The Jewel That Was Ours

'Mm. We're getting pretty high on content but very low on analysis, wouldn't you say? I'll be all right though once the bar opens.'

'It is open — opened half-past ten.'

'Why are we drinking this stuff, then?'

'Stimulates the brain, coffee.'

But Morse was consulting the Paddington-Oxford timetable which Lewis had picked up for him from Reception, and was nodding to himself as he noted that the 13.30 arrived at Oxford 14.57, just as Kemp had claimed. Now if Kemp had been held up, for some reason, for even longer than he'd expected. for considerably longer than he'd expected. Yes, interesting! The train Stratton must have caught—said he'd caught — must have been the 16.20 from Paddington, arriving at Didcot 17.10, and Oxford 17.29. For several seconds Morse stared across Beaumont Street at the great Ionic pillars of the Ashmolean. What time had Kemp left Paddington? For left Paddington he certainly had, at some point, after ringing through to The Randolph to explain his delayed departure.

But what if.?

'You know, sir, I was just wondering about that telephone call. What if—?'

Morse grinned at his sergeant. 'Great minds, Lewis — yours and mine!'

'You really think there's a possibility it wasn't Kemp who rang?'

'Yes, I do. And it would give us a whole new time perspective, wouldn't it? You know, with the best will in the world, Max will never give us too much help if he thinks he can't. Quite right, too. He's a scientist. But if we can narrow the time down — or rather, widen it out, Lewis. '

For a while he appeared deep in thought. Then, pushing his half-finished coffee away from him, he stood up and gave Lewis his orders: 'Go and find Ashenden for me. I shall be in the bar.'

'There we are, then!' said John Ashenden.

It was twenty minutes later, and Morse had decided (insisted) that his temporary HQ in the Lancaster Room should be moved to more permanent quarters in the Chapters Bar Annexe. He had questioned Ashenden in detail for several minutes about the crucial phone call with Kemp, and asked him to write down in dialogue-form the exchanges as far as he could recall them.

Ashenden himself now sat back in his armchair, crossed his lanky legs, and watched with slightly narrowed eyes as Morse took the sheet from him and proceeded to read the reconstructed conversation:

K. I've been held up at Paddington, John

A. Oh no! What's you're trouble?

K. Just missed the train, but I'll catch the half-past one and be with you for quarter- past three, at the very latest. Sorry to let you down like this, and miss the drinks and the lunch and the first bit of p.m. Apologies apologies, John!

A. Not the end of the world, though — not quite! (sotto voce.) I'll do my best to sort things out, of course, and let your group know. Trouble is I changed the time to quarter-to three.

K. I'm a bloody nuisance, I know.

A. It could be worse. Shall I arrange a taxi for you from the station?

K. Is it worth it?

A. Save ten minutes.

K. All right. I get in at just before three o'clock.

A. I'll ring Luxicars just in case there's not a taxi there.

K. Thanks.

A. Make sure you don't miss the next one!

K. No danger. Er, before I ring off can I have a quick word with Cedric please — if he's there?

A. He's here. I'll get him. Hold on!

'You write fairly well,' said Morse, after reading through the sheet for a second time, and still refraining from pointing out the single grammatical monstrosity. 'You ought to try your hand at some fiction one of these days.'

'Fact, Inspector — it's not fiction. Just ask that nosy Roscoe woman if you don't believe me! She was sitting near the phone and she misses nothing.'

Morse smiled, if a little wanly, and conceded the trick to his opponent. Yet he sensed that those next few minutes, after Ashenden had finished speaking with Kemp, might well have been the crucial ones in that concatenation of events which had finally led to murder; and he questioned Ashenden further.

'So you called over to Mr. Downes?'

'I went over to Mr. Downes.'

'But he didn't want to talk to Dr. Kemp?'

'I don't know about that. He was having trouble with his hearing-aid. It kept whistling every now and then.'