Wild Justice by Wilbur A. Smith

Author:Wilbur A. Smith [Smith, Wilbur A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780330537247
Amazon: 0330537245
Publisher: Pan Publishing
Published: 2011-10-02T07:00:00+00:00

Sir Steven Stride offered a reward of fifty thousand pounds to anyone giving information that led to the recovery of his niece, and the offer was widely reported on television and in the press with reprints of the identikit portrait. It led to a revival of the flagging public interest in the case.

Inspector Richards had been able to reduce his telephone answering staff to one the last few days, but with the renewed spate of informers and speculators, he had to ask for the other policewoman to return to the third floor, and he had two sergeants processing the material that flowed in.

‘I feel like Littlewoods,’ he growled to Peter. ‘Everybody taking a ticket on the pools, or getting his three-pence worth of advertising.’ He picked up another message slip. ‘Here is another claim for responsibility – the Democratic People’s Party for the Liberation of Hong Kong – Have we ever heard of them before?’

‘No, sir.’ The senior sergeant looked up from his lists. ‘But that makes one hundred and forty-eight confessions or claims for responsibility so far.’

‘And ’Enry the Eighth was on again half an hour ago.’ One of the girls at the switchboard turned and smiled around her mouthpiece. ‘Hasn’t missed a day.’

‘Enry the Eighth was a sixty-eight-year-old pensioner who lived in a council estate in South London. His hobby was confessing to the latest spectacular crime from rape to bank robbery, and he had called regularly every morning.

‘Come and get me,’ he challenged each time. ‘But I warn you I won’t come peaceful like—’ When the local constable had made a courtesy call, while on his regular beat, ‘Enry the Eighth had his suitcase packed and ready to go. His disappointment was heart-rending when the bobby tactfully explained that they weren’t going to arrest him, but when the bobby assured him that they would be keeping him under close surveillance as the Commissioner considered him a very dangerous man, he brightened up considerably and offered the constable a cup of tea.

‘The trouble is we dare not dismiss any of it, even the real loonies, it all has to be checked out,’ Richards sighed, and motioned Peter to go through to the inner office.

‘Still nothing?’ Richards asked. It was an unnecessary question. They had a tap on his telephone, at the hotel and at Thor Headquarters, to record any contact from the kidnappers.

‘No, nothing,’ Peter lied, but the lie had become easy now – just as he had learned to accept whatever else was necessary for Melissa-Jane’s release.

‘I don’t like it, General. I really don’t like the fact that there has been no attempt to contact you. I don’t want to be despondent, but every day of silence makes it look more like an act of vengeance—’ Richards broke off and covered his embarrassment by lighting a cigarette. ‘Yesterday the Deputy-Commissioner telephoned me. He wanted my opinion as to how much longer I thought it necessary to maintain this special unit.’

‘What did you tell him?’ Peter asked.

‘I told

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