Avenging the Dead by Guy Fraser

Author:Guy Fraser [Guy Fraser]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780709095170
Publisher: Robert Hale
Published: 2011-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Henry Jarrett had been permitted to do justice to the veal and ham pie before the telegram arrived, but missed out on the treacle pudding. The message, marked urgent, had been sent by Inspector Grant from the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway office at Lagganfield and was delivered to the house by an employee of the British and Irish Magnetic Company of Royal Exchange Square. Even before he opened the small envelope the superintendent knew there was something wrong. He gave the boy a shilling, sixpence of which was for himself and the other sixpence was to cover the cost of sending a wire to headquarters, ordering whoever was in charge of the telegraph room to notify Sergeant Quinn and Detective Constables Williamson and Russell to meet him at Queen Street station as soon as possible. The presence of four uniformed officers was also requested.

It was entirely fortuitous that a cabriolet happened to be depositing a gentleman at his home a few numbers along Delmont Avenue, otherwise Jarrett would have found it difficult to get to the railway station in the fairly short time he had before the arrival of the Edinburgh train. As it was, he got there considerably ahead of the other detectives and only marginally ahead of the ordinary police.

While Quinn, Williamson and Russell spoke briefly to each commuter who passed through the turnstile, the uniforms watched for anyone who might try to cross the tracks and avoid the waiting law. For his part, Charlie Grant stayed at the back of those who had just arrived on his train, in case the guilty party panicked at the sight of the detectives and did an about turn. Henry Jarrett, needless to say, supervised the entire operation.

It was a long shot and no one seriously expected to bring Finch’s killer to book in this manner. It was just one of those things that had to be done in order to be able to say that they had explored every possibility. The Scythe was plainly no fool and would have anticipated the reception committee and left the train at an earlier station.

Once it had been fully established that the operation was the complete waste of time they thought it would be, the detective constables were sent home and the uniforms returned to duty, Jarrett, Grant and Quinn retired to the main office to try to figure out exactly what had gone wrong. If nothing else, the delay had given Henry Jarrett some time to cool down and avoid an angry confrontation with Charlie Grant. The inspector was a good man and an excellent officer, so whatever had happened was out of his control. Shouting at each other wouldn’t do one blind bit of good.

It was impossible for Jarrett to say which annoyed Charlie Grant the most – the killing of Milburn Finch or the large grass stains on both knees of the light-grey checked trousers. Numerous methods of removing the blemishes had been suggested on the way back to headquarters, but the blunt truth was that the garments would probably never be the same again.

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