Blood on the Line

Irene was rocked. She’d never known Oxley make mistakes before yet he had now made three in succession. In retrospect, the move to London had been a grave error on his part. She had accepted the logic of it because Oxley had been so persuasive. It was their first mistake. The second had been his attempt to kill Inspector Colbeck. Having taken the trouble to choose an ideal location for the murder, Oxley had sent a note to Scotland Yard in the firm belief that it would draw the detective out into the open. In order to bait Colbeck, he’d included a reference to Helen Millington. In the end, however, the plan had turned into a fiasco. The wrong man had been shot and Colbeck remained alive to pursue them.

It was the third mistake that stunned Irene. Insisting that they were in no danger of being recognised from their descriptions in the newspapers, he suggested that they might recuperate at the Coventry hotel where they’d had such good service. Desperate for somewhere to rest, she’d agreed wholeheartedly. It was a fateful decision. Irene would never forget the look in Gwen Darker’s eyes as they stepped across the threshold of the hotel. She knew exactly who Mr and Mrs Salford really were and, in a carrying voice, ordered one of her staff to summon a policeman. Oxley and Irene had to take to their heels.

They were now at a hotel in Crewe, a railway junction that would allow them to escape, if the need arose, in one of various directions. To avoid being seen together, they checked in separately. Oxley waited until the coast was clear then joined her in her room. There was a frantic embrace.

‘I’m frightened, Jerry,’ she said.

‘You’ve no need to be.’

‘You keep saying that but it’s not true. Look what happened in Coventry. That manageress recognised us. She’ll tell the police and they’ll get into contact with Inspector Colbeck.’

‘But they’ll have no idea where we are.’

‘I wonder.’

He pulled her closer. ‘Stop worrying, will you?’ he said. ‘You never used to do this, Irene. We’ve had narrow shaves before and you found it exhilarating. Why get upset because Mrs Darker worked out who we must be?’

‘If she can do it, Jerry, so can someone else.’

‘Only if we’re seen together and we’ll move around separately from now on. The police are hunting for a couple, not for two single individuals. Wherever we stay, we’ll have different rooms.’

‘But I want to be with you,’ she pleaded.

‘You will be, Irene – all night long.’

‘This is starting to get me down,’ she admitted.

‘I know,’ he said, kissing her and starting to unbutton her dress. ‘I have just the cure for that.’

‘I keep thinking about Gordon and Susanna. What are they going to say when they realise that we ran away from them?’

‘I hope they have the sense to say nothing but I can’t guarantee that. Anyway, you can forget them. There’s no chance whatever of Inspector Colbeck finding out where we stayed in London.’ Undoing the last button, Oxley slipped his hand inside the dress to caress her breast. ‘He’ll still be chasing his tail at Scotland Yard.’

Victor Leeming was flabbergasted at the turn of events. When they followed the trail to Willesden, the last thing he envisaged was that they would arrest two people wanted by the Bradford Borough Police for a series of so-called mercy killings. On the train journey back to London with them, he thought that they were being arrested for having sheltered two killers. It was only when Philip and Anna Oldfield were in custody that he learnt of their criminal past. Leeming was staggered by the number of victims involved.

‘There were over a dozen?’ he gasped, eyes bulging. ‘I’m glad that he was never my doctor.’

‘The patients all seem to have been elderly women who begged him to rescue them from their misery. Oldfield still refuses to accept that he was committing a crime.’

‘It was murder, pure and simple.’

‘That’s not how he describes it,’ said Colbeck. ‘He claims that he spared them horrid, lingering deaths. I must write to the police in Bradford. After all this time, they’ll be grateful to get their hands on Dr and Mrs Oldfield again. It’s their case, Victor, and not ours. We have other fish to fry.’

‘I’d call Oxley more of a shark than a fish, sir.’

‘He certainly has a shark’s viciousness.’

‘He kills anyone who gets in his way.’

They were in Colbeck’s office at Scotland Yard, reviewing the day’s developments. Ordinarily, the inspector would have reported to Tallis as soon as he entered the building. That was no longer possible because his superior had resigned. He left behind him a feeling of emptiness. When Colbeck glanced in the direction of Tallis’s office, Leeming read his mind.

‘I don’t think that the superintendent should leave,’ he said.

‘Neither do I,’ said Colbeck.

‘It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? There have been hundreds of times when I’ve wished him out of here, yet the moment he does go, I miss him. He did his job well even if it meant yelling at me whenever I got within earshot of him.’

‘I don’t think his resignation will be accepted, Victor.’

‘If he wants to go, nobody can stop Mr Tallis.’

‘I’m hoping to talk him out of it.’

‘How can you do that?’ asked Leeming. ‘He was so shocked by what happened. Because they’d both been in the army, he looked on Ian Peebles with especial favour. I’m ashamed to say that I thought he’d never make the grade at first.’

‘He won’t get the opportunity to do so now, Victor. We just have to make sure that he didn’t die in vain,’ said Colbeck, ‘and the way to do that is to call Jeremy Oxley to account. Unlike Dr Oldfield, he can’t pass off his murders as mercy killings.’

‘You’re in complete control now, sir.’

‘That rather unnerves me. It feels wrong somehow.’

‘Will you draft in someone to replace Constable Peebles?’

‘No, I think that we can manage on our own.’

‘As acting superintendent, you’ll have several detectives to deploy and lots of other cases to supervise.’

Colbeck was adamant. ‘I’m still an inspector,’ he said, ‘and I intend to remain so for the foreseeable future. One thing I won’t do is to relinquish my part in this investigation. I owe it to Constable Peebles to pursue our enquiries with vigour. In a sense, he died in place of me. That leaves me with a sense of obligation.’

‘It’s the young lady I keep thinking about,’ said Leeming, sadly. ‘He talked so fondly of her – Catherine, her name was. It’s a tragedy. All their plans have suddenly turned to dust. He told me that the banns of marriage were being read for the first time next month.’

‘That would have been a very special moment.’

‘It was for me and Estelle. I was shaking with fear. When the vicar asked if anyone had just cause or impediment why we shouldn’t be joined together in holy matrimony, I was terrified that someone would jump up and spoil everything.’

‘They’d have had no reason to do so.’

‘That didn’t stop me worrying,’ said Leeming. ‘I suppose that the truth of it is that I never felt good enough for Estelle. I never believed that I deserved a wife as wonderful as her, so I kept waiting for someone to step in and take her away from me.’

‘Your fears were groundless. Anyone who’s seen the two of you together knows that you’re ideally suited.’

‘I still thank God every day for my good fortune. With a face like mine, I thought I’d be lucky to attract any woman, yet I finished up with a beautiful wife.’ He laughed with delight. ‘But I do remember sitting through the banns with my hands shaking. It was a test of nerves, I can tell you. Well,’ he added, ‘you’ll find that out for yourself, sir. When are your banns being read for the first time?’

Colbeck was taken aback. The question was innocent enough yet it left him befuddled. The truth was that he hadn’t given the matter any thought at all. Since the killer of Helen Millington had reappeared in his life after so many years, everything else had been pushed to the back of his mind. It was unfair on those close to him. They’d