bag next door must have got the story muddled. Doesn’t my account of last night prove she’s not a reliable witness?’

‘Well, it does sound as if the alleged violent orgies of destruction were probably Tiny repeatedly falling over his feet.’

‘Can you take him off the list of suspects?’

‘I’ll have to check out his story with doctors, friends and relations, but I’m inclined to believe it.’

‘You won’t quote me, for God’s sake, will you?’

‘No, no. We’re a bit more discreet than that. I’ll get Sammy to have a chat with Miss Nash first off. If she’s a very impressive witness, we’ll have to consider the possibility that Tiny was cunningly pulling the wool over your eyes. But, as I say, that seems unlikely to me. How was he this morning?’

‘Distinctly under the weather. I don’t think he’s used to drinking spirits. He didn’t seem to regret having talked to me – though I doubt if he remembers quite what he said. He went so far as to repeat his protestations of undying friendship on the doorstep this morning. We even managed an awkward manly embrace.’

‘I’d like to have seen that. Right. Many thanks. You did your job nobly. Ann was touched by the message you passed on via Sammy. She sent her love to you both and departed this morning telling me to look more closely at Bill.’

‘Why Bill?’

‘The Melissa theory seems to fit him better than anyone else.’

‘Poor old sod. You can’t be a bit of loner nowadays without everyone deciding you’re a nutcase. Anyway, aren’t there a couple of equally peculiar blokes in PD1?’

‘Didn’t I tell you? They’re all ruled out. Absolutely rock-solid alibis. I won’t give you the boring details, but there’s no doubt about it. The credit mainly goes to Horace Underhill, who had called an ideas meeting with them for 8:30 on the Friday morning. Your lot straggled in at various times and could all theoretically have made it to the post office before work.’

‘Hell,’ said Amiss, stubbing out his cigarette furiously. ‘What about any of PD1 sneaking up from home to push their parcels into the box after the last collection on Thursday?’

‘Believe me. Between witnesses, railway time-tables and information from British Rail, we are absolutely certain that only your people are in the running. There is no doubt about it. Chief Inspector Trueman is thorough to a fault. Pooley remarked that the exercise was conducted in a manner worthy of Inspector French.’

‘Who is this Pooley?’

‘A rather engaging, desperately keen, detective constable. He’s becoming rather a pet of mine. Makes an interesting contrast to some of our stolid cynics.

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.