read in the Oxford Mail that Mrs Somebody-or-other had mentioned seeing a
jogger there wearing red trainers ... I should have put them in the dustbin.
Stupid, I was! But they'd cost me well, I told you. And I've always loved
animals, so . well, that's it really. '
Although less than convinced by what sounded a suspiciously shaky story.
Morse was adequately impressed by the manner of the plea sandy spoken young
man. Had he been as vain as Morse and many other mortals, he would probably
have grown his hair fairly long over his temples in order to conceal his
hearing-aids. But Harrison's dark hair was closely cropped, framing a
clean-shaven face that seemed honest. Or reasonably so.
Asking Harrison to remind him of his home address and telephone number.
Morse got to his feet and prepared to leave.
'You'll have to make an official statement, of course.'
'I realize that, yes.'
Morse pushed the trainers an inch or two further across the desk.
'You might as well keep them now. I only wish I were as fit as you.'
Was there a glint of humour in Simon's eyes as, in turn, he got to his feet?
'Fit a shoe, did you say, Inspector?'
Morse let it go. The man's hearing was very poor, little doubt of that.
Which made it surprising perhaps that a mobile phone lay on the desk beside
him.
On his second impulse that day, Morse drove down to North Oxford and stopped
momentarily outside Simon Harrison's small property at 5 Grosvenor Street.
The replacement windows with their aluminium frames had clearly been
installed there fairly recently frames whose glory (as advertised) was
never to need any painting at all.
Courteously if somewhat cautiously received, Lewis listened carefully as one
of the Bank's important personages spelled out the situation with (as was
stressed) utter confidentiality, with appropriate delicacy, and with (for
Lewis) a leavening of incomprehensible technicalities. In simple terms it
amounted to this: Mr Frank Harrison, currently on furlough, was currently
also, if unofficially, on suspension from his duties with the Bank on
suspicion, as yet unsubstantiated, of misappropriation of monies: viz. an
unexplained black hole of some 520,000 in his department's Investment
Portfolios.
chapter sixty-four Refrain to-night And that shall lead a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence: the next more easy; For use almost can change the
stamp of nature (Shakespeare, Hamkt) sloane square . . . gridlock . . .
Siren . . . Gridlock . . . Siren . It is not a matter for any surprise
that car drivers occasionally contract one of the minor strains of the
road-rage virus even that patient man in the siren-assisted police car who
finally pulled over on to the hard shoulder of the M40 and rang his chief.
'Been stuck in traffic, sir. Be with you in about an hour.'
'Lewis! Can't you hear the wireless? It's five- past seven bang in the
middle of The Archers. It can wait, surely!'
Lewis supposed it could; and would have said so. But the phone was dead.
Wireless! Huh! Everybody called it a 'radio' these days well, everybody
except Morse and one or two of the old 'uns, like Strange.
Yes, come to think of it. Morse and Strange were the oldest of the HQ lot,
with Strange six months the older, and due for retirement that next month.
The road was free and Lewis drove fast. It could wait of course it could the
news about Harrison Senior. Perhaps it didn't matter all that much; and as
Morse frequently reminded
him nothing really mattered very much at all in the end. But he was looking
forward to a swopping of notes. There had been some interesting
developments, certainly on his own side; and he doubted not that Morse's
researches that day had generated a few new ideas.
Not that they needed any more high-flown ideas really, he decided, as a
sudden torrential downpour called for more terrestrial concentration. He
reduced his speed to 80 m. p. h.
At 7. 20 p. m. Morse was sitting back in the black- leather arm- chair,
