Tomorrow's ghost

house with him from top to bottom - because there've been cases we've looked everywhere, and then the missing person's been found dead up in the loft, and been there all the time...

'Her private affairs as well - the money and the cheque-book and suchlike; and the passport too - I went through all that with him as well. That's where something turns up, if they've gone off of their own free will, because they've got to live somehow ... and that way we've traced them sometimes, the wives, but they don't want the husbands to know where they are. And we don't tell on them either, except that they're alive. It's not our job, that.'

He shook his head at her. 'But we turned up nothing, of course - as you well know.

'But he was the same: not moving a muscle ... Except with the children, and then he didn't care who saw it. He never pretended for me, right from that first evening, only for them - and if one of them came in while I was with him it was like I wasn't there. I've never seen anything quite like it.'

'He switched on for them.'

'Yes. Switched on is right. He lighted up for them, like a Christmas tree. And each time he did, it damn near fused him.'

Character assessment, not proof. But then she'd never expected proof, thought Frances. And who better than Hedges to provide the assessment?

'Then he would have done anything for them - his girls?'

'Yes, Mrs Fisher. He would have done anything for them.' Hedges conceded the possibility with the air of a man who was ready for the question behind it. 'So long as it didn't hurt them.'

There it was, the built-in limitation: three little girls with no relatives, no matter how rich they were, couldn't afford to lose one parent, never mind two. And that had been the risk, if the deed was Butler's.

'He's a clever man, Mr Hedges.'

'Aye. And a hard man too, Mrs Fisher. And a trained man.'

One of us, he was saying.

'So?'

Hedges took a slow, deep breath. 'I was there. I talked to him, I watched him. And I listened to him, what little he said ... A very tough customer - and I've met some tough customers in my time, believe you me, Mrs Fisher. So if what you wanted to know is could he kill, then the answer is obviously yes. He's been a soldier, and he's trained to do it - and he's had enough opportunities, I don't doubt. All of which you probably know about already, anyway.'

True enough, thought Frances. In his time Butler had been nothing if not a fighting soldier, and there were graves in his record to prove it, all the way from Northern Europe in '45 to Korea, and back via Aden and Cyprus.

'But killing is one thing - killing under orders - and murder is another. What I saw of him... murder, even under orders...' His eyes hardened as he stared at her, the moralities of the police and the security service dividing them '... I'd say doubtful. Or even very doubtful.'

The eyes accused her.

'And when it comes to the murder of the mother of those little girls of his, no matter how he may have felt about her, then my answer is no, Mrs Fisher. Not him. Not in a thousand years.'

He paused.

'I can't prove that - I never could prove it. But even if you'd got proof that says otherwise, that you haven't told me about, my advice to you, Mrs Fisher, would be to go back and double- check it. And then check it again.

'And I'll give you three reasons for that, two other reasons.

'The first is that Patrick Parker did it. I couldn't prove that either, but for my money it was his work.

'And the second is ... if I'm wrong about everything else - about what sort of man he is, and about Parker ... then you and I wouldn't be here now, Mrs Fisher. If it had been premeditated murder - and for him to come back and do it three hours after he drove away it would have to be premeditated - then he'd have fixed it so there wouldn't be any doubt hanging over him then or now. I'd stake my pension on that. He didn't know about Parker, and he wouldn't have left it hanging in the air like that. He would have had an alibi.

'And the third reason ... the third reason, Mrs Fisher, is that the second reason is a load of nonsense - the third reason is the best one of all, to my way of thinking.

'I've known a lot of villains in my time, young woman. And one or two good men I'd stake more than my pension on. And the Major was one of them.'

CHAPTER SEVEN

Frances waited five minutes after William Ewart Hedges had gone before buying time on Isobel's private line.

01-836 20066.

'Whitehall Trust. Can I help you?'

The voice reminded her unbearably of Mrs Simmonds.

'Extension 223, please.'

Click. Scrambler on. Clickety-click-click. Wait.

'Extension 223.' The self-satisfied voice.

'This is Fisher. I've talked to Hedges. Have you arranged Brookside House for me?'

'Hullo Fisher. Of course. The Police are there now.'