'No doubt we'll find someone to corroborate it,' said Backhouse. 'As things stand, it seems likely that they started drinking after dinner. When the scotch began to get low, Mrs Hopkins volunteered to fetch more; she used her visitors' car as it would have to be moved anyway to get her own out. On her return she either walked straight into the garden or went through the front door into the lounge, then the dining-room and out of the french windows.'
'And then she was shot,' said Pascoe.
'It seems likely. Very soon after she came back. She was still holding the full bottle, you see. We found the cap with the seal complete. She must have held the bottle in front of her, either to ward off the shot or to use as a weapon. The blast from the shotgun went right through it. There were splinters of glass embedded deep in the wound. Would any of your friends own a shotgun, do you think?'
'I don't know. I just don't know,' said Pascoe irritably. 'I've told you, Superintendent, this was a kind of reunion. I hadn't seen these people for years. How should I know what they were likely to do now?'
'Do people change that much?'
'They change all right. When someone's put a couple of ounces of lead pellets into your face, you change!'
Pascoe realized he was nearly shouting. Jesus, he thought, I should be back there too, lying on one of Constable Crowther's comfortable beds with some of Doctor Hardisty's comfortable pills inside me.
'Sir!' It was Hamblyn from the french window. Behind him stood two men.
'It's Mr French, the coroner, sir.'
'Hello, Superintendent,' said the taller of the two men who now stepped into the garden. He was over six feet, rather gaunt of feature, well tanned, his nose showing the pale indentations left by a frequent wearing of spectacles. His companion was a good nine inches shorter, less dramatic in every way, but his pale oval face was intelligent and far from weak. Both men wore casual, sporting clothes, French going in for bright colours, his companion much more subdued.
'Sorry to take so long. You must have thought I'd be first on the spot, living on the doorstep so to speak. But I was half-way round the golf-course with Culpepper here. Dreadful business, this. Dreadful. You'd better tell me what I need to know.'
Culpepper, thought Pascoe, as Backhouse and the coroner moved back into the cottage together. The committee secretary – Marianne Culpepper. Her husband?
The man spoke to him and his words seemed to confirm this. His eyes were taking everything in. Despite his air of quiet authority, he felt a need to explain himself.
'Excuse me, could you… You are with the police, I'm right?'
'Pascoe, sir. Sergeant Pascoe,’
'It's not just morbid curiosity that brings me here, Sergeant. I live close by. I knew these people, the Hopkinses, I mean. When Mr French told me why he had to come back, I couldn't believe it.'
He fell silent.
'How close do you live, sir?' asked Pascoe. It was easier to fall into the policeman role than explain his true position.
'About half a mile. Round the side of the hill.' He gestured vaguely towards the rising ground which lay to the south of the village.
'What happened here, Sergeant? Is it true they are all dead?'
'Mrs Hopkins is dead, sir,' said Pascoe evenly. 'And Mr Mansfield and Mr Rushworth, two guests who were spending the night with them.'
'Oh, my God. What about Colin, Mr Hopkins? And the other guests?'
'Other guests?' said Pascoe sharply.
'Yes. I ran into Mrs Hopkins in the village yesterday evening when I got back from the office. About five o'clock. It seems impossible. .. anyway, I asked them round for a drink tonight, but she explained they would have a houseful of guests. Four, she said. At least.'
It had been five-thirty when Pascoe had rung to say he and Ellie couldn't make it that evening. If only that case hadn't come up… or Dalziel hadn't insisted… another two made the odds very strong against anyone trying anything with a double-barrelled shotgun. What an adaptable thing blame was; so easy to shift or attract.
'Had you known Mr and Mrs Hopkins long, sir?' asked Pascoe, evading the question about the guests.
'Not long. Two or three months only, since they bought Brookside, in fact. They have worked so hard on it. The place was not in a good state of repair when they acquired it, you know. And they did wonders, wonders.'
He tailed off into silence.
'Mr Pelman sold them the cottage, I believe,' said Pascoe.
'That's right.'
Something in his tone made Pascoe pursue this line.
'Did he live here himself before he sold the place?'
Culpepper smiled without much humour.
'No. The cottage stands at the boundary of the land he bought when he came here five years ago. His house is the other side of the woods, his woods. That's what he really wanted, of course. A place where he could pit his wits against the intelligence of various small beasts and birds. A most uneven contest, I fear.'
Am I supposed to be too thick to get the double irony? wondered Pascoe.
'It's strange, isn't it, that the chairman of the Village Amenities Committee should let such a property fall into disrepair?' murmured Pascoe.
Culpepper raised his eyebrows at him.
'You glean your information fast, Sergeant.'
'We spend our working life amidst the alien corn, sir.'
Culpepper suddenly nodded twice, as though something had been confirmed.
'You're the Hopkinses' policeman friend, aren't you? One of their week-end guests.'
Clever Mr Culpepper.
'Yes. I am. How did you know?'
'Mrs Hopkins, Rose, said something about you, when we talked yesterday.'
So I was an object of interest, worth a special mention. Like a literary lion. Or a two-headed man. What now, Mr Culpepper? wondered Pascoe. Indignation at my mild deceit?
'I'm sorry. I didn't realize. This must be an unbearable situation for you,' said Culpepper with apparently unforced sympathy. 'Were you here when it happened?'
'No,' said Pascoe shortly. 'I found them this morning when we arrived.'
'How terrible. You say we?'
'A friend. She's resting now. It was a shock.'
'Terrible. Terrible. Such things are a puzzle and a torment to the mind.'
Backhouse and French appeared.
'Are you ready, Hartley?' called the coroner. 'Two-thirty this afternoon then, Superintendent. I hope you find your man quickly.'
He looked sideways at Pascoe and shook his head slightly, but didn't speak. Culpepper held out his hand.
'Goodbye, Mr Pascoe. I'm sorry we had to meet in such circumstances. Your friends were delightful people to have in the village. We counted ourselves lucky that they came here.'
Pascoe shook his hand. There was nothing to say in reply except perhaps that Rose would scarcely have counted herself lucky in coming here; nor Colin, wherever he was.
That was the only thing really worth talking about. Where Colin was. And why. Backhouse must be ready to get round to it now.
He was. French and Culpepper had scarcely disappeared from the garden before Backhouse asked the big question.
'You've had time for reflection now, Sergeant. So tell me. Why should a man like Colin Hopkins take a shotgun' and kill his wife and two close friends?'
