rolled his sleeves down over his arms and reached behind the door to put his jacket back on. Then he walked unhurriedly past them, without a word, into the dim front room of the cottage, where there was a glimpse of die road through a gap in white net curtains.
Hitchens and Tailbv followed him and found him sitting
J O
upright on a hard-backed chair. Ho was facing them like a
to
judge examining the suspects entering the dock. The detectives found two more chairs pushed close to a mahogany dining table and set them opposite the old man. Diane Fry slipped quietly into the room and leaned against die wall near die door with
o
her notebook, while Hitchens and Tailby introduced themselves,
showing dieir warrant cards.
&
‘Harry Dickinson?’ said Hitchens. The old man nodded. ‘This is Detective Chief Inspector Tailby, Harry. I’m Detective Inspector Hitchens. From Edendale.’
‘Where’s die lad?’ asked Harry.
‘Who?’
‘The one who was here before. Sergeant Cooper’s lad.’
Tailby looked at Hitchens, raising an eyebrow.
‘Ben Cooper is only a detective constable, Harry. This is a murder enquiry now. You understand that? Detective Chief Inspector Tailby here is die senior investigating officer who will be in charge of the enquiry.’
‘Oh aye,’ said Harry. ‘The man in charge.’
‘You are aware that we have found a body, Mr Dickinson?’ said Tailby. He spoke loudly and clearly, as if he had decided that they were dealing widi an idiot.
Harry’s eyes travelled slowly from Hitchens to Tailby. At first he had looked unimpressed, now he looked stubborn.
‘The Mount girl, is it?’
“The Vernon family live at die Mount,’ explained Hitchens for Tailby’s sake. ‘That’s the name of die house.’
“The remains haven’t yet been formally identified, Mr Dickinson,’ said Tailby. ‘Until diey have, we can’t commit ourselves to a positive statement in diat regard. However, it is generally known diat we have been conducting an extensive search for
54
a fifteen-year-old female by that name for some hours. In the circumstances there would seem to be a strong degree of possibility that the remains discovered in the vicinity may be those of Laura Vernon.’
An old carriage clock in an oak case ticked quietly to itself on the mantelpiece, providing the only sound in the room as it counted off the seconds. Fry thought that time seemed to be passing particularly slowly within the room, as if it was sealed off from the rest of the world in a time zone of its own, where normal rules didn’t apply.
‘You talk like a proper pillock, don’t you?’ said Harry.
Tailby’s jaw muscles tightened, but he restrained himself.
‘We’d like to hear from you how you came to find the trainer, Mr Dickinson.’
‘I’ve told it —’
‘Yes, I know you’ve told it before. Just tell us again, please.’
‘I’ve got other things to do, you know.’
‘Yes, I know,’ said Tailby coolly. ‘It’s dominoes night.’
Harry took his pipe from the pocket of his jacket and poked at the contents of the ceramic bowl. His movements were slow and relaxed, and his expression was studiously placid. Hitchens began to stir, but Tailby quelled him with a movement of his hand.
‘You’ll no doubt understand one day,’ said Harry. ‘That at my age you can’t go rushing up and down hill twice in one afternoon and be in any fit state to go out of the house later on, without
J o ‘
having a bit of a kip in between. I don’t have the energy for it any more. There’s no fighting it.’ He ran a hand across his neatly
J O O J
groomed hair, smoothing down the grey, Brylcreemed strands. ‘No matter how many dead bodies you’ve found.’
‘The sooner we get it over with, the sooner we’ll be able to leave you in peace.’
‘I can’t do anything more than that, not even for some top-brass copper and all his big words. All this coming and going and folk clattering about the house — it wears me out.’
Tailby sighed. ‘We’d really like to hear your story in your own words, Mr Dickinson. Just tell us the story, will you?’
Harry stared at him defiantly. ‘The story. Aye, well. Do you want it with hand gestures or without, this story?’
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