'What is it?' Sharp pleaded. 'What on earth is he supposed to have done?' Hatchley turned from the window and startled everybody with his gruff voice. He spoke, however, with a quiet intensity that enthralled his audience completely.
'Last Monday,' he said, 'two lads broke into a woman's house. They thought she was out and wouldn't be back till late. As it happened, she had a fight with her fancy man and came home early. She caught them at it, burgling her house. They tied her up, then one of them raped her and the other kicked her in the head. We think the crime was committed by the same two youths who also burgled a Mr. Maurice Ottershaw's house, assaulted and robbed four old ladies and, possibly,' he glanced at Banks, who nodded, 'killed your neighbor, Alice Matlock.'
'And you're saying my Trevor had something to do with this?' Sharp cried, getting to his feet. The veins on his temples stood out, throbbing wildly. 'You must be insane!' He banged on the flimsy desk. 'I want my lawyer here! I want him here now, before you say another word.'
'You're perfectly at liberty to request that, of course, sir,' Banks said mildly, giving Hatchley the signal to fade into the woodwork again. 'But, I must repeat, your son hasn't been charged with anything yet. He's simply helping us with our inquiries.'
The cliche seemed to calm Sharp down a little. He eased himself slowly back into his chair and brushed back the hair from his forehead. 'I thought your man here just accused my son of rape, burglary, and murder,' he snarled, glaring at Hatchley's back.
'Nothing of the sort,' Banks assured him. 'He simply gave details of the crimes we think your son might be able to help us with.'
Though he no longer linked the robberies with the death of Alice Matlock, Banks knew how to exploit an unsolved killing in his favor. If Trevor thought he was going to get Alice's murder pinned on him, too, there was a slim chance he might confess to the other offenses.
'What makes you think my Trevor knows anything about it?' Sharp asked.
'Because the woman who was raped had just discovered that she had contracted gonorrhea,' Banks said, directing his words at Trevor, who stared down at his knees. 'And your son has just returned from a VD clinic in York, where he was diagnosed as having gonorrhea. The symptoms show up, so I'm told, anywhere between three and ten days. I'd say that seven days fits into that time scale quite well, wouldn't you?'
'But surely,' Sharp objected, 'there are other people visiting these clinics? If Trevor really did go with a prostitute and catch VD from her as he says-and I believe him-then that's no crime. It's just youthful high spirits. I was a bit of a lad myself at his age.'
'Are robbery, rape, assault and murder just youthful high spirits, too?' Banks asked sarcastically.
'Now, look here, you said you weren't accusing my son of anything.'
'I'm not accusing him, I'm trying to get to the truth. I never said he wasn't a suspect, though. Are you sure he went to York last Monday?'
'That's where he said he was going.'
'When did you lose that filling, Trevor?' Banks asked.
'Wednesday,' Trevor replied. But not before his father had said, 'Thursday.'
'You see,' Banks went on, 'the woman who was raped said she remembered the kid's front teeth, that there was some decay between them, as if he had a missing filling. She said she'd recognize it again. She said she'd know his voice, too. And,' here he directed his words at Trevor, 'she'd know his technique. She said she could tell he was just an inexperienced kid because he shot his load almost as soon as he stuck it in.'
Trevor flushed with anger and grasped the edge of the desk. Graham put a restraining hand on his shoulder.
'We'll bring her in, Trevor. She's not afraid to give evidence, you know, despite what your friend did to her. And we'll question all the prostitutes in York. We'll talk to the bus drivers and see if any of them remember you, and if you tell us you went by train we'll talk to the ticket collectors and train crews. We'll find out who else went to York that night and we'll ask if any of them saw you and your friends. Seeing as there were a few of you, I should imagine you were quite noisy-youthful high spirits and all that-and someone in whatever pub you were in is bound to remember. So why don't you make it easier for us, Trevor? Make it easier for everyone. It's up to you. We'll nail you in the end anyway.'
'Come on, Trev,' Hatchley piped up, putting a fatherly hand on the boy's shoulder. 'Before it goes too far. It'll go easier on you this way.'
Trevor shook his hand off.
'I refuse to believe this,' said Sharp. 'My son isn't capable of such actions. He can't be. I raised him myself after his mother left. Gave him everything he wanted. If he's done anything wrong-and I don't think he has- then he was led on. He was led on by that bloody Mick Webster. It's him you want, not my Trevor.'
'Shut up, dad!' Trevor snapped. 'For God's sake, shut up!' And he lapsed back into sullen silence.
Banks got to his feet and smiled down at Trevor, who caught his eye before turning away. Both of them knew, in that split second of eye contact, that Banks had won. He had nowhere near enough evidence yet to make a conviction, but if Mick Webster thought that Trevor had snitched on him…
'Where does he live, this Webster?' Banks asked Graham.
'On the East Side Estate. That first street, the one that faces The Green.'
'I know it. Number?'
'I don't know, but it's the fifth house down after the tobacconist's. I've seen him coming and going a few times when I've been picking up stock.'
'Got that?' Banks asked Hatchley, who nodded. 'Take Richmond, and hurry up. Bring in Mick Webster.'
Chapter FIFTEEN
I
After Alan's phone call, Sandra packed Brian off to the Lifeboys and Tracy to the Guides. They hadn't been interested in such organizations back in London, but since they'd started school in Eastvale and discovered that many of the other children were members, they decided it would be a good way to make friends. Tracy was still quite happy with it, but Brian was already chafing at the bit. He complained that he didn't like drill, and that he liked the leader, who spat as he shouted, even less. Sandra, having been a loner as a child, thought the whole network of Scouts, Cubs, Brownies and the rest rather silly, but she would never say anything about that in front of the children.
When they had finally gone, she took a deep breath and looked around the living room, wondering what to do first. Though she managed to be a fairly efficient housewife, she wasn't an obsessive cleaner. Alan also helped out on the weekends, taking on jobs she didn't like, such as Hoovering the staircase and cleaning the bathroom.
It was seven o'clock. She didn't know when Alan would be back; he'd said he was questioning a suspect. Sandra was trying to decide between doing some darkroom work or settling down with the biography of Alfred Hitchcock she had taken out of Eastvale Library that morning, when there was a knock at the door.
Puzzled, she went to answer it, expecting perhaps Selena Harcourt wanting to borrow a cup of sugar. But it was Robin Allott from the Camera Club.
'You told us you were willing to lend out your slide projector, remember?' he said, standing in the doorway.
'Oh, of course, Robin,' Sandra said. 'I'm so sorry, it slipped my mind. I must have looked quite unwelcoming for a moment. Please come in.'
'I hope I've not called at an inconvenient time.'
'Not at all. I've just sent the children off and I was wondering what to do.'
'Yes, I saw them,' Robin said, smiling. 'Lifeboys and Guides. It reminds me of my own childhood.'
He wiped his feet carefully on the doormat and Sandra hung up his navy-blue raincoat in the hall closet, then directed him into the front room, which he admired politely. He unslung his old, heavy Pentax from his
