'There was a logical sequence of events, as you would say.'
'There was a concatenation of events, yes, with each link of the chain
causally connected to its predecessor.'
'What do you think happened that night?'
'Not much argument about that, is there?'
'You'd agree with this, then?' Lewis produced a sheet of A4 on which he had
typed a timetable for the day of the murder:
7 a. m. -l p. m. Yvonne on early shift at JR2 Ward 7C I. 15-2 p. m.
Lunches in staff canteen 2. 15-4 p. m. (? ) Drives down to Oxford
shopping at MS and Austin Reed 4. 00(? )-4. 30 p. m. Drives home
avoiding main traffic exodus 6-7 p. m. Evening meal of mushroom omelette 9.
00p. m. Local builder rings number engaged or phone off hook 9. 10p. m.
Frank H gets phone call and catches 21. 48 Paddington to Oxford train 9. 30
p. m. Builder rings again ringing- tone but no reply II. 00 p. m. F H
gets taxi to Lower Swinstead 11. 20p. m. Discovers wife naked, gagged,
handcuffed and dead Morse glanced at the sheet in perfunctory fashion.
'You ought to use the Oxford comma more.'
'Pardon?'
'The presumption was is that somewhere between nine and half-past...'
' Pathologist's report seemed to confirm that. '
'Would I had your faith in pathologists!'
'Not just that though, is it? The whole thing hangs together. Pretty well
everything there's confirmed: statements from the hospital; receipts from the
two shops; post-mortem details on the meal; phone calls checked out ' '
Nonsense! The builder? First time the number's engaged? Second time nobody
answers? How the hell do you check that? '
'You can't check absolutely everything ' ' What about the husband? Odd sort
of call, wasn't it? Drop 117
whatever you're doing and get here
double-quick! So who was it who rang him? '
'That's what I'm asking you, sir.'
'His number couldn't have been too well known. He was renting a flat, wasn't
he?'
'Still is.'
'But somebody knew it and rang him. Did we check the phone records of the
suspects?'
'What suspects?'
'The two children?'
'They weren't suspects. And if they were, why shouldn't they ring their dad
occasionally?'
'How did he pay for his train journey?'
'No credit-card record must have paid cash. And for the taxi ride.
Anyway, he'd got the best alibi of anybody: taxi driver remembers the time
exactly. He was just listening to the 11 o'clock news-headlines. '
'Was the train a bit late that night? If it's the one I some- times catch,
it's due in at 22.53.'
'Too late to find out, sir.'
'Rubbish! Too difficult, possibly. But they keep all these times of
arrivals: they make statistical tables out of 'em, for heaven's sake.'
'Must've been on time, surely?'
'What? Seven minutes for somebody in one helluva rush? From Platform 2 to
the taxi-rank? It'd only take a geriatric like me a couple of minutes.'
'Perhaps there was a queue.'
'Was there a queue?'
'Dunno. Perhaps he nipped into the snack-bar.'
'Closed.'
'I don't quite see what you're getting at.'
'What is essential, Lewis, is usually invisible to the outward eye.'
'Which doesn't help me much, does it?'
'All right. Get back to your facts.'
'She was burgled. At some point that evening the back patio window was
smashed in from the outside and somebody was after something. The TV was
unplugged ' ' But not taken. '
' so he was probably disturbed. He must have thought the place was empty.
Probably none of the lights would have been on not then anyway. Midsummer,
wasn't it? Sunset was about a quarter-past nine I looked it up. ' (Morse
nodded approvingly.) ' I know some people always leave one or two lights on
anyway when they go out ' 'But she didn't go out.'
'No. So as I say the burglar must have thought the coast was clear, and must
have been prepared for the alarm to ring it's quite a way to the next house
while he grabbed a few of the valuables, smartish like.'
'The alarm was ringing when Harrison got there, wasn't it?
Twenty-past eleven. '
Lewis nodded.
'Two hours or so after she was murdered.'
'And the alarm would cut out automatically after twenty minutes' ringing?'
'Yes.'
'So?'
'I dunno, sir. But it seems we didn't discount the theory that the murderer
might have set it off himself.'
'You mean two hours la terT ' I don't know what I mean. '
'Pretty little puzzle.'
'You're not trying to help me, are you? You've usually got some theory or
