Blood on the Line

I want is to be with you. Let’s find somewhere to spend the night, then I can tell you why.’

‘I thought we were going to Manchester.’

‘That can wait until tomorrow. Given what we did today, I think we’re entitled to celebrate.’

‘Yes, we are!’

‘Are you ready to be my wife for another night?’

Irene laughed. ‘I’m ready tonight and every night.’

They got up from their table and headed for the door. As they came out of the pub, they were elated. With Irene on his arm, Oxley strode purposefully along, distributing smiles to everyone he passed and making the most of his freedom. He then pulled Irene gently into an alleyway so that he could confide something to her.

‘Remember this, my love,’ he told her. ‘You didn’t shoot a human being on that train this morning.’

‘But I did, Jerry,’ she said, earnestly. ‘You saw me.’

‘All you killed was a policeman.’

‘So?’

Oxley beamed. ‘They don’t count.’

CHAPTER THREE

As soon as they arrived in the town, they hired a cab to take them to Garrick Street, home of the Wolverhampton Borough Police Force. Roland Riggs, the duty sergeant, was a big, beetle-browed man with an instinctive dislike of anyone who tried to take over an investigation he felt should be carried out by his own men. Colbeck and Leeming were given a frosty welcome. Accustomed to such treatment, they asserted their authority and drew all the relevant information out of Riggs. They learnt the names of the two murdered policemen and heard how the both of them had been hit by a train coming in the opposite direction. What Riggs could not explain was how two of his best officers had been unable to stop the prisoner from escaping.

‘Jeremy Oxley didn’t look like a dangerous man,’ he argued.

‘I knew it was him,’ said Colbeck.

‘The inspector has had a brush with Oxley before,’ explained Leeming. ‘That’s why he was so eager to take on the case.’

‘By rights, it falls within our jurisdiction,’ insisted Riggs. ‘Bob Hungerford and Arthur Wakeley were good friends of mine. It’s the reason I volunteered to tell their wives what had happened. You can imagine how I felt doing that.’

‘You have my sympathy, Sergeant,’ said Colbeck. ‘It must have been a harrowing assignment. The only consolation is that they heard the appalling news from an experienced officer who knew how to soften their grief. They’re not the kind of tidings you want a young and unschooled policeman blurting out on the doorstep.’

Riggs was solemn. ‘I’d agree with you there.’

‘Where was the prisoner being taken?’ wondered Leeming.

‘It was only as far as Birmingham. We had information that a man fitting his description had robbed a pawnshop there at gunpoint. The way that Oxley resisted arrest was a confession in itself. Our colleagues in Birmingham were delighted to hear that we had him in custody.’

‘They must have been surprised to hear of his escape.’

Riggs rubbed his chin. ‘I’d still like to know how the bugger managed that.’

‘I think there’s only one logical explanation,’ said Colbeck. ‘He must have had an accomplice. I feel sure that you’d never have let him leave here until he’d been thoroughly searched. He would not have been carrying a concealed weapon.’

‘We know our job, Inspector.’

‘Then another person was involved.’

‘That’s an obvious assumption,’ said Riggs, gruffly, ‘yet the only passenger who got into the same compartment was a young woman. A number of witnesses recalled her, jumping on the train at the very last moment.’

‘There’s your accomplice,’ concluded Colbeck.

Riggs was dubious. ‘Could someone like that shoot one policeman and help to overpower another? I think not, Inspector.’

‘Then you don’t know Jerry Oxley. He has a strange power over women and can get them to do almost anything for him. Believe me, I’ve had dealings with this fellow. His accomplice then was the woman with whom he’d been living. The likelihood is that the one in question this time is his latest mistress.’

‘So he’s corrupted her,’ said Leeming with disapproval.

‘Oh, I suspect that she was not entirely without corruption beforehand, Victor. How else could she meet him in the first place without frequenting the sorts of places he tends to visit? All that he did was to draw her deeper into the criminal fraternity.’

‘Where could she have got hold of a gun?’

‘She and Oxley would travel with a weapon all the time.’

‘He was carrying a pistol when we arrested him,’ noted Riggs.

‘Then his accomplice could have bought a second one. It’s not difficult if you have enough money, and they’d just committed a robbery in Birmingham, remember. No,’ Colbeck went on, ‘I don’t think we should waste time speculating on how she acquired the weapon. The first thing we must do is to unmask the second accomplice.’

Riggs blinked. ‘There were two of them?’

‘Yes, Sergeant, and I’m afraid to tell you that one of them wears a police uniform. Oxley’s mistress had help from one of your men.’

‘That’s a disgraceful allegation!’ shouted Riggs, banging his desk. ‘I can vouch for every one of my constables. None of them would dream of being party to a plot to murder two of their fellow officers.’

‘I’m sure that’s true,’ said Colbeck, ‘but, then, the man I’m after would have had no idea that such dread consequences would ensue. It probably never occurred to him that he was aiding and abetting the escape of a desperate criminal.’

Riggs folded his arms. ‘Explain yourself, Inspector.’

‘Very few people must have known when Oxley was being transferred from here to Birmingham. Is that agreed?’

‘Yes – only a handful of us had the details.’

‘I need the name of every man who knew the exact train on which the prisoner would be taken this morning. You, presumably, are one of them.’

‘Are you accusing me?’ howled Riggs, reddening.

‘Of course not,’ said Colbeck with a soothing smile. ‘You are evidently far too sensible to let such vital information slip. It must have been someone else. How many people knew?’

‘And where can we get in touch with them?’ added Leeming.

‘Let me see now,’ said Riggs, thinking hard and using his fingers to count. ‘Including me, there’d only be four of us – but I have complete faith in the other three. They’re all decent, reliable, upright men who’d never dare to be involved in anything like this.’

‘Would you care to put money on that?’ said Leeming.

‘I’m not a gambling man, Sergeant.’

‘It’s just as well because you’d certainly lose.’

Riggs fell back on pomposity. ‘My men are above suspicion.’

Colbeck was impassive. ‘Give us their names.’

Though she was pleased to see her father, Madeleine did find him a distraction while she was trying to paint. He kept coming up behind her to look at her latest railway scene and to offer unwanted advice. It was Colbeck who’d discovered her talent as an artist and encouraged her to develop it to the point where she was able to sell her work. There were other female artists in London but none specialised in pictures of locomotives in the way that