‘I accept that, sir,’ said Colbeck.
‘My question is this – what will Oxley’s next move be?’
‘He’ll go into hiding, sir,’ Leeming put in.
‘Any fool could work that out.’
‘It needed saying nevertheless.’
‘On the contrary, Sergeant,’ said Tallis. ‘It could be taken as read. There are certain assumptions that we can make without having to put them into words. Agreed?’
‘You could be right, sir.’
‘I am right, man – now please shut up.’
‘Victor is quite right in one sense,’ said Colbeck, ‘but wrong in another. Two people on the run will always look for a place of refuge. However …’
‘Go on,’ said Tallis, standing beside him.
‘I suspect that they won’t stay there for long. Oxley will have been shaken rudely out of his complacence by the reports in this morning’s papers. The fact that we arrested his two friends will come as a terrible blow to him, sir.’
‘And so it should. We trailed them to their lair.’
‘It was all because I spoke to that clerk from the ticket office at Euston,’ said Leeming, wishing that he’d never spoken when subjected to the superintendent’s basilisk stare. He retreated into a corner. ‘I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to interrupt.’
‘Pay attention to Colbeck. He has something sensible to say.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘They’ll feel that we’re closing in,’ resumed Colbeck. ‘They tried to kill me and they failed. They thought they were safe with their friends yet we found them. Our pursuit will seem inexorable.’
‘That’s why it must continue with vigour.’
‘Why did you say that I was wrong, Inspector?’ asked Leeming.
‘You almost invariably are,’ sniped Tallis.
‘They’ll hide in the first instance, Victor,’ said Colbeck, ‘but the ground will tremble beneath them when they learn about the way that we almost caught them. They may well decide that there’s only one course of action left open to them.’
‘There’ll be a second attempt to kill you?’ asked Tallis.
‘That would be far too risky, sir. No, I believe that they will seriously consider leaving the country altogether. That way – and that way only – they’d feel out of our reach.’
‘It makes sense,’ remarked Leeming.
Tallis was not persuaded. ‘It’s yet another of the inspector’s famous theories,’ he said with a slight edge. ‘How valid this one is, I have my doubts. We are talking about a man who’s contrived to evade the law for a very long time.’
‘He’s beginning to lose his touch, sir,’ observed Colbeck. ‘He was arrested in Wolverhampton. That was careless of him. And when he set out to kill me, he shot someone else in my place.’
‘There’s no need to harp on about that,’ said Tallis, uneasily.
‘I fancy that they’ll consider going abroad.’
‘I wouldn’t,’ said Leeming. ‘You can’t trust foreigners. I hated it when we had to go to France. They were so shifty over there.’
‘Spare us your reminiscences,’ said Tallis, acidly.
‘They never made us feel welcome, sir.’
‘You are rapidly outwearing your welcome in this very room, Leeming. Either hold your tongue or get out of here.’ Leeming shrank back into his corner again. ‘Where will they go, Inspector?’
‘My guess is as good as yours, sir,’ said Colbeck, ‘but I know one thing. If they
‘How do you intend to do that?’
‘We’ve seen before that Irene Adnam still has feelings for her father. I don’t believe that she’d leave the country without paying him a last visit.’ He picked up a pin and jabbed it into the map. ‘This is where I believe we should go next, sir – Manchester.’
Even in the relatively short time since she’d last seen him, Silas Adnam’s health had visibly deteriorated. Irene saw that his cheeks had hollowed, his eyes were bloodshot and his skin pallid. His cough was now almost continuous and causing him so much pain that he kept putting a hand to his chest. Adnam’s voice was hoarse.
‘I’m surprised to see you again, Irene,’ he said.
‘How are you feeling?’
‘My lungs are on fire. It’s getting worse.’
‘You should have spent some of that money I gave you on a doctor. You need help, Father.’
‘I’m past helping.’ He came forward to glare at her. ‘I never thought that it would come to this.’
‘It was your own fault,’ said Irene.
‘I’m not talking about me – I’m talking about
‘I don’t understand.’
‘A detective came to see me. His name was Inspector Colbeck. He told me exactly what sort of a daughter I have.’
She reeled. ‘The inspector came
‘Yes. It looks as if I helped to bring a monster into the world.’
‘Don’t believe everything you hear,’ she warned.
He went on the attack. ‘You don’t work as a governess in London, do you?’
‘No, I don’t, as it happens.’
‘Then why did you tell me that you did?’ he said, resentfully. ‘Why did you tell me lie after lie? There was I, thinking that I had a dutiful daughter, when all the time she was stealing from the people who employed her.’
‘They deserved it,’ she countered. ‘They treated me like dirt.’
‘So it’s true, then?’
‘I don’t deny it.’
‘What about the murder?’ he asked, searching her face with widened eyes. ‘Did you really shoot a policeman?’ She was lost for words. ‘Tell me, Irene. Try to be honest with your father for once in your life. Did you or did you not kill someone?’
She lowered her head. Taking her silence as a confession of guilt, he let out a gasp of horror then had a coughing fit. He flopped down on the bed and put a palm to his chest. Irene was mortified that he now knew the truth about her. The fact that Colbeck had actually been to see her father was more than unsettling. It induced instant panic. Irene could simply not understand how he’d made contact with the old man. It altered the whole situation. Having come to tell him a rehearsed story about going abroad with the family for whom she worked, she had to think again. Before, her father had been no more than a pathetic ruin. Now, however, he was a potential danger. Shocked by the ugly truth about his daughter, he might be tempted to report her visit to the police.
Irene knew exactly what Oxley would do in her position. There’d be no hesitation. Faced with the possibility of betrayal, he’d kill the old man without compunction. He’d only be shortening a life that had very little time to run. That option was not available to Irene. She had no weapon and she was held back by a vague sense of duty to the man who’d fathered her. Besides, her conscience already had far too much to accommodate. Irene decided to buy his silence.
‘I’m leaving the country,’ she told him.
‘Good riddance!’ he said.
‘You’ll never see me again, Father.’
‘That won’t trouble me. I want nothing to do with a killer.’
‘I had to do what I did,’ she said. ‘It’s no good explaining because you’d never understand. But before you start to look down on me, you should remember how much money I’ve given you over the years. I’ve kept you alive, Father. I had no need to do that.’
‘If I’d known where the money came from, I’d never have touched it,’ he said, rising to his feet to strike a
