killed her ex-husband with another gun. Not out of the question, but out of the ordinary. The two facts together would be enough to keep the investigation open.
“Well, well. DS Mary.”
She turned around quickly. Standing in the alleyway was Friedland Chymes.
“Sir,” she said, trying to hide her feelings of nervousness, and jumping down, “what are you doing here?”
“The same thing as you, I suspect,” he replied. “Trying to get to the bottom of Humpty’s death. What have you discovered?”
She stared at him, and he stared back. She had stumbled, but she had not yet fallen. She prayed she wouldn’t blow it.
“I spoke to Mr. Spatchcock this morning.”
Chymes wasn’t fazed for even a second. He smiled again.
“You figured there was something hokey about the whole thing on your own, Mary? I’m very impressed. Jack’s about to roll over and wee on himself in Briggs’s office, but you’re out here hunting down the truth. I can’t begin to tell you how valuable I think you would be to my team.”
Two hours earlier it would have been the single greatest compliment she’d ever received from anyone who wasn’t her mother. But he hadn’t answered her question. And Mary always liked to have an answer.
“When did you know that Humpty had been shot, sir?”
“Long before you,” he said. “Mrs. Singh is highly diligent — too much so, to my taste. She wanted to be a hundred percent sure of what she had before she called you. Myself, I’ll go with a seventy percent probability any day.”
“You knew,” said Mary softly. “You knew the evening before about the shooting
“No I didn’t. And it would be very wrong and detrimental to your career if you were to mention it again. Tell me what you know, Mary.”
She paused for a moment, bit her lip and looked down — the full gamut of someone unable to come to a decision, and Friedland pounced.
“I think you should tell me,” he said a little more forcefully.
“You should know that I generally get what I want and that people who help me are rewarded. Conversely and contrariwise, people who withhold information from me rarely last the course. I’ll ask you once more, and I expect an answer: What have you found?”
She felt herself grow hot as he stared her down.
“Do you really have space for me on the team?”
“We always need new blood,” came Flotsam’s voice from behind her. “I think it’s in your best interest to tell the Guv’nor what he needs to know. He’ll find out anyway, and then you will have thrown away the last chance of what might have been a very worthwhile friendship.”
“I found the slug,” she stammered at last. “It’s a.44. With Spatchcock’s evidence it’s enough to keep the case open.”
Chymes and Flotsam exchanged looks.
“We concur. Bravo, Mary. We have underestimated you. A good DS is worth her weight in gold, whoever she works for. Now, the question you have to ask yourself is what
She swallowed hard and held up her head. “Well, I kind of thought I’d call… um, SOCO and… I don’t know — DI Spratt?”
There was silence for a moment.
“That’s a very disappointing choice, Mary. You’re new to all this, so I’m going to cut you some slack. These sorts of potentially high-profile crimes are good for the justice system. For the most part, the public can’t be bothered to understand what we do, so there is nothing like a couple of easy-to-understand, solved celebrity murders to keep them in the picture and supportive of our efforts — especially during the summer season. Police approval always leaps up after the successful conclusion of one of my cases.”
“Are you saying I shouldn’t call my DI?”
“Look at it this way,” said Chymes as he glanced at his watch. “It’s ten to ten. Jack will be speaking to Briggs on the hour. If you had found that slug a half hour later, we wouldn’t even need to have this conversation. I think it would be better for all concerned that Jack
“Is it really necessary to make Spratt look such an idiot?”
“Spratt
He put out his hand.
“Here is my hand. Shake it and stand by my side. I won’t offer it again.”
Mary Mary working for Friedland Chymes. She had dreamed of this since she was nine. She stared at Chymes with his winning smile and perfect teeth. It was the easiest decision she ever made.
24. Briggs v. Spratt
MAN RECOGNIZES SUSPECT IN RECONSTRUCTION
Mr. James Tuffnel was in custody yesterday, having been recognized when he appeared in a reconstruction during Network Toad’s popular
Briggs beckoned Jack into his office and had him wait while he spoke on the phone to the workman redecorating his house. After an inordinately long ten minutes discussing the choice of wallpaper for the front room, he hung up and stared at Jack.
“You’ve got a confession note?” he asked.
Jack slid it across the table. It was in a clear plastic cover, and Briggs put on his glasses.
“Verified by the handwriting people?”
“Yes, sir. It’s definitely Mrs. Dumpty’s.”
“Well,” said Briggs removing his spectacles, “I think that’s fairly straightforward, don’t you?”
“But for the smaller-than-expected caliber pistol and the four missing cartridges, and — ”
“And
“I just don’t think she killed him. We interviewed her at ten-thirty the morning of her ex-husband’s death. Less than ten hours. She loved him, sir, even after the split — most people dump their ex’s stuff as soon as the papers come through, but everything that was his was still in her house. I’m not convinced that a crime of passion would leave her so
Briggs held up the suicide note. “And this? What do you make of this? I quote: ‘…I prayed for God to forgive me as I pulled the trigger.’ She had the motive, opportunity — but, best of all, she wrote a confession. This one’s over, Jack.”
