formulate his thoughts on paper and he was still, at it when Inspector Flint came into the room and banged the door.
‘Right, so you’re a clever fellow, Wilt,’ he said, sitting down and pulling the paper towards him. ‘You can read and write and you’ve got a nice logical and inventive mind so let’s just see what you’ve written here. Who’s Ethel?’
‘Eva’s sister,’ said Wilt. ‘She’s married to a market gardener in Luton. Eva sometimes goes over there for a week.’
‘And “Blood in the bath”?’
‘Just wondering how it got there.’
‘And “Evidence of hurried departure”?’
‘I was simply putting down my thoughts about the state of the Pringsheims house, said Wilt.
‘You’re trying to be helpful?’
‘I’m here helping you with your enquiries. That’s the official term isn’t it?’
‘It may be the official term, Wilt, but in this case it doesn’t correspond with the facts.’
‘I don’t suppose it does very often,’ said Wilt. ‘It’s one of those expressions that covers a multitude of sins.’
‘And crimes.’
‘It also happens to ruin a man’s reputation,’ said Wilt. ‘I hope you realize what you’re doing to mine by holding me here like this. It’s bad enough knowing I’m going to spend the rest of my life being pointed out as the man who dressed a plastic doll with a cunt up in his wife’s clothes and dropped it down a pile hole without everyone thinking I’m a bloody murderer as well.’
‘Where you’re going to spend the rest of your life nobody is going to care what you did with that plastic doll,’ said the Inspector.
Wilt seized on the admission.
‘Ah, so, you’ve found it at last,’ he said eagerly. ‘That’s fine. So now I’m free to go.’
‘Sit down and shut up,’ snarled the Inspector. ‘You’re not going anywhere and when you do it will be in a large black van. I haven’t finished with you yet. In fact I’m only just beginning.
‘Here we go again,’ said Wilt. ‘I just knew you’d want to start at the beginning again. You fellows have primary causes on the brain. Cause and effect, cause and effect. Which came first, the chicken or the egg…protoplasm or demiurge? I suppose this time it’s going to be what Eva said when we were dressing to go to the party.’
‘This time.’ said the Inspector, ‘I want you to tell me precisely why you stuck that damned doll down that hole.’
‘Now that is an interesting question.’ said Wilt, and stopped. It didn’t seem a good idea to try to explain to Inspector Flint in the present circumstances just what he had had in mind when he dropped the doll down the shaft. The Inspector didn’t look the sort of person who would understand at all readily that a husband could have fantasies of murdering his wife without actually putting them into effect. It would be better to wait for Eva to put in an appearance in the flesh before venturing into that uncharted territory of the wholly irrational. With Eva present Flint might sympathize with him. Without her he most certainly wouldn’t.
‘Let’s just say I wanted to get rid of the beastly thing,’ he said.
‘Let’s not say anything of the sort,’ said Flint. ‘Let’s just say you had an ulterior motive for putting it there.’
Wilt nodded. ‘I’ll go along with that,’ he said.
