Rough Cider by Peter Lovesey

Author:Peter Lovesey [Lovesey, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Historical, Mystery
ISBN: 9781569472286
Google: _tuiPwAACAAJ
Amazon: 1569472289
Barnesnoble: 1569472289
Goodreads: 364834
Publisher: Soho Crime
Published: 1985-12-31T18:30:00+00:00

* FOURTEEN *

“Why don’t you sit down?” When her suggestion had been acted on, Alice gave Harry a cool, unfilial look. “You said you could have put the court right on a few things. This is your chance. Γm going to take you through the crucial days of 1943.”

With an air of authority that wouldn’t have disgraced a learned counsel examining a witness, she drew Harry’s story from him: how he and Duke had met me in Mrs. Mumford’s and driven out to Gifford Farm; how they’d met Barbara and offered to help gather the apples.

“Why?” asked Alice.

Harry’s eyebrows lifted, but he gave no answer. All the bounce had gone out of him.

“Why did you offer to help?”

‘Two bored GIs looking for free drinks and friendship, I guess.”

“So, was Barbara the attraction?”

“Sure, she was pretty. She had the whitest skin you ever saw. Rosy cheeks. Fine black hair. She was a sweet kid but kind of remote.” To this touching eulogy he added the footnote, “Ì didn’t expect to score with her.”

“Did Duke?” asked Alice. If proof were wanted of her self-control, it was here in the way she put the question, as if the daddy she’d never mentioned before without a tremor in her voice was suddenly a cipher.

Harry shook his head. “He was a married man.”

“So were hundreds of other GIs who went with English girls,” said Alice. “You can be frank with me.”

“All the time he was over here, Duke never looked at a woman.”

She said in the same reasonable tone, “That’s not true, is it? He escorted Barbara to the Columbus Day concert.”

None of Alice’s composure rubbed off on Harry. His voice rose to a protesting squeak. “He did it to help me out.” Then his words came in a rush. “This was twenty years ago. Nice girls moved in pairs, safety in numbers from studs like me, understand? I couldn’t date Sally without finding someone for her friend. So Duke came along. He drove the jeep, hands on the wheel, Barbara beside him clutching her handbag. They didn’t even talk much. All the action happened in the rear seat.”

“And after that evening?”

Harry looked vacant.

“Didn’t they meet secretly?” Alice asked.

“Where was this, for God’s sake?”

“In the lanes around the farm. Barbara would go for evening walks. Duke would be waiting with the jeep.”

“Sweetheart, who gave you this crap?”

Alice didn’t answer. She didn’t even look in my direction.

Harry said, “Listen, Duke spent most evenings writing to Elly. Take it from me, if he’d been going out nights in the jeep, I’d have known. Jesus, I’d have been with him.”

“Maybe he didn’t tell you.”

“Nuts.”

Still unruffled, Alice said, “Let’s backtrack, shall we? You did some shooting on the farm with Mr. Lockwood and his son?”

Harry nodded. “Joke. The only gun we could lay our hands on was a .45. That’s a pistol, an automatic. We shot nothing. And before you ask, Barbara wasn’t in the party.”

“But on another occasion you took her with you.”

“That was different. Duke had promised to give the boy a turn with the .

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