‘You’d have to have a conscience to start with, of course,’ said Wilford.
‘There aren’t many that have one these days,’ agreed Sam.
J J ‘ o
They both looked at Harry, waiting for his response. But Harry didn’t seem to want to think about it. He got up stiffly, collected their glasses and walked across the room to the bar.
O
He looked to neither right nor left as he moved through the
o O
crowd of youngsters, his back upright, like a man entirely apart from those around him. Drinkers parted automatically to let him
68
through, and the landlord served him without having to be told the order.
Harry’s jacket and tie looked incongruously formal and sober among the T-shirts and shorts of the other customers. He could have been an elderlv undertaker who had wandered into a wedding reception. When he turned his head, the peak of his cap swung like a knife across a background of pink limbs and sunburnt faces.
‘So the bloke who killed this lass,’ said Harry when he returned to the corner table. ‘Do you reckon he’ll get away with it?’
‘Depends,’ said Wilford. ‘Depends whether the coppers have a bit of luck. Perhaps somebody saw something and decides to tell them about it. Or some bobby asks the right question by accident. That’s the only way it happens.’
‘They have their suspicions, no doubt.’
‘It doesn’t matter what they suspect. They can’t do anything without evidence,’ said Wilford confidently.
‘Evidence. Aye, that’s what they’ll want.’
‘They’ll be desperate for it. Desperate for a bit of evidence.’
‘They reckon that Sherratt lad has gone missing,’ said Sam.
J O o’
‘Daft bugger.’
OO
‘It’ll keep the coppers busy, I suppose, looking for him. He’ll be the number one suspect.’
‘Unless they fancy blaming it on one of the family,’ said Wilford. ‘That’s where they always look first.’
‘Aye,’ said Sam, brightening suddenly. ‘Or the boyfriend.’
‘Ah! Which boyfriend?’ asked Harry.
‘That’s the question. With that one, that’s the first question you’d have to ask.’
‘And only fifteen,’ said Sam.
They shook their heads in despair
‘Well, that’s the best bit, eh, Harry?’
‘Oh aye,’ said Harry. ‘That’s the best bit. When they do all their enquiring, they’ll turn up all sorts. They’re bound to find out about those buggers at the Mount. The Vernons.’
‘Maybe when they do …’
‘… they won’t be so bothered about finding out who put the cat among their pigeons.’
69
‘Maybe,’ said Harry, ‘they’d even jrive him a medal.’ The youths at the other end of the pub turned in astonishment to stare at the three old men in the corner. For once, the laughter of the old men was even louder and more unnatural than their own.
Helen stood with her grandmother on the doorstep of the cottage, watching the lights of the Renault disappear past the bend by the church. The night was clear and still quite warm, and the stars glowed in a dark-blue blanket of sky. Only the streetlamps here and there and the security lights outside the Coach House and the Old Vicarage created areas that seemed truly dark.
‘It was nice to see Sergeant Cooper’s son, wasn’t it? He’s made a nice-looking young man.’
‘Yes, Grandma.’
‘Ben, is it?’
‘That’s right.’
‘He’s the one you used to bring round to the house after school sometimes, isn’t he, Helen?’
‘Only once or twice, Grandma. And that was years ago.’
‘I remember, though. I remember how you looked at him. And then you told me one day that you were going to marry him when you grew up. I remember that.’
^ O I
‘All little girls get crushes like that. I don’t even know
him now.’
‘I suppose so. But he has nice eyes. Dark brown.’
