Treasure By Degrees by David Williams

Author:David Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XI

TREASURE SPOKE into the telephone in the Dean’s study. ‘Colin, I’m most dreadfully sorry, but obviously I can’t leave. Apologize to Audrey for me, won’t you? . . . The Inspector? Yes, Detective-Inspector Treet, he’s with me now . . . Oh, ten minutes ago . . . Yes, extremely quick. Well, the Inspector had just arrived to tidy , up the remains of a bomb scare we had earlier . . .’ He took the phone from his ear and handed it to the heavily built, tousled-haired man in the crumpled check suit. ‘Colin . . . er, that is, the Superintendent would like a word with you.’

‘Treet here, sir.’ The youthful Inspector was predictably not on Christian name terms with more senior police officers – even recently promoted ones.

But for the startling and horrifying death of Amelia Hatch, Treasure would shortly have been on his way to the West Meon home of Detective-Superintendent Colin Bantree of the Hampshire CID. The two had struck up an enduring friendship since their first meeting in the spring of the previous year. Bantree’s transfer from the Thames Valley Force a few months earlier had been indirectly instigated by Treasure. The Superintendent’s doctor wife had been offered a place in a group medical practice in Winchester run by a college friend of Treasure’s. Bantree had applied for and obtained a Chief Inspectorship in Hampshire, and promotion had quickly followed. Treasure had welcomed the visit to Itchendever because it had given him a convenient opportunity to take up a long-standing invitation to spend a night with the Bantrees in their new home.

‘Got to assume murder, sir, but it could have been suicide. Knife’s on the right-hand side of the body . . . Half an hour at the most, I’d say, she’s pretty warm still . . . That was a hoax, sir, but it might have been a diversion; there was no bomb . . . Important Arab, a Crown Prince, I think . . . Mr Treasure, sir? I’ll ask him.’ The Inspector looked across at Treasure. ‘The Superintendent would like to know if you’ve been alone at all during the last hour, sir . . . I mean, have you been with other people the whole time?’

‘Tell the Superintendent I know exactly what he means,’ said Treasure wryly. ‘I’ve been with the Vicar of Itchendever since just before six, and we’ve neither of us murdered anyone since then.’

‘Thank you very much, sir.’ The embarrassed Treet again addressed himself to the telephone. He had some further short exchanges with Bantree before replacing the receiver. ‘The Superintendent’s arranging to be put in charge of the case, sir. He’ll be here shortly. Now if you’ll excuse me.’

The Inspector left the room – and Treasure to the thought that in police work as well as banking it was prudent to be sure one’s friends were above suspicion; simply, bankers were less overt in the way they handled such matters.

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