Inspector Morse 13 The Remorseful Day

"You've interviewed him?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm still trying to come to terms with the fact that it wasn't

Ban-on.  You see I still think he's the key to all this ridiculously complex

business.  But complex only because those involved deliberately made it

complex."

"Barren's phone calls, you mean?  No luck there?"

"No.  Change of BT office, change of procedure, change of monitoring, files

re-classified ... no hope!  Wouldn't help anyway.  All Barren said was that

he'd rung her and the number was engaged; and then rung her again and the

call wasn't answered.  Neat, wasn't it?  No record of anything."

"He was lying, you think?"

"Yes."

"What about the burglar alarm?"

"Thunderstorm, possibly that sets 'em off."

"There wasn't a thunderstorm that night."

"No?  Probably a cat then they set 'em off too."

"They hadn't got a cat."

"Oh."

Strange lumbered to his feet.

"Look!  You surely don't still think Barren's your man, do you?"

Morse smiled.

"Don't I?"

chapter fifty I can't tell a lie not even when I hear one (John Bangs,

I862-I922) in the world of detective fiction, alibis are frequently concocted

in order to mystify the reader.  In what is called the 'real' world they

usually provide an invaluable method of eliminating a few runners in an

already limited field, thereby affording the police a better prospect of

backing the likely winner.  For (except in Morse's mind) an alibi is an

alibi: if someone is seen in one place at one particular time, it seems

highly improbable that this same someone may be seen in some other place at

the same time.  Yet it is sometimes difficult adequately to corroborate an

alibi viz, that plea of the criminal to have been in another place at the

material time; and alibis may well be doubted, closely checked, and indeed,

on occasion, be spectacularly broken.

This in various ways.

It is highly unlikely, for example, that a well-focused video camera will be

in operation in that first particular place; and even if it is, some smart

electronic alee may well be able to doctor the evidence.  Almost always,

therefore, corroboration will depend on the testimony of eyewitnesses who,

even if honest, can be the victims of tricks of memory over times and

sightings; or, on the testimony of witnesses who are dishonest, and are

willing to fabricate falsehoods - for friends, perhaps, or for a fee.  The

alibi problem is further complicated by the

confident assertion of some mystic sects that one can, in fact, be in two

places simultaneously, although the police are grateful that such bizarre

beliefs are currently not widely embraced.

Morse himself championed the view that all alibis should probably be ignored

in the first instance, on the not illogical grounds that if just one of them

were suspect, it was sensible to assume that all of them were .  .  .

Such views (with variants) Sergeant Lewis had heard several times before, and

it was therefore with some diffidence that he broached the subject the

following morning.

"Don't you reckon it would be a good idea to get all these alibis sorted out

a bit clearer?"

"A bit more clearly, Lewis."

"The night Mrs Harrison was murdered, the morning Flynn and Repp were

murdered ' " And don't forget Monday morning.  "

"Barron, you mean?  You surely don't still think ?"

Morse held up his right hand in surrender.

"You're right, perhaps.

Let's make a list.  Well, you make a list.  Ready?  "

He steepled his slim fingers in front of him and stared into the middle

distance, though with little observable enthusiasm in his eyes: "Frank

Harrison Simon Harrison Sarah Harrison Harry Repp John Barren ..."

"That's the short-list?"  Morse nodded.

"OK.  First I'll recheck where they all were, or where they were all supposed

to be, first when Mrs Harrison " Already been done.  You've read the files.

" " Weren't checked very thoroughly though, some of 'em.  "

 "Long time ago, Lewis.  People forget or want to forget or pretend to

forget."

"A day like that though, when she was murdered?  Biggest day in village

history.  Everybody remembers where they were, like when Kennedy was

assassinated."

"Nonsense, Lewis!  People remember where they were and what they were doing

at the time they heard of things like that.  Agreed.  But what else?  Do you

remember what you were doing for the rest of the day when Kennedy was shot?

Do you?"

"No.  I take your point, sir."

"Who are you thinking of particularly?"

"Well the family got away with some pretty flimsy alibis, didn't they?

Especially Simon and Sarah.  No one seems to have checked them much at all."

"Ye-es."

"Simon said he got home from work about a quarter-past five, had a meal, then

went down to the ABC cinema in George Street to see The Full Monty.  Still

had his ticket if I remember rightly."

Morse nodded and Lewis continued: "Sarah?  She was at a Diabetes Conference

in the Radcliffe Infirmary that day no doubt about that.  And after it had

finished she went over the road to the Royal Oak for a drink with a few

friends no doubt about that either and then left for her flat in Jericho at