‘Go on then. What did you do while you were out?’
‘Do? Not much. The usual. Smoked a pipe. Let Jess off the lead for a run, and to do her business. Sat for a bit. Walked back.’
‘Who did you see while you were walking your dog?’
‘Oh, just the usual bunch of murderers,’ said Harry.
By the old man’s chair was a little mahogany cabinet, well polished and worn with age. On the upper level was a shelf with a pipe rack, a leather tobacco pouch and the other paraphernalia of a pipe smoker. Below it was the door of a small cupboard. A tin of black shoe polish, a cloth and a shoe brush stood on the floor in front of it. Cooper glanced at Harry’s gleaming shoes and looked back up to meet his eyes again.
209
‘It was a serious question, Mr Dickinson.’
‘Ah, but you made an assumption. You assumed that I saw someone. Are you trying to trick me, or what? Because it won’t work, I’ll tell you that.’
‘No tricks, Mr Dickinson.’
Try silence, thought Cooper. The use of silence is a powerful tool. It puts the interviewee under pressure to speak. So he waited, expecting Harry to claim that he had seen no one. But Harry puffed at his pipe, staring into the distance, shifting to a more comfortable position on his chair. The only sound in the room was the ticking of the carriage clock. Outside, a van went by. The babble of the television came from the next room, where Gwen was watching a quiz show. Cooper started getting restless.
Harry looked as content and self-contained as if he were still
j
sitting on the Baulk with his dog at his feet, gazing at the outline
O C? O O
of the Witches, thinking perfectly calm thoughts of his own.
‘Did you see anyone?’ said Cooper at last.
‘Some hikers,’ said Harry, ‘now that you ask.’
‘Did they see you?’
The doubt it. They were down by the stream. Young folk, they were, larking about. The young ones don’t notice much, do they?’
‘How long were you out?’
‘Half an hour, until I came back here. Gwen had my tea ready, and I fed Jess.’
‘And later in the evening?’
The went out again, to the Drover. About half past seven. I met Sam and Wilford, and we had a few pints. Lots of folk there know me. Ask Kenny Lee. That’s what they call an alibi, isn’t it?’
‘Did you go straight there?’
‘Why shouldn’t I?’
‘You didn’t take a long way round — via the Baulk, for instance?’
‘Why should I do that? I’d already been once.’
‘Did you take the dog?’
‘Jess was with me. But Kenny makes you put the dogs out the back when you’re in the pub. He says they upset the tourists.’
210
Cooper wondered whether Harry would get round to asking him the purpose of the questions. He decided he wouldn’t.
‘We have a witness who saw someone answering your description at about seven-fifteen, in the area where Laura Vcrnon’s body was found.’ The description had been vague enough, so he wasn’t actually being misleading.
‘Have you now?’ said Harry. ‘That’s handy then. That’ll help you no end.’
‘But you’ve just told me that you were back here in the house at about six-thirty, Mr Dickinson. Is that right?’
‘Aye, that’s right. My tea was ready.’
‘And you said you didn’t go out again until seven-thirty. So, according to you, you were here in the house at seven-fifteen. Is that right?’
‘Yes.’
‘You can’t have been in both places at once.’
Harry shrugged. ‘That’s your problem, I reckon.’
‘What about Sunday?’ asked Cooper, desperate for a change in the conversation.
‘What about it?’
‘Did you go out on the Baulk with your dog that day?’
J O J O >
‘Nine o’clock in the morning and six o’clock at night. ReguO O O
lar.’
