The Jewel That Was Ours

'And Dr. Kemp — he'd found another woman, too?' asked Morse, cruelly insistent. Yet her answer surprised him.

'Oh, no! He'd already found her; found her long before he found me!'

'Who—'

'His wife — his bloody wife! He was always looking at his watch and saying he'd have to go and—'

She burst into tears and Morse walked diffidently over to the settee, where he temporarily displaced the teddy-bear, put his right arm along her shoulder, and held her to him as she sobbed away the storm.

'I don't know whether I'm in shock or just suffering from a hangover.'

'You don't get hangovers at this time of night.'

'Morning!'

'Morning.'

She nuzzled her wet cheek against his face: 'You're nice.'

'You've no idea why Dr. Kemp—?'

'Might kill himself? No!'

'I didn't say 'kill himself''.'

'You mean—?' For a few seconds she recoiled from him, her eyes dilated with horror. 'You can't mean that he was murdered?'

'We can't be sure, not yet. But you must be honest with me, please. Did you know anyone who might have wanted to kill him?'

'Yes! Me, Inspector. Kill his wife as well while I was at it!'

Morse sedately disentangled himself from Mrs. Williams. 'Look, if there's anything at all you think I ought to know. '

'You don't really think I had anything to do with — with whatever's happened?'

'You were seen walking up St. Giles' towards North Oxford, just after lunch yesterday. And it wasn't Mrs. Roscoe this time, either. It was Sergeant Lewis.'

'I was going—' replied Sheila slowly, 'I went—to the Bird and Baby. Would you like a guess, this time? A guess about what I went for?'

'You were on your own there, in the pub?'

'Ye-es.' She had hesitated sufficiently, though.

'But you saw someone in there?'

'No. But — but I saw someone cycling past; cycling up towards Banbury Road. It was Cedric — Cedric Downes. And he saw me. I know he did.'

Morse was silent.

'You do believe me, don't you?'

'One of the secrets of solving murders is never to believe anybody — not completely — not at the start.'

'You don't really see me as a suspect, surely!'

Morse smiled at her: 'I promise to take you off the list as soon as possible.'

'You know, I've never been suspected of murder before. Thank you for being so civilised about it.'

'It'll be just as well if you don't say anything to the group about it. Not till we're a bit further forward.'

'And you're not very far forward at the minute?'

'Not far.'

'Couldn't we make a little more progress, Morse?' The fingers of her left hand were toying with the top button of her scarlet blouse, and Morse heard the siren voice beside his ear: 'What would you say to another little drink before you go?'

'I'd say 'no', my lovely girl. Because if I'm not reasonably careful, if I do have another drink, in fact if I stay a further minute even without another drink — then I shall probably suggest to you that we proceed — don't forget that we don't 'progress' in the police force, we always 'proceed' — to, er. ' Morse waved a hand vaguely aloft, drained his glass, rose from the settee, and walked to the door.

'You'd enjoy it!'

'That's what's worrying me.'

'Why not, then?'

Sheila had not moved from the settee, and Morse stood in the doorway looking back at her: 'Don't you know?'

A few minutes later, as he turned right into the Banbury Road, now beginning to think once more with some semblance of rationality, Morse considered whether his witness had been telling him the whole truth. Just as ten minutes earlier, as he had driven back to St. Aldate's, Lewis had wondered the same about Mrs. Kemp; in particular recalling the curious fact that, for a woman who had so manifestly hated her husband, she had reacted to the news of his death with such terrible distress.