The Soft Centre

With a quick movement, he got rid of the string around the brown paper parcel and produced the jacket. He spread it out on the sand. ‘These stains, madam, come from the ripped and murdered body of Sue Parnell!’

Val stood like a frozen statue, staring down at the coat she immediately recognised as the coat Chris had been wearing on the terrace, a few minutes before he had disappeared. She looked at the ugly rust coloured blotches that covered the front of the coat. She felt her knees sag and very slowly, she collapsed on to the hot sand.

Hare watched her with the false sadness of a mortician. ‘I’m very sorry, madam,’ he said gently.

‘Very, very sorry. It would seem that your poor husband ran into this unfortunate woman, and in a moment of complete madness, murdered her. This puts me in a very serious position … I…’

‘Stop it, you vile old fake!’ Val screamed at him. ‘I won’t listen to you! Go away from me! Go away!’

Startled, Hare looked quickly over his shoulder and was relieved to see that there was no one close enough to have heard Val’s outcry.

‘Well, of course, if that is what you wish,’ he said with great dignity. ‘I never impose myself when I am not wanted. Then you want me take this heavy responsibility and go to the police with this terrible and damning evidence?’ White faced, her eyes burning with fear and anger, Val stared at him.

‘What else are you suggesting?’?‘I have been struggling with my conscience,’ Hare said mildly. ‘Yours is a very well-known family. Your father is one of the most important men in the country. I felt I had to see you first before I went to the police. I thought you and also your father would not wish for your husband to be tried for the murder of a worthless prostitute, found guilty and put away for life behind the walls of a State Criminal Asylum. I felt the least I could do would be to talk to you and see if that is what you really wanted. It seemed to me that these two articles of deadly evidence could be destroyed and then no one but you and I would be any the wiser. That is why I have taken the trouble to come here this morning to consult with you, but if you would really prefer me to do my obvious duty, then regretfully, I will do so.’

Val sat still, her hands in her lap, her face white. She remained like that for some moments, then she said quietly, without looking at Hare, ‘I understand… how much?’ Hare drew in a deep breath of air into his fat larded lungs. A nasty moment, he thought, but he had handled it well.

‘A half a million dollars, madam.’ he said gently. ‘It is a reasonable sum. When you think what you are getting in return, it is a paltry sum.’ He took his card from his billfold and dropped it close to Val. ‘I will give the lighter and the jacket to the police at six o’clock this evening… at precisely six o’clock. Unless, of course, you telephone me before then.’

He re-wrapped the jacket, heaved himself to his feet. Then raising his hat to Val, he walked away across the san leaving big, widely spaced footprints behind him.

CHAPTER SIX

Terrell looked up from a mass of reports he was reading as Beigler came into his office. As Beigler sat down and reached for the can of coffee that permanently stood on Terrell’s desk, he said, ‘Nothing so far. We’re still checking the list of her boy friends. We’ve reached number fifty-seven: so far they all have cast-iron alibis.’

Terrell shrugged.?‘They could all be in the clear, but we can’t afford to miss out on one of them. It’s my guess it is some sex nut who followed her and set on her. If I’m right, we’ll have a job to find him. Nothing from the Service Stations?’

‘No.’ Beigler sipped his coffee and lit a cigarette. ‘How about Hardy? Could be the Lang woman was lying when she gave him an alibi?’

‘I thought of that, but why should Hardy want to kill her?’ Terrell said, frowning. ‘So far he’s operated without getting into trouble. Besides, I can’t imagine he’s the type to kill in that way.’

‘She could have had something on him, and he ripped her to make us think it was a sex killing.’

‘Yeah, that’s right. I…’

The telephone bell rang. Terrell stopped short and lifted the receiver. He listened. Beigler saw his face tighten with surprise, then he said, ‘We’ll be right with you. Don’t touch a thing,’ and he hung up. He pushed back his chair and got to his feet. ‘Henekey’s been found dead. Looks like someone’s knocked him off Come on… let’s go.’

Beigler crushed out his cigarette and moved fast from the office. As Terrell began the long walk down the corridor to the street, he could hear Beigler bawling for the Homicide Squad.

An hour and a half later, Dr. Lowis came from Henekey’s cabin and crossed through a patch of sunlight to where Terrell and Beigler were waiting.