'Sit down,' Athelstan invited comfortably. 'Glad we're getting this thing tidied up. Very nasty, very painful. Well, what did Sir Anstey have to tell you? Deciding factor, he said. What was it, man?'
Pitt was surprised. He had not known that Athelstan was even aware of the call from Waybourne.
'No,' he said quickly. 'Not that. Indicative, certainly, but not enough for an arrest.'
'Well, what was it?' Athelstan said impatiently, leaning forward over the desk. 'Don't just sit there, Pitt!'
59
Pitt found himself inexplicably reluctant to tell him, to repeat the sad, frail story. It was nothing, and everything-indefinite and at the same time undeniable.
Athelstan's fingers drummed with irritation on the burgundy leather surface.
'The younger brother, Godfrey,' Pitt replied wearily. 'He says that the tutor Jerome was overfamiliar with him, that he touched him in a homosexual manner.' He took a breath and let it out slowly. 'More than once. Of course he did not mention it at the time because-'
'Of course, of course.' Athelstan dismissed it with a wave of his thick hand. 'Probably didn't realize at the time what it meant-only makes sense in the light of his brother's death. Dreadful-poor boy. Take a while to get over it. Well!' He spread his hand flat on the desk, as if closing something, the other hand still held the cigar. 'At least we'll be able to tidy it all up now. Go and arrest the fellow. Wretched!' His face curled in distaste and he let out his breath in a little snort through his nose.
'We haven't enough for an arrest,' Pitt argued. 'He may be able to account for his time the whole night.'
'Nonsense,' Athelstan said briskly. 'Says he was out at a musical event of some sort. Went alone, saw no one, and came back alone after his wife had gone to bed. And he didn't wake her. No account at all! Could have been anywhere.'
Pitt stiffened.
'How do you know?' He had not known that much himself, and he had told Athelstan nothing at all.
A slow smile touched the corners of Athelstan's mouth.
'Gillivray,' he answered. 'Good man, that. He'll go a long way. Has a good manner about him. He makes the whole investigation as civilized as possible and gets on with what really matters-gets to the core of a case.'
'Gillivray,' Pitt repeated with a tightening at the back of his neck. 'You mean Gillivray checked up on where Jerome said he was that night?'
'Didn't tell you?' Athelstan said casually. 'Should have done. Bit keen-can't blame him. Felt for the father-very nasty case this.' He frowned to show his own sympathy.
60
'Still, glad it's over now. You can go and make the arrest. Take Gillivray with you. He deserves to be in at the kill!'
Pitt felt hopelessness and anger boil up inside him. Jerome was probably guilty, but this was not sufficient. There were still too many other possibilities unexplored.
'We haven't got a good enough case,' he said sharply. 'We don't know where the crime took place! There's no circumstantial evidence, nothing to put Jerome anywhere but where he says he was. Where did this relationship take place-in Jerome's house? Where was his wife? And why, of all things, should Arthur Wayboume be taking a bath in Jerome's house?'
'For heaven's sake, Pitt!' Athelstan interrupted angrily, clenching his hand on the cigar till it bent. 'These are details! They can be found out. Perhaps he hired a room somewhere-' „ 'With a bath in it?' Pitt said with scorn. 'Not many bawdy houses or cheap rooms have a private bath where you can comfortably murder someone!'
'Then it won't be hard to find, will it?' Athelstan snapped. 'It's your job to unearth these things. But first you'll arrest Jerome and put him where he can't escape and do any more harm! Or next thing we know he'll be on the Channel steamer and we'll never see him again! Now do your duty, man. Or must I send Gillivray to do it for you?'
