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“Good
Lord! Look at that fog. Hope it means another sunny day tomorrow. Now
off to bed and don’t forget to say ‘Rabbits.’ First of April in the
morning. In fact” - looking at the clock, “it’s almost that now.”
Richard disappeared upstairs to the bathroom, Ella to the kitchen.
While she was washing the crocks and tidying generally, a slight frown
marred her usually placid face. She was recollecting the recent
conversation, dismissed out of hand Richard’s gloomy forebodings. Of
course Kate would return sooner or later, but better sooner than later.
For a
moment she even considered writing to the girl herself; delicately hint
that Richard was missing her; but she shook her head reprovingly.
“Don’t be an interfering old bag,” she admonished herself. “They must
sort out their own problems.”
Pity
though that his first few weeks in Burshill should have begun under such
inauspicious conditions. She was tremendously proud of her son although
wild horses wouldn’t have dragged such an admission out of her.
Following his father’s footsteps in the Police Force, Richard’s
advancement had been nothing short of spectacular. It was generally
believed he was the youngest officer ever to have achieved his recent
promotion to the rank of Detective Chief Inspector, and with his
promotion had come Richard’s transfer to Burshill...
...So
he’d come to Burshill but of course his reputation had preceded him.
There was a certain amount of antagonism to overcome - human nature
being what it is - but Ella had no doubt he’d cope. In a way, he became
a bit more human to his fellows when he broke the bone in his leg, not
from some heroic deed but slipping on a patch of hidden ice! She smiled
at the thought of his discomfiture over that episode, hung the tea towel
up to dry, switched off the kitchen light and prepared for her own exit
bed wards.
At
that moment the telephone bell rang. Ella nearly jumped out of her
skin. By official request the phone had been left from the previous
owners, so probably this late call was from some friend who didn’t know
of the change of an occupier. Curiously she picked it up.
“Hullo?”
A
man’s voice asked if she was Mrs. Hayward.
“Mrs.
Hayward, senior,” she corrected him.
“Good
evening, madam. May I speak to the Chief Inspector, please?”
Ella
was a copper’s widow and a copper’s mother but at this moment the mother
came uppermost.
“He’s
in bed asleep,” she lied. The voice at the other end was polite but
firm.
“I’m
very sorry, Mrs. Hayward, but I’m afraid I must insist. This is
urgent.”
Ella
felt like telling him to go to hell. She knew she was fighting a losing
battle. “Who are you?” she asked crossly.
“Detective Sergeant Findon from Burshill Police. Your son will know
me.”
By
this time Richard was at the top of the stairs in his pyjamas. “What’s
going on?”
“A
Detective, Findon or somebody, insisting on a word with you. I told him
you were asleep.”
Richard frowned but came down to the phone.
“Hayward here. What’s the trouble?”
“I’m
really very sorry to drag you out of bed, sir, but the Chief Constable
wants to see you.”
Richard was incredulous. “What, now?” He glanced at his watch. “It’s
past midnight. Look here, is this some kind of April Fool’s Day joke?”
Findon was shocked. “It most certainly is not, sir!”
A
more human note crept into his voice. “I almost wish it was! Anyway,
sir, my orders are to send a car for you right away. Sir John is at
home and would like you to meet him there. Allowing for this perishing
fog, the driver should be with you in about ten minutes.”
Ella
was fidgeting about beside him. “Surely you’re not going out now!” she
remonstrated.
“Afraid I’ve got no option, luv. The Chief Constable himself wants me
right away so it must be something important. While I throw a few
clothes on, will you be a dear and make me a strong black coffee? That
blasted sleeping pill of yours is starting to work and I need my wits
about me.”
... But
before he’d had time to take more than a few sips of the scalding
coffee, the police car was at the door. The fog, he noticed with
relief, was much less dense. The driver introduced himself and they
were off. Sir John Bury lived about ten miles outside the town. |
