Heberden's Seat by Douglas Clark

Author:Douglas Clark [Clark, Douglas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2019-02-06T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Masters filled his pipe slowly as the Brigadier brewed a pot of tea himself. He brought the pot and cups out of a cupboard and a saucer with half a lemon on it from inside an old box file that was lying flat on a shelf. “No milk, I’m afraid. I’ve taken to lemon because milk always goes sour and I was faced with getting rid of what remained and then washing the bottle because I don’t like disposing of useful items. Don’t like throwing tonic bottles away.” He cut off three thin slices of the lemon with a little saw-edged kitchen knife. “Can you take it with lemon, gentlemen?”

“Suits me,” said Green to Masters’ surprise. “Used to drink it iced in Cairo.”

“Ah,” said the Brigadier, pouring the tea. “I take it you became partial to it stewed over a petrol fire with a matchstick in it to draw the smoke?”

“That’s right? We used to tap the sides of the old brew can to make the tea leaves sink. There was an art in it. But then there always is in producing the earthly equivalent of nectar.”

“May I butt in?” asked Masters, accepting a cup. “We’ve got a bit of sergeant major’s brew to deal with in the case of Melada.”

“Sorry,” said Alton. “The old and bold tend to run on. Back to Melada. As I told you, we undertook to post the notices and we did so inside a couple of days. Melada had been back to the church and had seen them before he rang me at the end of the fortnight I had stipulated.”

“Were you able to tell him he had got the church?”

“No.”

“Why not? Some objection after the notice was displayed?”

The Brigadier squeezed his slice of lemon against the side of the cup with his teaspoon. “No. I told him that I thought his insistence on posting the notice before the sale was completed had turned out to be bad tactics. I hadn’t realised it would be, and so to some extent I was responsible for his disappointment.”

“What disappointment?” asked Green. “Don’t tell me somebody gazumped him?”

“Not quite, because his bid had not been accepted. But displaying the notice gave other people ideas. And, as I knew they would, the Commissioners jumped at a higher bid.”

“How much higher?”

“Five thousand. Two and a half times as much.”

“Who by?”

“I am not sure I need to tell you that, as the negotiations have so far been cloaked in some secrecy. What I mean is, that the purchaser has been working through a third party.”

“An agent, you mean?”

“Agent, yes. But if you mean house agent, no. I said third party. It was done to preserve anonymity and I can see no reason not to respect that.”

Green who had been sitting quiet, chipped in: “Some property tycoon getting his claws in, I suppose?”

“A man of property, certainly. But not a tycoon.”

Masters said slowly: “A man of property? Now, let me see. Who is the person of whom we’ve heard mention—in connection with this case—as a man of property?”

Green gulped.

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