A Genuine Mistake by Ted Tayler

Author:Ted Tayler [Tayler, Ted]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-03-26T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

Neil Davis had left the Old Police Station office at five to eleven. He hoped there would be a handful of vacant parking spaces in the station car park when he reached Bradford-on-Avon. He could still make Nick Barrett’s office by half-past the hour.

Neil didn’t expect a warm reception from the resident pit-bulls, Daphne and Suzanne, but at least they recognised him when he stepped inside the hallway and didn’t keep him hanging around. They buzzed him straight through.

“Good morning, DS Davis,” said Nick Barrett. “I’ve been considering what you asked for on the phone. I need to put on my thinking cap, don’t I? You realise that asking a chap to cast his mind back thirty years to one particular night is a chore?”

“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth, sir,” said Neil. “We need to check that none of the nights Gerry Hogan spent in someone else’s bed didn’t lead to his murder. After we’ve done that, we can move on to another period in his life to search for what provoked the actions of the man on the doorstep.”

“I can see the logic behind that, DS Davis,” said Nick Barrett. “If only it were elementary.”

“Why not start from when you landed in Australia, sir,” said Neil. “Or did Gerry Hogan join the Mile High Club on the flight from Singapore?”

“Gerry and I both spent most of that journey sleeping,” said Nick. “After we landed in Darwin, we stayed up as late as we could before crashing at our digs and didn’t venture far until we got acclimatised.”

“Jet lag?” asked Neil.

“Everybody reacts differently,” said Nick. “We started setting our body clock to our destination time a day or two before we drove to Heathrow. We cut out the alcohol, drank plenty of water, ate in moderation, and slept between London and Singapore when we could. After the flight delay that I mentioned, we were too tired to stick to the system. I was asleep before the safety checks.”

“So, you spent the first few days in the city?”

“You won’t remember Cyclone Tracy. It was before you were born,” said Nick. “That cyclone flattened Darwin back in 1974. So, when we got there in 1981, they hadn’t long finished rebuilding it. The city itself isn’t much to write home about, but the nearby attractions more than compensate. One of the early trips we made was to a local cove where we saw our first saltwater crocodiles. That was an experience for two lads from Bradford-on-Avon, I can tell you. We travelled to and from the cove in a combi-van. I soon lost count of the number of trips we made in one of those. There were six of us altogether, plus our driver. Gerry and me, a guy from Cardiff and his girlfriend from our digs, plus two girls we collected from a hostel half a mile away.”

“It didn’t take long for Gerry to score after he recovered from jet lag, then?” said Neil.

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