‘I must say I resent Wilt being called a murderer,’ said Braintree loyally. ‘There is nothing to suggest that he has murdered anyone.’
The Principal studied him for a moment and then looked back at the headlines. ‘Mr Braintree, when someone is helping the police with their enquiries into a murder it may not be proven that he is a murderer but the suggestion is there.’
‘This certainly isn’t going to help us get the new CNAA degree off the ground,’ intervened the Vice-Principal tactfully. ‘We’ve got a visit from the Inspection Committee scheduled for Friday.’
‘From what the police tell me it isn’t going to help get the new Administration block off the ground either,’ said the Principal. ‘They say it’s going to take at least three days to bore down to the bottom of that pile and then they’ll have to drill through the concrete to get the body out That means they’ll have to put a new pile down and we’re already well behind schedule and our building budget has been halved. Why on earth couldn’t he have chosen somewhere else to dispose of his damned wife’
‘I don’t think…’ Braintree began.
‘I don’t care what you think,’ said the Principal, ‘I’m merely telling you what the police think.’
Braintree left them still wrangling and trying to figure out ways and means of counteracting the adverse publicity the case had already brought the Tech. He went down to the Liberal Studies office and found Mr Morris in a state of despair. He was trying to arrange stand-in lecturers for all Wilt’s classes.
‘But he’ll probably be back in the morning,’ Braintree said.
‘Like hell he will.’ said Mr Morris. ‘When they take them in like that they keep them. Mark my words. The police may make mistakes, I’m not saying they don’t, but when they act this swiftly they’re on to a sure thing. Mind you. I always thought Wilt was a bit odd.’
‘Odd? I’ve just come from the VP’s office. You want to hear what the Principal’s got to say about Liberal Studies staff.’
‘Christ.’ said Mr Morris, ‘don’t tell me.’
‘Anyway what’s so odd about Henry?’
‘Too meek and mild for my liking. Look at the way he accepted remaining a Lecturer Grade Two all these years.’
‘That was hardly his fault.’
‘Of course it was his fault. All he had to do was threaten to resign and go somewhere else and he’d have got promotion like a shot. That’s the only way to get on in this place. Make your presence felt’
‘He seems to have done that now,’ said Braintree. ‘The Principal is already blaming him for throwing the building programme off schedule and if we don’t get the joint Honours degree past the CNAA, Henry’s going to be made the scapegoat. It’s too bad. Eva should have had more sense than to walk out on him like that.’
Mr Morris took a more sombre view. ‘She’d have shown a damned sight more sense if she’d walked out on him before the sod took it into his head to beat her to death and dump her down that bloody shaft. Now who the hell can I get to take Gasfitters one tomorrow?’
Chapter 10
At 34 Parkview Avenue Wilt sat in the kitchen with Clem while the detectives ransacked the house. ‘You’re not going to find anything incriminating here,’ he told Inspector Flint.
‘Never you mind what we’re going to find. We’re just having a look.’
He sent one detective upstairs to examine Mrs Wilt’s clothes or what remained of
