'You agreed?'
'Well, I couldn't afford that sort of money. Hundrer Plus a B&B somewhere? But I did ask her about comin up to my room one evening--that was just after I'd starte sharing with Matthew--when he had to go home for a fart ily funeral. But it was a Tuesday, I remember, and she sai she had to be very careful which day of the week it wa She could only do Saturday or perhaps Sunday because sh knew somebody on the staircase and she wasn't prepared t take any risks.'
'What risks?'
'I don't know.'
'One of the other students--undergraduates there?'
For the first time the casually dressed, easy-mannered Davies hesitated. 'She didn't say.'
'Who else could it have been?' Davies shrugged, but made no reply.
'There were two dons on the staircase, I understand 'Students' don't you call them T'
'Only a bloody pedant would call 'em Students these days.'
'I see. And, er, Dr. Mc Clure was one of those dons.'
'You've done your homework.'
'Go on please, sir.'
'Well, I had to go up for a Civil Service Selection thing on November the fifth, Bonfire Night, in Whitehall. Whole weekend of it--Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Anyway, I got so pissed off with all the palaver that I didn't stay for the Sun-day session. I caught the ten-something from Paddington back to Oxford on Saturday night and when I got back to the staircase--well, there they were. We had two single beds in the one room, you see; and she was in his bed, and he was in mine. I don't quite know why, but it just made me see red and...'
'You'd tried to do the same yourself, though, so you said?'
'I know, yes.'
'You were just jealous, I suppose?
'It was more than that. It's difficult to explain.'
'You mean, perhaps, if she'd been in your bed...?'
'I don't know. You'd have to ask Freud. Anyway, 1 went berserk. I just went for him, that's ail. He'd got nothing on--neither of 'em had--and soon we were wrestling and punching each other and knocking everything all over the bloody place, and there must have been one helluva racket because there was this great banging on the door and, well, we quietened down and I opened the door and there there he was: that stuffed prick Mc Clure. Well, that's about it, re-ally.
Mattbew'd got a cut on his mouth and one of his eyes was badly bruised; I'd got a gash on my left arm but... no great damage, not considering. Mc Clure wanted to all about it, of course: who the girl was--'
'Who was she?'
'She called herself Ellie--Ellie Smith.'
'Then?'
'Well, they put me in one of the guest rooms in Quad, and Ellie went off--I think Mc Clure put her i taxi---and that was that. The Senior Tutor sent for me next morning, and you know the rest.'
'Why didn't Mr. Rodway get rusticated, too?'
'Well, I'd started it. My fault, wasn't it?'
'Wasn't he disciplined at all?'
'Warned, yes. You get a warning in things like t Then, if it happens again...'
Lewis thought he was beginning to get the picture. perhaps you'd already had a warning yourself, sir?' asked quietly.
Unblinking, the thickset Davies looked for several onds into Lewis's eyes before nodding. 'I'd had a figh a pub in my first year.'
'Much damage done then*.'
'He broke his jaw.'
'Don't you mean you broke his jaw, sir?'
It was a pleasant little rejoinder, and perhaps Da' should have smilex L But Lewis saw no humour, only wha thought may have been a hint of cruelty, in the yo man's eyes.
'You've got it, Sergeant.'
'Was that over a woman as well?
'Yeah, 'fraid so. There was this other guy and he k you know, messing around a bit with this girl of mine 'Which pub was that?'
'The Grapesin George Street. I think this guy thor it was called The Gropes.'
'And you hit him.'
'Yeah. I'd told him to fuck off.'
'And he hadn't.'
