“Sorry about the mess,” Lee said in a high-pitched, 211
whining voice. “Wife died two years back and I just can’t seem to get the hang of housework.”
“I know what you mean.” Banks moved some newspapers from a hard-backed chair.
“My wife’s been away at her mother’s for two weeks now and the house feels like it’s falling apart. Mind if I smoke?”
“Not at all.” Lee shuffled to the sideboard and brought an ashtray. “What can I help you with?”
“I’m sorry to bring all this up again,” Banks said. “I know it must be painful for you, but it’s about that accident you were involved in about three years ago.”
Lee’s eyes seemed to glaze over at the mention. “Ah, yes,” he said. “I blame that for Elsie’s death, too, you know. She was with me at the time, and she never got over it. I retired early myself. Couldn’t seem to…” He lost his train of thought and stared at the empty fireplace.
“Mr Lee?”
“What? Oh, sorry, Inspector. It is Inspector, isn’t it?”
“It’ll do,” Banks said. “The accident.”
“Ah, yes. What is it you want to know?”
“Just what happened, in as much detail as you can remember.”
“Oh, I can remember it all.” He tapped his forehead. “It’s all engraved there in slow motion. Just let me get my pipe. It seems to help me concentrate. I have a bit of trouble keeping my mind on track these days.” He fetched a briar from a rack by the fireplace, filled it with rubbed twist and put a match to it. The tobacco flamed up and blue smoke curled from the bowl. A child’s skipping rhyme drifted in from the street:
Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie, Kiss the girls and make them cry.
“Where was I?”
“The accident.”
“Ah, yes. Well, it happened on a lovely summer’s day. The sixteenth of July. One of those days when you can smell the moorland heather and the wild flowers even here in town.
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Not a cloud in the sky and everyone in that relaxed, dozy mood you get in summer. Elsie and I were going for a ride to Hardcastle Crags. We used to do a lot of our courting up there when we were youngsters, like. So whenever the weather was good, off we went. I wasn’t doing more than thirty-and I hadn’t a drop of drink in me, never touch the stuff-when I came upon this lass riding along on her bicycle on my inside.” He faltered, sucked at his pipe as if it were an oxygen mask, and carried on. “She was a bit wobbly, but then a lot of cyclists are. I always took special care when there were cyclists around. Then it happened. My front wheels were a foot or two away from her back. She was over by the kerb, like, not directly in front of me, and she just keeled over.”
“Just like that?”
“Aye.” He seemed amazed, even though he must have told the story dozens of times to the police. “As if she’d hit a jutting stone. But there wasn’t one. She might have bounced off the kerb or something. And she fell right in front of the car.
I’d no time to stop. Even if I’d only been going five miles an hour I wouldn’t have had time. She went right under the wheels. Keeled over, just like that.”
Banks let the silence stretch. Tobacco crackled in the pipe bowl and the repetitive chant continued outside. “You said she was wobbling a bit,” he asked finally. “Did she seem drunk or anything?”
“Not especially. Just like she was a learner, maybe.”
“Have you ever come across a policeman by the name of Edwin Gill. PC 1139?”
“Eh? Pardon me. No, the name and number aren’t familiar. It was PC Brooks I dealt with at first. Then Inspector Cummings. I don’t remember any Gill. Is he from around here?”
“Did you ever meet Seth Cotton?”
“Yes,” Lee said, relighting his pipe. “I plucked up the courage to go and see him in the hospital. He knew all the details and said he didn’t blame me. He was very forgiving. Of course, he was in a shocking state, still beside himself with grief and anger. But not at me. I only went the once.”
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“In hospital? What was he doing there?”
Lee looked surprised. “I thought you’d have known. He tried to kill himself a couple of days after the hospital phoned him about the accident. Slit his ankles. And they say he smashed the phone to bits. But someone found him before it was too late. Have you seen the lad lately?”
“Yes.”
“And how is he?”
“He seems to be doing all right.” Banks told him about the farm and the carpentry.
“Aye,” Lee said. “He mentioned he were a carpenter.” He shook his head slowly.
“Terrible state he were in. Bad enough losing the lass, but the baby as well….”
“Baby?”
“Aye. Didn’t you know? She were pregnant. Five months. The police said she might have fainted, like, had a turn, because of her condition….”
