The Jewel That Was Ours

he heard? Something in his face suggested to her that he might well have done, perhaps.

But it was difficult to tell.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

I do love to note and to observe

(Jonson, Volpone)

'I JUST DON'T BELIEVE IT!' declared Morse.

It had been Lewis himself who a few minutes earlier had taken the call from the Met.

'Trying to cross over the road by King's Cross Station — about five-thirty — hit by a car. From Oxford she is. A Mrs. Downes: Mrs. Lucy Claire Downes according to her plastics. Lonsdale Road.'

'She — is she dead?' Lewis had asked.

'ICU at St. Pancras Hospital. That's all we know.'

'Was she carrying a case?'

'No more details — not yet, Sarge. Seems she just stepped off the pavement to get in front of a row of people and. '

Morse sat down and rested his forehead on his right hand. 'Bloody 'ell!'

'Circle Line from King's Cross to Paddington, sir — about twenty minutes, say? She must have been going for the six o'clock train, and she was probably in a dickens of a rush when. ' Lewis had taken the news badly.

'Yes? Dickens of a rush when she what?'

'When she stepped off the pavement—'

'An intelligent woman deliberately stepping out into the London traffic — in the rush hour? Do you really believe that? Or do you think she might have been pushed? Do you hear me, Lewis? Pushed.'

'How can you say that?'

For a few moments Morse sat where he was. Then he rose to his feet, slowly — his eyes glowing savagely. 'He did it, Lewis. He did it!'

'But he was in Oxford!'

'No he wasn't! He wasn't waiting on the Oxford platform at all. He'd just got off the train. And then he saw us. So he turned round the second he did, and made it look as though he was waiting for the woman he'd just tried to kill — when they were walking along together. He loved her, you see probably never loved anyone in the world except his Lucy. And when he saw her copulating with Kemp. He just couldn't get it out of his mind, not for one second. He thought he was never going to be able to get it out of his mind.' Morse shook his head. 'And I'm an idiot, Lewis. That key! The key they found under the floor-mat in the car, or wherever. I'd guessed that Downes wanted to go back to his car to hide something, so I played along with all that hearing-aid rubbish. And when they brought the key, I knew exactly what it was a left-luggage locker-key. But tell me this, Lewis! How the hell did he get hold of that key if he hadn't met his wife?'

'That's what it is, sir? Left-luggage key? You're sure of it?'

Morse nodded. 'And I'll tell you which station, unless you want to tell me.'

'King's Cross.'

'Could be Paddington, I suppose.'

'The bastard' muttered Lewis, with an unwonted show of emotion.

Morse smiled: 'You like her, don't you?'

'Lovely woman!'

'That's what Kemp thought.'

'Perhaps.?' started Lewis.

'Oh, no! We shall waste no sympathy on Kemp. Look! I want you to get someone to drive you up to the hospital to see her. All right? You can get a bit of kip in the car. Then go to King's Cross and see if there's anything in locker sixty-seven. If there is, bring it back. And if you can get anything in the way of a statement — fine. If not, well, just try to see what she's got to say.'

'If she's. shall I say we've got him here?'

'Perhaps not. I dunno, though. Play it by ear!'

'OK, sir.' Lewis stood up and walked over to the door, where he halted. 'Have you ever thought it might have been Mrs. Downes who killed Dr. Kemp? What if when her husband came home he found Kemp already dead, and then he did all this stuff, you know, to cover up for her?'

'Oh, yes, Lewis. I've thought of every possibility in this case. Including Lucy Downes.'

'You don't think—?'

'I think you will be completely safe in London. I don't think you'll be in the slightest danger of being knifed as you practise your bedside-manner sitting by a semi-conscious young woman in an intensive care unit.'

Lewis grinned weakly, and felt in his pocket to make sure that the brown envelope containing a small red key, number 67, was still there.