Donovan snorted.
'That doesn't mean a damn. You know as well as I do when a cop calls unexpectedly whoever answers the door lays an egg. If you can't do better than that you'd better keep your trap shut!'
'This guy did more than lay an egg. I was watching him while you talked to him,' Duncan said quietly. 'He was really scared: like a man with a guilty conscience. That doesn't prove my case, but it did set me dunking. Doesn't he fit the description of the guy we want? He's tall, dark, goodlooking and around thirty. That's tile exact description of the guy we're after, isn't it? But this is the clincher. Do you remember his roses? Nothing but roses in the garden, and good ones? Remember them?'
Donovan drew in a slow, exasperated breath.
'What the hell have his roses got to do with it?'
Duncan picked up the report he had written.
'Listen to this. This is the car attendant's statement just as he made it. This is what he says: 'The guy said something about the first rain we've had in ten days. I said he was right. I asked him if he grew roses. That's about all I do grow, he tells me. Roses and weeds.' ' Duncan looked across at Donovan, his eyes triumphant. 'Sort of hangs together, doesn't it?'
Donovan sat still while his slow-working brain tried to cope with this unexpected situation.
'You don't call that proof, do you?' he said finally, glaring at Duncan.
Duncan refused to be intimidated. He knew if Donovan had made the discovery himself he would be crowing his head off.
'The guy is scared stiff; the description matches and he grows roses,' he said quietly. 'It's enough for me to dig further. I want to know what make of car he runs. If it's a green Lincoln I know I won't have to look further for the guy we want.'
'If he runs a green Lincoln then he is our guy,' Donovan said, shrugging, 'but I'll bet he doesn't run one.'
Duncan shoved back his chair and stood up.
'Shall we go and find out?'
'May as well,' Donovan said grudgingly.
Twenty minutes later, Duncan pulled up some hundred yards from Ken's bungalow.
'Do we walk?' he asked. 'No point in warning him we're on to him.'
'Yeah.'
Donovan got out of the car, and together the two detectives walked quickly down the street to the gate of Ken's bungalow. Donovan crossed the uncut lawn to the small garage.
By now it was dark. No lights showed in the bungalow.
They arrived at the garage. The double doors were locked. While he was trying to open the padlock, Duncan went around to peer through the side window, shining his flashlight on the car inside.
'Hey, sarg! It's a green Lincoln!' he called excitedly.
Donovan joined him and looked through the window.
'We've got him!' he exclaimed, and he felt a tingle of elation run up his spine. 'This will make that punk Adams bleed at the nose. We've cracked this one in eighteen hours I'
'I'd like to look at that car,' Duncan said.
'What's stopping you?' Donovan went around to the padlocked doors again. 'There's a tyre lever in our car; go and get it.'
He leaned against the garage doors while he waited for Duncan to return. This would shake Adams, he thought. It would shake the Commissioner, too.
What a break ! He wouldn't write a report. He would see the
Commissioner personally and tell him. There was no need to mention Duncan's contribution. After all, Duncan had years ahead of him to get promotion. No need to tell the Commissioner who cracked the case. If he said nothing the Commissioner would assume he had thought up the angles.
Duncan returned with the tyre lever. They broke the padlock and opened the door. Donovan snapped down a light switch and lit up the garage.
While Duncan examined the back seat of the Lincoln, Donovan looked over the driving seat.
'Here we are,' Duncan said suddenly. 'This clinches it.'
He handed Donovan a much-thumbed notebook. It was the car attendant's missing registration book.
'On the floor behind the driving seat. Must have slipped out of his hip pocket.'
Donovan grinned.
'And it's got his car number in it, too! Yeah, this clinches ill'
'Let's go talk to him, sergeant.'
Together the two detectives walked up the path. Donovan stuck his thumb against the bell-push and kept it there. They waited several minutes while the bell rang continuously, then Donovan stepped back with an exclamation of disgust.
'Looks like he's out,' he said.
