encouragement.
The box of cheap cigars lay between them on the desk, opened to display its wares. Robert Forbes flicked the lid shut with one fastidious finger, and then shoved it back to the constable who pocketed the thing once more.
‘The son is dead, the guilty party. The mother, despite her low breeding, is desperate in grief and punished enough. In my opinion, you should forget the whole thing.’
At this point Mulholland would have liked nothing better than to forget the whole thing, to nod his head and hopefully watch a wintry smile spread across the Forbes face with perhaps the merest unspoken indication that his suit for Emily might stand a cat in hell’s chance; but he had been too long in McLevy’s company and, though he resented walking in the shadow cast by the man, he had absorbed the inspector’s brand of justice down to the very molecules.
So, he could not let it go.
Not yet.
Perhaps not ever.
For what said his Aunt Katie? ‘Only death can stop the badger’s grip.’
Was that a noise outside the study door?
‘May I ask you, sir,’ he began carefully, softly does it, not a hint that this might be evidential scrutiny, ‘at the warehouse, you must have found fragments of tobacco?’
‘I did indeed.’
‘And the quality. You found nothing awry?’
Forbes pursed his lips and hesitated for a brief moment as if recalling his examination.
‘They were burnt to a crisp. But I had no suspicion. The quality was clear.’
‘And the cargo documents? The invoices, all the papers from abroad, they were genuine?’
There was a silence and then flat response.
‘In my opinion. They were. Without fault.’
‘And you have sent confirmation of all this to your head office?’
‘Indeed so. As I am bound to do.’
That was that, then.
Mulholland sighed. Life was free and easy when all you had to do was push other folk down the slope.
‘I have come to a decision, sir.’
‘And what is that?’
The pure and simple fact of it all is that he was an idiot, the constable had realised. Cupid had led him by the appendage. He should have known better when he saw the boy on that branch with the goddess.
Too many irons in the fire.
‘I shall do what I should have done in the first place, Mister Forbes,’ said the constable firmly. ‘I shall go back to my superiors this very night, lay everything I have found before them, and let them come to whatever conclusion the evidence merits.’
He got to his feet with a strange sense of relief, as if he had suddenly come to his senses.
‘I should have followed the proper procedure and I apologise for disturbing you at your home. I wish you good night and that’s me out of here.’
‘Constable, wait!’
The call stopped him at the door.
Forbes had also risen to his feet, hand resting unconsciously on the photo of his dead wife.
‘Do you insist upon this course of conduct?’
‘I am afraid I have no option, sir.’
The older man shook his head in seeming disbelief and his eyes registered unexpected depth of feeling.
‘Then I must ask you to wait until the morning,’ he declared.
Now it was the constable’s turn to shake his head.
‘I have delayed long enough,’ he muttered.
The hand of Forbes came up and slammed down on the desk.
‘It will give time for me to absolutely examine all my findings, to make sure there is not the slightest hint of irregularity. Then I shall present myself at the station in the morning, along with Mister Garvie, and I am certain the whole matter can be cleared up without setting any loose slander afoot.’
There was a penetrative intensity of both word and gaze; Mulholland was taken somewhat aback.
‘My reputation is at stake here, constable. Hard-earned. Reputation is everything.’
The little man held himself erect, as if an iron rod had been inserted in his spine.
‘I realise that, sir,’ replied Mulholland, ‘but –’
‘For the sake of my daughter, if for
A fierce appeal in the father’s eyes and the constable had a flash of Emily nibbling innocently at a chocolate cake.
That little pink tongue.
His resolution turned to jelly.
‘Very well,’ he mumbled. ‘For Emily’s sake.’
‘I have your word?’
‘You have my word. Till the morning.’
Forbes nodded his acknowledgement of the pledge.
He stood there, the very embodiment of prideful dignity and inclined his head in farewell.
‘Good night, constable.’
‘Good night, sir.’
The constable left and, as the door closed behind him, Robert Forbes lifted up the photo of his wife and stared at her. The black crepe rustled round the frame as a draught of cold air from the open window blew across the room.
The stag above him was a twelve pointer, though Forbes had not shot it himself. Fixed fast to the wall high above; the head was strong and powerful.
But, as has been remarked before, the beast had not been insured.
Insurance is everything.
There were two receptacles in Mulholland’s possession. One was the cigar case, banging against his leg as he made his way down the dark staircase; his hand closed tightly once more around the other, the sharp edge of the small jewellery box cutting into his palm.
The engagement ring would be safe inside no doubt, snug and upright in its appointed slot.
He had not lost hope; love will conquer all.
Perhaps it could yet be so.
He stumbled on the treads and muttered under his breath; the dumpy maid who had admitted him had not been summoned by Forbes to show him out again, there was but one miserable light by the front portal and a long dim corridor towards it.
A gloomy prospect … but from the shadows a white arm reached out from a partly opened door and he was hauled from the corridor unceremoniously out of sight.
Darkness has its uses.
On the other side of that door Mulholland found himself at close quarters with his heart’s desire, as a fragrant female form insinuated itself into his vicinity.
Emily Forbes giggled at her own boldness and whispered low to Martin Mulholland.
‘I had retired, then I heard a knock upon the street door, then I asked Sarah and she rolled her eyes at me.’
‘Sarah?’
Mulholland’s voice had achieved a high pitch, aware that as far as he could see in the half-light because the room was in near darkness, the only source of illumination coming from a small desk lamp in the far corner, but as far as he could see, Emily was attired in a frilly
