something on the wall to the left.
I suppose it's about Roy? ' She spoke with the dispirited nasal whine of a
Birmingham City supporter whose team has just been defeated.
In the living room, in a much-frayed armchair, sat a youth smoking a
cigarette, drinking directly from a can of Bass, a pair of black-stringed
amplifiers stuck in his ears.
He vaguely reminded Morse of someone; but that was insufficient to stop him
taking an intense and instant dislike to the boy, who had made no attempt to
straighten his lounging sprawl, or to miss a single lyric from the latest rap
record until he saw Morse's lips speaking directly to him.
'Wha'?' Reluctantly Roy Holmes removed one of the ear- pieces.
'Why didn't you answer the door yourself, lad, and give your mum a break?'
The youth's eyes stared back with cold hostility.
'Couldn't 'ear it, could I? Not wi' this on.'
No Brummy accent there; instead, the Oxfordshire burr with its curly vowels.
His mother began to explain.
'It's the police, Roy ' ' Again? Bin there, 'aven't I. Made me statement.
What more do they want? Accident, won nit I didn't try to 'ide nuthin. What
the fuck? '
Morse responded quietly to the outburst.
'We appreciate your co-operation. But do you know what you've made of
yourself in life so far? Shall I tell you, lad? You're about the most
uncouth and loutish fourteen-year-old I've ever ' ' Fifteen-yenr-old,'
interposed Mrs Holmes, more anxious, it seemed, to correct her son's natal
credentials than to deny his innate crudity.
'Fifteen on March the 26th. Got it wrong in the papers, didn't they?'
'Well, well! Same birthday as Housman.'
Silence.
'And' (Morse now spoke directly to the mother) 'he'll be able to smoke in a
year's time, and go to the pub for a pint a couple of years after that if you
give him some pocket- money, Mrs Holmes.
Because I can't see him earning any- thing much himself, not in his present
frame of mind. '
If Lewis had earlier noticed the tell-tale sign of drug dependency in the
boy's eyes, he now saw a wider blaze of hatred there; and was sure that Morse
was similarly and equally aware of both, as Mrs Holmes switched her wheel-
chair abruptly around and faced Morse aggressively: 'It was an accident could
happen to anybody he didn't
mean no trouble like he said like he told you . . . That's right, isn't
it, Roy? '
'Leave me be!'
'Perhaps it wasn't you we came to Burford to see.'
For a few seconds there was a look of bewilderment, of anxiety almost, on Roy
Holmes's face. Then, draining his can of beer, he got to his feet, and left
the room.
Seconds later the front door slammed behind him with potentially
glass-shattering force.
'What time will he be back?' asked Lewis.
She shrugged her narrow shoulders.
'You worry about him?'
'Everybody worries about him.'
'How long's he been on drugs?'
'Year over a year.'
'How does he pay for them?'
'You tell me.'
'Not much of a son, is he?' said Morse.
She shook what once must have been a very pretty head with a gesture of
desperation.
'Does he get the money from you?'
'I've got nothing to give him. He's not stupid. He knows that.'
'But. . .?' Morse pointed to the empty beer can; the empty packet of
cigarettes.
'I dunno.'
Morse got to his feet. Lewis too.
'How long ...?' Morse nodded to the wheelchair.
'Six years.'
Morse stopped in front of the one framed picture in the dingy hallway. Not a
picture, though. A diploma.
Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire Athletics Association This is to
certify that in the annual three-counties cross- country championships held
in Cutteslowe Park, Oxford, on the 19th July, 1974, the winner of the ladies
event from a field of seventy-two runners was:
ELIZABETH JANE THOMAS
Congratulations! Signed: Monty Hillier (Assn. Pres. ) For the second time
that day Lewis noticed a film of tears in a woman's eyes; and for the second
time that day Morse felt a shudder of excitement run along his shoulders.
Before they left, Morse turned to the erstwhile athlete.
'The gods haven't smiled on you much, have they?'
'Not that I've noticed.'
'It's important for your son to do exactly what they've told him with his
Police Protection Order. You know that?'
'I suppose so.'
'And if you want cheering up a bit, Mrs Holmes, I'll tell you a big secret: I
