The Grave Maurice

Melrose had found him lying on that dock, as if able to relax his own efforts to hold on to life, now that someone else could do it for him. Melrose and Benny had found him. Melrose and Benny and the dog Sparky. Most definitely Sparky. For it was Sparky (one could say) who had found him and had saved Jury’s life. Sparky was the dog of the hour, a dog’s dog, a hero’s hero. Had Benny not been searching for Sparky along the Victoria Embankment, Richard Jury would be dead.

“No question of that,” Dr. Ryder had said. “Another twenty minutes-?” The doctor had shrugged away the outcome.

Jury’s nurse, Nurse Bell, had said (more than once), “Lucky, you are, my lad,” as she’d strong-armed Jury away from the pillows behind him so that she could plump them.

Which was, as far as Melrose was concerned, all she was good for. Melrose couldn’t abide that “lucky” response to disaster. Had his limbs been blown to smithereens and only one arm left-no, no, make that one stump of arm left, Nurse Bell would say, “Lucky you, at least you’ve got your stump. Could’ve been worse.”

As soon as she’d whisked herself off in a crackle of starched uniform, Melrose went over to the bed and messed the pillows about.

Crossly, Jury said, “What in hell are you doing? Isn’t it enough to have that simpering nurse about?”

“I’m just unplumping them. There.”

A sanguine Sergeant Wiggins said from his chair, “She’ll just be back and plump them again.”

“Rats,” said Melrose, returning to his folding chair. Wiggins had the only chair with armrests, and he was making the most of this find as he raked through a basket of fruit sent by some well-wishers in Victoria Street.

“What,” asked Jury, “are you in such bad humor about? You didn’t get shot.”

Melrose was looking out of the window. “Your nurse puts me in mind of one of my nannies.”

“So you’re reverting to nanny behavior. Well, that’s grown-up, that is.”

Wiggins’s rather condescending air was prompted by his having been in hospital himself not long ago (although certainly not from stopping a fusillade of bullets). Right now he was handing over a paperback book to Jury. “It was Mr. Plant himself who brought me this when I was in the Royal Chelsea.” He made it sound like an heirloom. “I think you might like it; it more or less deals with our predicament.”

Our? wondered Jury, who thanked Wiggins. “The Daughter of Time,” Jury said. “Josephine Tey.” He studied the cover. He wondered how this dealt with “our” predicament. “You know, you two are getting more mileage out of my hospital stay than I am.” He fixed first on Melrose. “You get to work out your childhood aggressions, and you”-he turned to Wiggins-“get to relive your hospital adventure in South Ken.”

“Now, now-” Nurse Bell was back already. “We mustn’t get excited and upset.” She handed Jury a plastic cup with a straw. “This will make you feel ever-so-much-better.”

“I already feel ever-so-much-better.” He made a face at the cup.

“I had a cup just like that,” said Melrose, “when I was three. Only I could drink without a straw.”

“And here your friends have come to see you-”

Swiftly, Jury looked around the room. “Where, where?”

Nurse Bell had another go at the pillows. “You do mess your pillows about, don’t you?” She left.

For Wiggins, his head lost-but unbeheaded-in the Tower of London, the last five minutes might not have happened at all. He was back there with Josephine Tey and The Daughter of Time. “You’ll be wanting something to chew on while you’re in here; you’ll want to keep your mind busy-”

“Why would I want to do that? It never was busy before.”

Ignoring this, Wiggins went on. “What it is, is the detective inspector in this book is laid up in hospital and a friend brings him some books, one of them about Richard the Third and the princes in the Tower. You remember all of them?”

“As a matter of fact, I do. It’s quite a popular tale.”

“This detective”-he pointed to the book-“reads about it and at some point decides the whole tale of Richard’s killing the princes is codswallop. So he does more and more research, getting his girlfriend to bring him books and finally comes up with a totally different solution. Clever idea, I think.”

“If I had a girlfriend, maybe I would, too.” He riffled the last pages. “How does it end?” Jury did not like detective stories, especially those starring royalty, so he cut to the chase.

Wiggins, however, wouldn’t follow. “You’ll just have to read it, won’t you?” Wiggins laughed as one might at an intractable, bedridden child. “What I thought was, I could bring you information about one of our cases and you could chew on that.”

“Ah,” said Melrose, tilting his chair back against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest. “Why don’t you chew on this?”

THREE

Maurice was always up early, up at first light, when the world was waking. Cold as it was, rime on the panes, old snow still crusted at the roots of trees, stiff grass more like ice shards than pasture-still he loved it. Although he had to admit one of the reasons for this early hour was that he wouldn’t have to see or talk to, or be seen or talked to by, anyone. It was even too early for his uncle, Roger, who occasionally stayed over. When he did, he liked to come down to the track and watch Maurice exercise the horses.

A couple of nights ago, at dinner, Roger had said, “I’ve an interesting patient, a police superintendent. Scotland Yard, no less. Well… I was just thinking”-his laugh was artificial-“I might tell him the story. Of course he might already have heard… and it’s been almost two years-”

“Tell him,” Maurice interrupted, “the story.”

You can’t give up, Maurice thought now. You can’t give up trying. “Right, Sam?” He tossed the blanket over the horse, then the bridal and saddle. Samarkand nudged his shoulder as if to say Let’s go and Maurice led him out of the stall. This walk from stable to track was just about the best part of Maurice’s day-except, of course, for the ride itself.

No school because it was still the Christmas holiday, but that would end soon. He didn’t really mind school; he had always had a capacity for discipline. He thought it came from caring for the horses, from watching George Davison, the trainer, from watching exercise lads and jockeys, from watching his father, his father up on Samarkand years ago. That horse and Dan Ryder-this was what the sportswriters called the “racing dream team.”

He thought about his father. In no other way was Danny Ryder a “dream.” Too bad he ain’t a horse-it’s the only thing he’s good with, he’d heard the exercise boys say. No wonder she left. Maurice spent a fair amount of time trying not to hate his mum. She had not been a weak woman; she could stand up to his father when she wanted to. She had been-Maurice searched for a word-vague. Vague, yes. She had never seemed certain of what she wanted. It was,