eighty in there. He turned as we entered and sat down again.
I made a production of looking at my watch. 'Is that the time?' I said. 'I'd better make a phone call, if you'll excuse me.' I went to the front door and lifted the latch so I didn't lock myself out. I stood on the front step and spoke to the desk sergeant, telling him where I was and asking for a panda to come and stand by.
'It's still raining,' I told them as I took my seat again. They didn't comment. 'Mrs. Crabtree was telling me that Susan's boyfriend wanted her to have an abortion,' I said.
William shuffled and looked uncomfortable.
'Do you approve of abortions, Mr. Crabtree?' I asked, watching him as I waited for an answer.
'I… don't know,' he replied, eventually.
'Do you know the boyfriend's name?'
He shook his head.
'I think you do.'
'No.'
'You were a soldier, I believe.'
He looked at me, startled by the change of tactic. 'I was a conscript,' he replied. 'Called up. We all were.'
'How old were you?'
'Eighteen.'
'Did you sign on?'
'Only for three years.'
'When was that?' '1950.'
'And did you go abroad?'
'Germany.'
'That would have been quite an experience for a young man.'
'Yes, it was.'
'You'd see all the devastation.'
'Yes.'
'Did you carry a gun?'
He shrugged his shoulders.
'Did you carry a gun, Mr. Crabtree?'
'There were guns about. Sometimes we carried one. It was dangerous.
We never knew what they were thinking.'
'An Enfield thirty-eight?'
'Possibly. I don't remember. It was a long time ago.'
'It was a long time ago,' Mrs. Crabtree repeated.
'Yes, it was,' I agreed. They were sitting with their backs to the window, which meant that their faces were in shadow but I could see out into the street beyond them.
'Losing a child,' I began, 'like you did. And a grandchild. It's the saddest thing imaginable. You must have been about forty when Susan was born. You'd probably already accepted that you'd never be parents.
Resigned yourselves to it. And then she came along everything you'd always wanted. And, all those years later, little Davey, too the grandchild you never expected to have. If someone took them away from you, caused their deaths, you'd want to kill that person, don't you think?'
He crossed his feet and dug his fingers into the chair arm. She sniffed and pressed her interlocked hands into her lap. Neither spoke.
'You knew all about the doctor she met at the squash club, didn't you?'
I continued. 'She'd come home, thrilled to pieces, and tell you all about him. When she fell pregnant you knew he must be the father. He took her to the clinic and she told you that she was thinking of having an abortion. Is that what happened?'
'He was the devil's disciple,' Mrs. Crabtree told us. 'He tempted her with the forbidden fruit, then wanted her to resort to murder to avoid the wages of sin. He filled her head with ideas, but with the help of her loved ones the will of God prevailed.'
'And when Susan died, you blamed him.'
'Our Lord is a jealous Lord. 'Vengeance is mine,' He said.'
She was ga-ga. Stark, staring ga-ga. Outside, a car horn peep-peeped and I saw a panda's blue lights slide past above the privet hedge. I turned to William. Maybe he was capable of rational thought.
'You wanted him dead, didn't you?' I said.
He shrugged and stared at the carpet.
'And one day, you remembered the gun. Where was it? Hidden up in the loft, or somewhere, wrapped in grease-proof paper? Whenever we have a guns amnesty it's amazing how many old soldiers bring in weapons that they forgot to hand back when they were de mobbed Do you know what I think, William?' I didn't wait for an answer. 'I think you found the doctor's name and address in Susan's diary, when you went through her things. And then the hatred for him began to fester in your minds.
Both of you. The strange thing is, I think it's perfectly understandable. In your shoes, I'd have wanted the same thing. What did you do? Go round, with the gun? But he lived in a block of flats and you didn't know how to get in, did you? So you left a Magic Plastic catalogue in his mailbox, with a note saying that you'd call back. Couldn't you do it, that first time? And what did you think when he ordered a mini-bin from you? Is this about how it happened, Mr. Crabtree?'
He nodded, slowly and deliberately, without taking his eyes from the carpet.
'But then Christmas came, with all its images of children, and the feelings became unbearable. Christmas Eve was the first anniversary of Susan's and Davey's deaths. You went back again, didn't you? You said you were the man from Magic Plastic, and he let you in. This time you made him lie on the carpet and you shot him through the head. Am I right is that how you did it?'
His wife reached across and took his hand. 'Suffer the little children to come unto me,' she said, 'for theirs is the Kingdom of God.'
He looked up at me and nodded. 'Yes,' he whispered.
'What did you do with the gun, William?' I demanded.
He opened his mouth to speak, but she beat him to it. 'He threw it in the canal.'
'Did you?'
'Yes, I threw it in the canal.'
'Whereabouts?'
'Off the bottom bridge.'
That shouldn't be too difficult to find, I thought. I turned to her.
'Could you get your coats and shoes, Mrs. Crabtree,' I said. 'I think you'd both better come down to the station.' She struggled to her feet and went to fetch them.
We stood in the hallway and I held her coat while she helped him with his. She fussed around him, checking his buttons and fastening his belt. He thrust his hands deep into the pockets as she placed hers on his cheeks and kissed him.
'Don't worry, Treasure,' she whispered to him. 'Be brave. Mother's coming with you.'
As soon as she was inside her own coat I asked where the key was. She retrieved it from a hook beside the door and handed it to me.
'Right, let's go,' I said. I locked the door behind us and took William by the arm, guiding him up the garden path, Mrs. Crabtree leading the way. The panda was parked near my car. When the driver saw us emerge he drove slowly towards the Crabtrees' gate.
Mr. Crabtree wrenched his arm from mine as the car stopped. I turned as the gun fired and saw the side of his head blossom like a chrysanthemum and felt the warm wetness of him on my face. He was falling through a scarlet mist. I threw my arms around him but I was off-balance and he dragged me down to the ground. Mine was the embrace that held him in his death throes, but he was already beyond comforting.
The two PCs came running, but there was nothing anyone could do. I took the waterproof coat off and spread it over William's body, the army-issue Enfield revolver still grasped in his hand as his blood spread out across the
