The Nine-Spoked Wheel by JRL Anderson

Author:JRL Anderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction

VII

In the Dark

REVERS COULDN’T DO much more with the Clayton case for the moment, because Jan Korsky’s murder meant an immense amount of work. The Press, particularly the local Press, were far more concerned with the Korsky case than they were about Clayton. There had been no public hint that Paul Clayton’s death was anything other than an accident, and it had been swallowed up in the vast publicity attracted by Dr Arbolent’s sensational discoveries. The Korsky case was different – it was obviously a brutal murder. The Press wanted to know what the police were doing, whether they had found a motive, whether there was anyone they particularly wanted to interview. Revers was realistic about the Press. It could be an unmitigated nuisance, but it could also give valuable help, and he was sufficiently sensitive to the climate of modern society to accept that the police were not a private army but a public authority. He had always got on well with reporters, combining a slightly official manner with a genuine readiness to help where he could. For their part, reporters generally respected him, and he seldom felt let down. But it all made for a great deal of work.

He compiled a careful statement about the Korsky case, which omitted mention of the box found under the floor-boards of the hut, but which suggested that robbery was probably the motive. The old man was known to sell an occasional painting, and he had apparently been in funds for the past few weeks: he had been drunk most nights, and although he was tolerated in the local pubs because he never became argumentative or quarrelsome, two publicans had recently refused to serve him. He would take such rebuffs philosophically and stagger off home, usually with a bottle of gin that he had bought earlier in the evening. Without actually saying so, Revers’s statement implied that he might have been helped home in such a state by a stranger who concluded that he must have money hidden in his hut, and proceeded to hit him on the head. The police were anxious to get in touch with anyone who might have helped to take the old man home. Revers also provided copy for some good headlines by saying that the police were looking for a blood-stained hammer. He invited the public to help by reporting at once any such heavy instrument they might come across in a hedge or by a roadside.

He himself remained very much puzzled. The old man’s box contained nearly £800 in £5 and £1 notes, all used notes, which made them next to impossible to trace. They could not have been a lifetime’s savings, because, although used notes, they were all of relatively recent issue. It was true that the old man occasionally sold a painting – Sergeant Grey had found three people who had bought paintings from him. One had paid £3, the others £1.50 apiece, which was nothing like enough to account for the considerable sum of money in his box.

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