Swing, Swing Together

Fernandez where to meet his murderers.”

Cribb shook his head. “Not you, Mr. Bustard. The person who gave you your orders. Oh, I considered carefully whether you or Mr. Hackett had a motive for murdering Fernandez, and I couldn’t find one. But when I put together everything you had told us about yourselves, I understood your part in this conspiracy.”

“Everything we told you? What do you mean?” Bustard was speaking more guardedly now.

“Well, you told me yourself that you met Mr. Hackett when he was working for your father-in-law, but you didn’t tell me the nature of the business. As that policeman commented on Saturday, it looked more like labouring than business from the state of Jim’s hands.”

Jim Hackett turned his palms and studied them as if he had never noticed them before.

“The curious thing about Jim Hackett,” Cribb went on, “is his habit of quoting from the Bible. He’s plainly not the sort to have been a theologist, or a vicar. And the texts he quotes are all of a kind. Improving texts, I think they might be called. ‘Be sure your sin will find you out.’ ”

“Numbers, Chapter 32, Verse 23,” said Jim Hackett automatically.

“Stash it, you loony!” ordered Bustard.

“‘Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment,’” said Cribb. “‘Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.’ I’m sure you recognize them, Mr. Bustard. They are the texts your father-in-law, Matthew Fernandez, displays on the walls of Coldbath Fields House of Correction. Jim is a graduate of the Steel. He’s seen those texts so often that he quotes them all the time. The labouring Jim did was hard labour. Five years of it altogether. He’s a ticket-of-leave man. I’ve checked by telephone with Mr. Barry, the warder-in-chief. No wonder his hands are rough, after five years of turning the crank and picking oakum. Yet he’s a good man to have in an assassination party-strong, obedient and experienced in violence.”

Jim Hackett beamed at the compliment.

“Jim’s muscle and your head were a useful combination, as Fernandez Senior decided when his thoughts turned to murder.”

“Good Lord!” said Thackeray.

“It had shocked him to the marrow being visited by Abberline and questioned about the Whitechapel murders. He knew his nephew had a fast reputation, but it had never caused him serious embarrassment before. This was too appalling for words-the police, coming to the Steel to interrogate him about a false alibi. Unendurable. Whether his nephew was Jack the Ripper or not, it couldn’t go on, for the sake of the family-that family he parades so proudly in the prison chapel every Sunday. Now that his nephew was known to the police, they’d be back every time a woman cried rape within twenty miles of Oxford. It would be common knowledge in the Steel in no time at all. After that the Home Office. He’d be asked to resign. You can’t have a Deputy Governor related to a man who could be Jack the Ripper. For the sake of his reputation, his job, his family, he had to wipe John Fernandez off the face of the earth.”

“And you really think the Deputy Governor of the Steel arranged for his nephew to be murdered!” said Bustard. “That’s a little hard to credit, if you don’t mind me saying so, old boy.”

“Not at all,” said Cribb. “In my experience, a man like that is quite capable of murder. Prison is a world on its own, as Mr. Hackett will tell you.”

“For a prisoner, maybe,” said Jim Hackett, “but not for the Deputy bleeding Governor!”

“Don’t be so sure. Fernandez has his life centred on the Steel. He’s in his element with his systems and routines, doing everything by numbers. The beauty of it is that it’s so tidy. Nothing can go wrong for long, because he’s got it all under control. If a man holds up the system, he puts him on the crank. It soon brings him round. There’s a remedy for everything. For a man like Fernandez it’s a perfect way of life, until something threatens it from outside. What does he do then? He looks round for his remedy. The fact that it means murdering his nephew is of no account. That’s the solution to his problem, so he applies his mind to achieving it. Being the methodical man he is, he works out a way to do it that will seem like an accident, or suicide at worst. He knows his nephew’s custom of fishing, so he devises a plan to dispose of him by drowning. He writes a letter making sure that he will come to the appointed spot. Of course, he can’t risk going to Oxford himself, so he calls in his son-in-law and explains what needs to be done for the sake of the family. You are to travel up to Oxford by boat like all the others doing the thing in the book. You’re splendid for his purpose: one of the family, but without a jot of sentiment. You’ve never met John Fernandez, so he won’t recognize you when you come face to face. Unhappily for Bonner-Hill, it works in reverse-you don’t recognize him. Have I got it right this time, Mr. Bustard?”

Bustard gave a joyless smile. “I’m afraid you have, old sport.”

“Strewth!” said Jim Hackett. “We’re blown! ‘God be merciful to me, a sinner.’ St. Luke, Chapter 18, Verse 13. If you and I swing for this, somebody ought to go with us.”

“We’ll make damned sure he does, Jim, old boy,” said Bustard.

CHAPTER 40

A college reunion-Sugar from the Plum-Harriet’s arrangement

“Naked?” asked Jane and Molly together.

“Not completely,” Harriet conceded. “But my stays were gone and my blouse was unbuttoned to the waist. It was all on account of a catkin.”

“Harriet! Do you expect us to believe that?”

“I’m not sure. I really don’t mind what you believe. Roger-he’s my policeman-believed he was rescuing me from a fate worse than death. He was terribly sweet.”

“What happened to Mr. Fernandez?”

“He opened his eyes after Melanie had bathed his temples for a few minutes. She agreed to stay with him on the punt until he was well enough to take them back to Magdalen Bridge. Do you know, I think she rather likes him, in spite of everything? Isn’t that amazing?”

“But what happened to you?”

“Roger took me back in the other punt. My clothes were much more dry by the time we got there. He drove me to the hotel in a cab. This morning Sergeant Cribb called for me and brought me back by train. And here I am.”

“What did the Plum say? Is she going to rusticate you?” Harriet smiled. “Not this time. Sergeant Cribb told her I had been a credit to the college, and he gave her his copy of Three Men in a Boat as a present. She gave him the most sugary smile in return and suggested I went to my room and unpacked. She didn’t even warn me about breaking bounds again.”

“Would you do it again?”

“Break bounds?” said Harriet. “If the need arose.”

“You’ll never see your policeman again unless you do.”

“Not so, my dears. There’s going to be a trial, and I’m one of the witnesses. Roger is another, so we are sure to meet. Murder trials go on for days and days, he told me, especially as Matthew Fernandez is going on trial with the other two. Tomorrow afternoon I’m going to Medmenham Police Station to check the statement I first made. Roger will be there, because he has been copying it out.”

“So you’ll see him as soon as that,” said Molly wistfully.

“He’ll be on duty,” Jane pointed out. “It’s not the same as walking out with him.”

“You’re quite right, Jane,” Harriet admitted. “It’s not the same at all, in a stuffy old police station with the sergeant looking over his desk at you. That’s why I shall arrange that Roger walks back with me afterwards.”

“Harriet! How can you possibly arrange that?”

“I shall remind him that he left his bicycle here last week. It’s still propped against the gardener’s shed.”