Injury Time (20 page)

Authors: Catherine Aird

BOOK: Injury Time

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âI think, sir,' he reasoned carefully, âthat Mrs P was probably outwardly compliant but inwardly seething when her husband pontificated on family matters. Otherwise she'd have left him long ago.'

âSanctimonious wasn't in it,' agreed Leeyes, âwhen Mr P got going. I can tell you that. You name it and he'd give you advice on it.'

âTrying,' agreed Sloan, who knew from hard experience how irksome a ready word in a difficult police investigation could be. âVery trying. So,' he added briskly, âI suggest we can assume she developed coping techniques in that direction. Switched off mentally whenever he opened his mouth, I expect, or she'd have gone under.'

âThere's another thing,' said Leeyes, who didn't seem to have been listening, âas you'll see when you read what he said.' Superintendent Leeyes pointed to the book in Sloan's hand. âMr P wasn't the sort of man to let Mrs P pop out and borrow a cup of sugar from the people next door or ask for the loan of a screw of tea, come to that. According to him they had to be self-sufficient no matter what.'

âSo,' concluded Sloan ineluctably, âshe was a good manager then, too.'

âMust have been. Her husband was very hot on good husbandry.'

âHard done by with the housekeeping, was she, then, too, sir?'

âShouldn't be surprised,' Leeyes said. âBut not in every way.'

âOh?'

âMr P was the living proof of that bit of Shakespeare's about wearing what you could afford.'

A good dress allowance, thought Sloan to himself, could have been little comfort in Mrs P's exiguous circumstances. If it was a good allowance, that is. He indicated the book. âDo any of the family ever quote her?'

Leeyes shook his head. âNot once that I heard about.'

That, thought the Detective Inspector to himself, could be good or bad. Mrs P might have been one of those strong silent women who said nothing memorable from choice: or, equally, was too tentative to commit herself.

âHer son did once describe her brows as chaste and unsmirched,' volunteered Leeyes unexpectedly, âbut the Assistant Chief Constable wouldn't accept that as real evidence â¦'

âComing from the son?'

âDidn't think it was reliable enough for his son to use.'

âHearsay from an interested party?' suggested Sloan, by now more than a trifle confused himself in the matter of sons. âYou'd have thought, sir, wouldn't you,' he added, âthat Mr P would have said something to his son like “Your mother says to wear your thick coat when it's cold”.'

It was the sort of embarrassing remark that his own father had made to him when he was no longer a boy. âMore likely to have been a warning about the French,' muttered Leeyes, âsince he was so busy arranging for a friend to spy on the lad when he was in Paris.' He grimaced. âAnd much good that did him.'

Sloan made one last bid for Mr P as common-or-garden
pater familias
by appealing to the Superintendent's legendary xenophobia. âYou know what Frenchmen are â¦'

âThese weren't,' said Leeyes briefly.

Sloan shook his head. âI'm afraid that sheâMrs P, that isâis proving a bitâwell, difficult to catch hold of, sir, isn't she?'

âJust what the Assistant Chief Constable said himself,' said Leeyes triumphantly. âQuite put out about it, he was when he went into it. Nebulous was the word he used.'

It wasn't the one Sloan was looking for. He thought that Mrs P must have been definite enough.

Cowed? He wasn't sure.

Talked to death by her husband and son?

Very probably.

âI reckon she was better off as widow than as wife, anyway, sir, no matter what,' he said aloud.

âThat's a good point,' said Leeyes grandly.

âA bit of peace and quiet can't have come amiss, sir.' Sloan thought that Mrs P had probably dealt very early on in her marriage with what the hymn-writer had called âthe murmurings of self-will'.

âI'll tell the Assistant Chief Constable you said so,' promised Leeyes.

âI think,' said Sloan even more categorically, âshe would really have had to have been a woman who bit down hard before speaking â¦'

âThat figures,' said Leeyes.

ââ¦ who obeyed her husband without challenging him. At least, from what you've said, sir, Mr P doesn't seem to have behaved like a man challenged on the domestic front.'

âTrue,' said Leeyes.

Sloan waxed a little more expansive still. âOf course, sir, Mr P just might have been the reverse of the usual manâa saint at home and a devil abroad â¦'

âHrrmmmph,' said Leeyes, who was inclined to take everything personally.

âBut,' hurried on Sloan, âsomehow I don't think so. He sounded to have been an interfering old buzzard to me.'

The Superintendent nodded sagely. âAs character assassinations go, Sloan, that's not too bad.'

âMrs P must have had a hard time,' said Sloan, âall the same.'

Hard times bred a certain cast of mind in a woman; he knew that. That was more grist to the Assistant Chief Constable's mill and he said so to the Superintendent.

âHe said the boy would be grateful for anything, Sloan.'

âWhat boy?'

âHis son,' Leeyes said, adding sedulously, âDidn't I say?'

âNo, sir. You didn't.'

âIt's his son who's been landed with the job, you seeâhis father just wanted to know if we could help and seeing as his father is the Assistant Chief Constable â¦'

âI see all right, sir, thank you,' responded Sloan stiffly. âIt's quite clear to me now.'

âYou must know what it's like, Sloan,' said the Superintendent, âwhen a kid can't do his homework and asks his father for help â¦'

âAnd his father can't do it either â¦'

âBut I thought we could,' said Leeyes, who was inclined to use the Royal âwe' when it suited him.

âThis Mrs P, sir,' said Sloan, weighing the heavy book in his hand consideringly. âDo we happen to knowâI mean, is it knownâwhere she lived?'

âOh, didn't I say that either?' murmured the Superintendent shamelessly.

âNo.'

âShe lived in Denmark.'

âElsinore?' said Sloan.

âThat's right. You see, it was his English homework that the ACC's son couldn't get anywhere with this week.'

âI see, sir,' said Sloan tonelessly.

ââ¦ and the homework was an essay on Shakespeare's
Hamlet:
“Describe Mrs Polonius given Polonius and Laertes”. Quite amazing what these schoolmasters dream up, isn't it?'

About the Author

Catherine Aird is the author of more than twenty volumes of detective mysteries and three collections of short stories. Most of her fiction features Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan and Detective Constable W. E. Crosby. Aird holds an honorary master's degree from the University of Kent and was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her services to the Girl Guide Association. She lives in a village in East Kent, England.

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These are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.