Inspector Morse 13 The Remorseful Day

again on the Wednesday evening again with no answer.

Was Morse ill?

Not all that ill, anyway, because he'd appeared on the Thursday morning at

his usual, comparatively early hour.  And said nothing about his absence.  Or

about his row with Strange.

Or about his health, for that matter.  But Morse seldom mentioned his health

.  .

Just below the Cutteslowe roundabout, the bus stopped and four passengers

alighted but not Repp.

At the Martyrs' Memorial, the majority of the passengers alighted but not

Repp.

At the Gloucester Green terminus, the last few passengers alighted but not

Repp.

The 27 bus was now empty.

77

chapter eighteen Any fool can tell the truth; but it requires a man of

some sense to know how to lie well (Samuel Butler) lewis knew what he must do

as soon as he saw Morse's maroon Jaguar parked in its wonted place.

"Still feeling better, sir?"

"Better than what?"

"Can you spare a minute?"

"Si' down!"

Seated opposite, in his own wonted place, Lewis said his piece.

"You're in a bit of a mess," said Morse, at the end of the sorry story.

"That's not much help, is it?"

"Remember the Sherlock Holmes story.  Case a/Identity:' A fellow gets in one

side of a hansom cab, and gets out through the opposite side."

"Doors on buses are always on the same side."

Really?  "

"You never go on a bus."

"But you weren't watching either side.  You were queuing for coffee."

"Buying a paper."

"Listen!"  Morse looked and sounded strained and weary.

"I thought you were asking for my advice.  Do you want to hear it?"

There was a brief silence before Morse continued: "It's not really a question

of your own competence or incompetence probably the latter, I'm afraid.  The

main concern is what's happened to your man.

Repp.  Agreed?  "

Lewis nodded joylessly.

"Well, the situation's fairly simple.  You just lost contact with him in the

middle of things, that's all.  No great shakes, is it?  He's fine, believe

me!  Absolutely fine.  At this very second he's probably got his bottom on

the top sheet with that common- law missus of his.

She picked him up somewhere that's for certain.  Most of these people

released from the nick have somebody to pick 'em up.  "

"Except she doesn't drive a car."

"All right.  She arranged for somebody else to pick him up."

"Why did he ask for a travel warrant, then?"

Morse looked less than happy.

"He got on the bus at Bicester and while he was sitting there somebody saw

him and tapped on the window and offered him a lift to Oxford or wherever he

was going and we know where that is, don't we?  Home.  Which is exactly where

he is now, you can put your bank balance on that!  It's a racing certainty.

And if you don't believe me, go and see for yourself!"

Lewis considered what he had just heard.

"It must have been somebody unexpected, sir.  Like I say, he'd asked for a

warrant."

"You're right, yes.  Well, partly right.  Either unexpected or not really

expected .  .  .  Perhaps not really welcome, either," added Morse slowly, a

weak smile playing on his lips as though for the first time that morning his

brain was possibly engaged in some serious thinking.

"You reckon that's what happened?"

"Lewis!  Something happened, didn't it?  If you think your man decided to

de materialize you've been watching too many space videos."

"I don't watch ' 79

 " Look!  Remember what I've always told you when we've

been on a case together unlike this one!  There's always, without exception,

some wholly explicable, wholly logical causation for any chain of events, in

any situation.  In this case, you've just got to ask yourself where the link

broke, then how it broke, then why it broke and nothing in that sequence of

events is going to be anything but simple and commonplace.  "

Lewis looked the troubled man he was.

"I just can't see how.  .  ."

Morse's question was quietly spoken.

"You remember that car, the one you said somehow squeezed in between you and

the bus from Bullingdon?"

Lewis looked across the desk in pained surprise.

"You don't think.  .

"" What do you remember about it?  "

"Dark colour black, I think pretty recent Reg - one person in it - man, I

think pretty sure it was a man."

"Not very observant ' " I was looking at the bus all the time, for God's

sake!  "

' - and not much help, if you want the truth.  "

No, it wasn't, Lewis knew that.

"What do I tell the Super, though?"

"If I were you?  I certainly wouldn't tell him the truth.  Not a very wise

thing, you know, going through life telling nothing but the truth.  So in

this case, I'd tell him I'd followed the bus to Bicester, then followed the

bus to Oxford, then seen Repp get off outside The Randolph, get picked up

there in a car, and get driven off in the general direction of Chaucer Lane,

Burford.  Easy!"

Uneasy, however, was Lewis's minimal nod.

"But I'm not you, Lewis, am I?  I'm a very accomplished liar myself, but I've

never rated you too highly in that department."

A puzzled look suddenly came over Lewis's brow.

"How come you know where Repp lives?"

"Great man Chaucer, born in 1343, it's thought '

"You're not answering my question!"