Blood on the Line

‘There’s only one thing that interests me at the moment,’ she told him. ‘I want to know how the investigation is going. Robert was unfairly criticised in yesterday’s edition. I hope that they have the grace to recognise his qualities in today’s paper.’

Face contorted with fury, Tallis read the article in The Times aloud.

‘“Days have now elapsed since the discovery of two inhuman murders and the perpetrators of these unspeakable deeds are, we regret to say, still at liberty to kill again. Surely the distinguished Railway Detective can do better than this? The public has a right to expect certain standards from our police and they have fallen woefully below those standards in this instance. If Superintendent Tallis and Inspector Colbeck suffer these devils to remain at liberty, they will inflict on themselves indelible disgrace …”’

Scrunching the newspaper up, Tallis hurled it to the floor and reached for a cigar. Not daring to move, Leeming remained motionless but Colbeck retrieved the paper and smoothed it between his hands.

‘They did name Irene Adnam,’ he pointed out, ‘and that, after all, was the object of the exercise.’

Tallis smouldered. ‘They can never resist a chance to attack me,’ he said. ‘Newspapers are a despicable invention.’

‘Our lives would be a struggle without them, sir. Set against their defects are many virtues. All that you read was one article out of many. Read the whole newspaper and you’ll see the range of its coverage. It’s a mine of useful information.’

‘Superintendent Tallis is an incompetent idiot – is that what you call useful information?’

‘You’ve been called worse, sir,’ Leeming put in cheerily before recoiling from the superintendent’s icy glare. ‘There’s one thing that we may be sure of, I fancy. Constable Peebles will not wish to include anything from that article in his scrapbook. It suggests that the police only recruit imbeciles.’

‘The other newspapers were less trenchant,’ noted Colbeck. ‘Each and every one of them did what we asked and identified Irene Adnam as the person who shot Constable Wakeley. That will cause an enormous shock. Who would expect a young woman to be capable of such a heinous crime?’

‘That’s what Estelle said to me.’

‘Sergeant Leeming,’ growled Tallis.

‘Yes, sir?’

‘Your wife has no place in this discussion.’

‘Estelle was only expressing a common opinion.’

‘It’s irrelevant to the investigation. I’ve told you before about quoting Mrs Leeming as if she has some kind of auxiliary role as a detective. She does not and never will have,’ he said before biting off the end of his cigar and spitting it into the wastepaper basket. ‘So please do not mention her name again. Learn from Colbeck. He never drags in the uninformed comments of the lady who is about to become his wife. A woman’s place is in the home – leave her there.’

‘If you say so, Superintendent,’ replied Leeming.

‘And you might pass on that advice to Constable Peebles.’

‘I will, sir.’

‘He’s rather prone to mention the lady in his life.’

‘That’s only natural.’

‘No woman will ever trespass on our work here.’

Leeming shot Colbeck a glance. He was aware that Madeleine had assisted in a number of investigations and was grateful for the help she’d been able to give. Tallis sniffed conspiracy.

‘What’s going on?’ he demanded.

‘Nothing, sir,’ said Leeming, feeling his collar tighten.

‘You gave the inspector a meaningful look.’

‘I think you’re mistaken.’

‘I’m never mistaken about you,’ said Tallis, lighting his cigar with some difficulty. ‘I can read you like a book, Sergeant, though it is not one that I’d recommend to anyone else. The prose is dull, the plot is laboured and its main character is fatally hindered by his many limitations.’

‘You’re being very unjust to Sergeant Leeming,’ said Colbeck, stepping in to defend him. ‘If you care to look back over the years, you’ll be reminded of the countless occasions when the sergeant showed immense courage in the course of his duties. During our time in France, for example, he risked his life and bore the marks to prove it. I suggest that you read the book named Victor Leeming more carefully in future, Superintendent,’ he went on, indicating his friend. ‘If you do that, you’ll find that it has a most admirable hero.’

Leeming came close to blushing. He had never received such unstinting praise in that office before and – although it came from Colbeck rather than Tallis – it lifted his spirits. In his opinion, it was Colbeck who’d just shown true heroism. Leeming could never have spoken so forcefully to the superintendent. There was another bonus. Tallis had the grace to look abashed and to mumble an apology. As another precedent was set, Leeming grinned from ear to ear.

‘It’s good of you to apologise, sir,’ said Colbeck, holding up the newspaper. ‘I trust that the author of this article about us will follow your example. When we make our arrests, he’ll have to admit that his criticism of us was ill-judged.’

‘First of all,’ said Tallis, now half-hidden by a cloud of cigar smoke, ‘we have to find these devils.’

‘The press will do that for us.’

‘A big reward always gets a good response,’ noted Leeming. ‘Even those who may be hiding the villains will be tempted by that amount of money.’

‘I’m not so much concerned about them,’ said Colbeck. ‘We may get a flood of information but much of it will be false and misleading. The most important readers are Oxley and Adnam. When they pick up a newspaper today, they are in for a fright.’

‘You’re assuming that they can read,’ said Tallis scornfully. ‘Most of the criminals in this country are illiterate. They would only reach for a newspaper when they wanted to light a fire.’

‘That’s not the case here, Superintendent. Irene Adnam’s father went out of his way to impress upon me that he’d paid for his daughter to have a sound education and Oxley is a man of more than average intelligence. This case has aroused a lot of publicity,’ said Colbeck. ‘Details of the investigation are printed every day. Oxley will make a point of reading the newspaper to see how close we’re getting to him. When he sees that we’ve identified his accomplice, he’ll realise that we’re hot on his trail.’

‘Could we have a house like this one day, Jerry?’ pleaded Irene.

‘No,’ he replied.

Her face fell. ‘Why not?’

‘I’d want something much bigger.’

She rallied at once. ‘That’s wonderful!’

‘We have to be ambitious.’

‘Can we afford it?’

‘I’ve got plenty of money hidden away and, as we’ve discovered, we can easily make more when we work together.’

‘What about servants? I’ll want a domestic staff.’

‘You can have as many servants as you wish, Irene.’

It was something that had always rankled with her. During her childhood, she’d lived in a comfortable house and always had servants to tackle any mundane chores. When her father went into decline, she lost the security of a good home and – as they flitted from one meaner abode to another – she found herself doing jobs that had hitherto been allocated to servants. The crowning disgrace was being forced to enter domestic service herself, a way of life she thought of as respectable slavery. It was after nursing rebellious thoughts against her employer that she turned to a life of crime.

‘Can we ever lead a normal life?’ she asked.

‘Gordon and Susanna have managed to do it.’

‘But their situation is rather different. Thanks to all the money he inherited from former patients, Gordon will never have to work again. They can just live contentedly here in anonymity.’