Inspector Morse 13 The Remorseful Day

Congratulations!  Signed: Monty Hillier (Assn.  Pres.  ) For the second time

that day Lewis noticed a film of tears in a woman's eyes; and for the second

time that day Morse felt a shudder of excitement run along his shoulders.

Before they left, Morse turned to the erstwhile athlete.

"The gods haven't smiled on you much, have they?"

"Not that I've noticed."

"It's important for your son to do exactly what they've told him with his

Police Protection Order.  You know that?"

"I suppose so."

"And if you want cheering up a bit, Mrs Holmes, I'll tell you a big secret: I

was about his age when I started drinking myself.  A year younger, in fact."

But the confession appeared to bring little comfort to the woman maneuvering

her wheelchair to the front door.

Morse gave her his card.

"One last thing.  If there's anything you've forgotten to tell me?  Anything

you've not been willing to tell me .  .

?  "

As the two detectives walked along the litter-strewn path up to a wooden

front gate stripped of all but two of its vertical slats, Lewis's mind

puzzled itself over those last few words.  But Morse seemed deep in thought;

and any questions for the moment, he knew, would be wholly inopportune.

chapter fifty-five Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so

great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every prejudice and error that

doth so easily beset us (St Paul, Hebrews, ch.  XII, v.  I) in his own way,

Lewis was not unhappy that Morse had failed to put in his usual,

comparatively early appearance the following morning.  His own preferred

programme of alibi- confirmation had earlier (as we have seen) been endorsed

by Morse, albeit with muted enthusiasm; and Lewis was content to pursue such

a programme solo.

It now appeared that Morse's simplistic hypothesis that of casting Barren as

a double murderer was wholly discounted.  It would have been convenient,

certainly, if it had been Ban-on; and if Barren in turn had been murdered by

whoever was behind .  .  .  well, behind everything, really.  Frank Harrison,

say.  And why not Frank Harrison?

In Lewis's betting- book he was the one runner in the field with the

requisite bank balance to fork out the regular dollops of hush-money, But

with the potential collapse of global equity markets, such a bank balance

might soon not be looking so healthy.  And one of the laws of economics, as

Lewis knew, was that people with pots of money could easily lose pots of

money, including the person who hitherto had seen it as a matter of

self-interest to divert some proportion of such monies to others: to Flynn,

to Repp, perhaps to Barron.  Then, almost miraculously, two

of them had been crossed off the pay-roll; and if the third one .  .  .

Lewis could understand Morse's thinking perfectly well.  But it had been

wrong, as the great man had (virtually) admitted the previous evening.  There

had been that dramatic development in the case: Barren's death had been an

accident.  And the coincidence of Barren being knocked off a ladder by

accident at virtually the same time someone else had planned to murder him by

criminal design had clearly struck even Morse (a confirmed believer in

coincidence) as quite extraordinarily improbable.

So what was needed now was a bit of old-fashioned procedure some immediate

phone calls; some speedy arrangements of interviews; some urgent checking of

alibis.  And so fortunate was Lewis that by 9.  45 he had written down a firm

timetable: 10.  15 a.  m.  - interview with Simon Harrison (Jordan Hill) 11.

15 a.  m.  - interview with Frank Harrison (Randolph) 12.  15 p.  m.  -

interview with Sarah Harrison (Ratcliffe Infirmary) Back in HQjust after 2 p.

m.  (still no news from Morse) Lewis looked down, not without some

satisfaction, at the notes he had made:

SIMON H

Friday 24 July: at his desk all a.  m.  - lunch in canteen back at his desk

till 4 p.  m.  when he took bus down to Summertown dentist (% hr).

Home c.  6 p.  m.  Plenty of witnesses on and off" all day, it seems.

Monday 3 Aug: (day off work) a.  m.  drove via M40 > Stokenchurch hoping for

siting of red kite there tried earlier in the year at Uandudno both trips

unsuccessful (keen bird-watcher).  Back for lunch in White Hart (Wytham) -

witnesses would include landlord etc.

 Impossible for him to have been in

on the Flynn/ Repp murders.  Could have pushed Ban-on off the ladder, if we

wanted him for that, which we don't.  Deafer than I thought and lip-reads a

lot.  Names a big problem: Flynn OK, but Repp and Barron hard for him its

something to do with the labial consonents (so he says).  Intelligent, bit

too intense, loner (?  ).

FRANK H

Friday 24 July: meeting in London office 10-11.  45 a.  m.  with four

colleagues.  (Check!  ) Monday 3 Aug: at Randolph (booked in the day before).

Breakfast 7.  50-8.  40 a.  m.  (approx) with 'partner' (real honey ace.  to

Ailish at the bar.  ) Car apparently not moved from Resident's garage that

day.

As suspect?  Same as SH (see above).  Smart business exec.  type, pleasant