“James Bradley must be happy to be a free man, Sir. And if Marion Watts is lucky, the lawyers may not drag those photos out for everyone to see.”
“Don’t bet on that one, Sergeant. The papers and the media have already gone to town on it. Pity we never found the camera at Kaminsky’s place. Professor Chalmers had a hand in that, I reckon, Marian Watts being a friend and all.” He grunted. “Although my guess is that Ann Bishop got there first and got rid of the camera. It was her way of standing by her man.”
“What happens to the gold and silver we recovered from Minton’s garage and the pieces in the rucksack, Sir? Will we have to wait until the Australian police have located Minton’s partner Bruce Ansell to do anything about it?”
“I think it all reverts to Crown property, Sergeant. But what’s odd is that Bruce Ansell is back. When we put his pictures out, a number of people came forward and said they’d seen him around Lynton and thought he was staying up at Minton’s place; now it’s like he’d disappeared off the face of the earth.”
“Maybe he knew all about it and is just laying low, Sir.”
“Maybe.”
“We put out an alert, but nothing so far. We’ve searched Minton’s and we’ve still come out with a big fat zero; not even a note or an address, Sir.”
“You’re right, Sergeant, he must have known what Minton was up to. We’ll find him eventually, and when he does, he’ll have some questions to answer.”
“What happens about that file with all the names of overseas bank accounts and the name that Lord Farleigh had penciled in against it that the search team found at Minton’s place, Sir?”
“The Chief Constable is handling that one, Jones. Lord Farleigh’s a close friend of the Chief Constable and I expect there’s a simple explanation. Minton had a place up there before he struck lucky.”
“Not so lucky in the end,” Sergeant Jones remarked.
“I’ve got a meeting with our Professor Chalmers at eleven and I’d like you to sit in, Sergeant,” Inspector Fletcher said. He ignored Jones’ comment. “Just take a few notes; it shouldn’t take long.”
He rang down and the clerk at the desk told him that his visitor had arrived.
***
While Ralph had been waiting, he had gone over in his mind what had happened at Joe Minton’s garage. He had made a statement to a police constable while he was in the hospital, but since then he had been thinking about Minton’s missing friend, Bruce Ansell. He had seen the photo in the local paper and remembered that Joe Minton had told him that Ansell had gone back to Australia.
The constable on duty showed Ralph into Inspector Fletcher’s office. From what he recalled, it had not changed since the last time he was there. Whitewashed 1930’s style décor, metal-framed windows that probably had never been opened, battleship grey filing cabinets, and an oak desk. A large painting of the Queen dominated the room. But his first impression was that the Inspector had changed. He was no longer the slightly over-weight, blustering man who had been preoccupied with partnering the Chief Constable in a golf tournament. Now he faced a slightly haggard and tired man who looked like he could do with a nice long holiday.
“Professor Chalmers, come on in. How’s the shoulder?”
Ralph offered his good hand.
“Much better, thanks, apart from having to rely on my wife to do the chauffeuring for a couple of more weeks.”
“And why not, sir. I hear some women aren’t too bad at driving a car these days.” They all laughed. Even though maintaining the male supremacy imagery was a nonsense, it was what men did. It was what Katie referred to as ‘a boy thing’. Ralph suspected that there were equivalent ‘girl things’, but that was a mystery world into which he would never dream of venturing.
“Professor Chalmers, this is Sergeant Jones. He runs the station over at South Molton.”
“I’ve met one of your constables, Sergeant, he managed to diffuse a potentially dangerous situation the other week,” Ralph said as the two men shook hands.
“Professor Chalmers kindly made a report, Sir. Those farm vehicles can be a hazard at night. Especially with their headlights.” He half smiled. Ralph decided to leave it there.
“I think you saw him again over at Long Acre Farm with Mr. Bishop. We have your statement on that as well, sir.”
“Now that everyone is acquainted, how can we be of help, Professor?”
“There are two matters, really,” Ralph said. “The first one’s about Seth Raines.”
“Hit and run. We’re still looking for the vehicle,” Sergeant Jones interjected.
“Well, I think Joe Minton was the driver,” said Ralph.
He explained what Megan had said about Seth possibly being involved in blackmailing Minton over the gold and silver that he had not turned in. He told him what she had said about the five hundred pounds and also about what had happened when he had confronted Minton in his garage about his having killed Seth Raines to stop him blackmailing him.
“He effectively admitted it, Inspector.”
“If Minton had given Seth Raines the money that the publican at The Bell said he had on him that night, that would explain it, Sir,” Sergeant Jones said.
The Inspector sat back and placed his hands on the desk. “Agreed, Sergeant. But we have no proof. No disrespect, Professor but as you know, there’d only be your word, and hearsay won’t fly in Court. Of course we can always check his truck. If it was him, our forensics boys should be able to find some blood or scratch marks. The lab boys took
