send up some of the special new coffee, and slouched deep in his chair to think.
One hour, three cigarettes, and two cups of black coffee later, he knew what had been bothering him and what to do about it. He snatched up the phone and dialled the front desk.
'Put Sergeant Hatchley on,' he snapped. He knew that Hatchley had a habit of chatting with Rowe.
'Sir?' Hatchley answered.
'Sergeant, I want you to go to Sharp's place and ask Graham Sharp to drop by and see me right away. Tell him it's to do with his son's statement and it's urgent. Got that?'
'Yes, sir.'
'And don't take no for an answer, Sergeant. If he grumbles about locking up the shop and losing business, remind him what a difficult position young Trevor's in.'
'Right,' Hatchley answered, 'I'm on my way, sir.'
III
'Trevor Sharp's been bound over to the youth authorities,' Richmond was saying. 'Do you want me to get him over here?'
'No,' Banks answered. 'It doesn't matter. How's Webster?'
'The last I heard, sir, he's in fair shape. The surgeon managed to save that finger. Have you seen my report?'
'No, I haven't. It's been a busy morning. No time for reading. Give me a summary.'
'It was just to tell you that Vic Manson got some good prints from the jewelry, sir. It seems the lads must have handled it at home after the burglaries, when they felt safe.'
'And?'
'And both Sharp's and Webster's prints showed up, sir.'
'We've got the buggers, then.'
'Looks like it, sir. Webster's been doing a bit of talking, too. That shock to his system has shaken his ideas around no end. The doc won't let us talk to him for long yet, but he's already told us it was him and Sharp did the jobs.'
'Good work,' Banks said. 'Could you bring in Allott for me, please?'
'The peeper, sir?'
'Yes. Robin Allott. Bring him up.'
'Very well, sir. I'm afraid his mother's still downstairs on the bench. Refuses to leave until she sees the superintendent.'
Banks scratched his chin. It was itchy because he hadn't shaved that morning. 'I wouldn't wish her on him,' he said. 'Try and get rid of her. And whatever you do, make sure she doesn't see her son coming up.'
'I'll do my best, sir.'
A few moments later, Robin Allott was escorted into Banks's office and told to make himself comfortable. Allott still couldn't meet the inspector's eyes, and Banks almost felt like telling him to stop dwelling on it, that it was all over and done with. But he didn't. Why let the bastard off the hook after what he'd done to Sandra? If she hadn't already known Allott, Banks thought, there wouldn't have been any pity in her feelings toward him.
About fifteen minutes later, there was a knock at the door. Banks opened it to Sergeant Hatchley with an anxious Graham Sharp in tow.
'What is it, Inspector?' Sharp demanded angrily as he charged across the threshold. 'Your sergeant told me it-'
And he froze. As the newcomer entered the room, Robin Allott had turned to see what the commotion was, and his jaw dropped in immediate recognition.
'That's him!' he said, pointing at Sharp. 'That's the man I saw!'
Graham Sharp looked at him, then at Banks. His face drained of color and he reached out to support himself on the edge of the flimsy desk. Banks gestured to a confused Hatchley to stay and to pull up a chair for him.
'Like to tell me about it, Mr. Sharp?' he asked.
'What made you think of me?'
'Somebody else in your position.'
'What do you mean?'
Banks looked at Robin, then back at Sharp. 'His mother came in and swore blind he was with her when he had already admitted to being the peeper. I just got to thinking about the lengths some people would go to protect their families. After a while, it all seemed to fit. Your son insisted that he and Webster had nothing to do with Alice Matlock's death and that was the only thing I believed from him. I'd already suspected that it was a different kind of crime. There was no senseless damage to Alice's sentimental possessions as there had been in the other cases, and she was the first victim to die.
'The problem then was who on earth would want to kill a harmless old woman, and why? Robin's mother gave me the answer. I remembered how protective you had been about Trevor, ready to perjure yourself and swear blind to false alibis. It didn't take much stretching of the imagination to figure out that you might go a lot further to protect your illusion of him. The simple fact is, Mr. Sharp, that your son's a callous, vicious bastard, but to you he's a bright lad with a promising future. You would do anything to protect that future. Am I right?' Sharp nodded.
'I don't know all the details,' Banks went on, 'but I think that Alice Matlock found out something about your son. Maybe she saw him leaving the scene of a break-in, saw him with some stolen goods or noticed him hiding his balaclava. She wasn't a very sociable person, but everybody knew about the other women who'd been robbed. Am I still right?'
Sharp sighed and accepted a cigarette with a trembling hand. He seemed on the verge of a nervous collapse.
'Are you all right?' Banks asked.
'Yes, Inspector. It's just the relief. You've no idea what a burden this has been for me. I don't think I could have stood it much longer, pushing it to the back of my mind, pretending it never really happened. It was an accident, you know.'
'Do you mean you would have come forward eventually?'
'Possibly. I can't say. I know how far I'd go to protect my son, but not how far I'd go to save myself.'
'Tell me about it.'
'Yes. Alice Matlock told me that she had heard Trevor bragging about the robberies with another boy one evening when she was walking home from a friend's house. She came into my shop that Monday just before closing and told me about it. Said she was going to report him to the police the next day. She had no proof, no evidence, and at first it didn't bother me much because I thought nobody would take any notice of an old woman. But then I got to worrying about what damage it might do, what questions we might have to answer.
'I couldn't believe Trevor was guilty, even though I knew there was something wrong. Maybe I did know it, deep down. I can't say. But I wanted to protect him. Is that so unusual in a father? I thought that whatever it was it was just a phase he would pass through. I didn't want his life ruined because of a few foolish juvenile exploits.'
'If you'd come forward with your suspicions a long time ago,' Banks remarked, 'you would have saved everybody, including your son, a lot of grief. Especially Thelma Pitt.'
Sharp shook his head. 'I still can't believe my Trevor did that.'
'Take my word for it, Mr. Sharp, he did. That's just the point.'
Sharp flicked the ash off his cigarette and looked at the floor.
'What happened?' Banks asked.
'I went to talk to her that night. Just talk to her. I knocked on the door and she answered it. I'm not really sure that she recognized me. She seemed to think I was someone else. I told her what a good future Trevor had and what a crime it would be to spoil it for him. I was desperate, Inspector. I even pleaded with her, but it was no good.'
