Ruling Passion

‘Sergeant!’ Backhouse called authoritatively. Pascoe instinctively obeyed the summons and had joined the superintendent at the threshold before he started wondering about the tone of command. A new step in the psychology of their relationship perhaps. A reminder of his official subordination.

Or perhaps his service with Dalziel had made him too suspicious of all detective-superintendents’ motives. Perhaps all Backhouse was doing was using his police rank as a red herring to divert the interest of the newspapermen from him. Clearly, as they moved off in a friendly, almost light-hearted, little group, they had no suspicion that the discoverer of the crime was so close.

In the cottage, much had changed. No effort had been made to tidy up after the rigorous search and fingerprinting examination which had taken place. Why bother when there was no chance of an irate householder turning up to complain?

Backhouse thought differently.

‘For God’s sake, Hamblyn,’ he said to the ginger-moustached detective who came to greet him, ‘get this place tidied up. And those cars outside. If I want a road-block here, I’ll ask for it.’

‘Yes, sir,’ said Hamblyn unemotionally.

‘Anything new?’

‘Nothing useful, sir. Not as far as I can see. Anything on the car yet, sir?’

‘I’m afraid not.’

Pascoe spoke lowly, diffidently.

‘There’s a car in the garage,’ he said. It sounded daft as he said it but, hell, he had to say it. Not that it was possible they wouldn’t have looked. Was it?

‘Yes, yes; I believe there is,’ said Backhouse. Then he laughed.

‘Oh, I see your dilemma. Yes it’s true the Hopkinses’ car is in the garage. But it’s the other one we’re interested in. Royal blue Mini-Cooper according to best report. The one Mr Rushworth and Mr Mansfield arrived in.’

Pascoe was abashed. Hamblyn was looking at him with faint distaste.

‘Let’s step into the garden,’ said Backhouse, like a kindly host desirous of stirring his guest’s digestive juices before lunch.

They went through the dining-room, passing the chalked body-outlines and ringed bloodstains, and out of the french window into the garden, halting near the sundial.

I’m really getting the treatment, thought Pascoe. What does he expect from me? Colin’s present address?

‘The Hopkinses’ car was in the garage, the visitors’ car on the driveway,’ said Backhouse. ‘This is the arrangement you’d expect and this is what the few people we’ve found who passed early last evening saw.’

‘They couldn’t see into the garage,’ objected Pascoe.

‘True,’ said Backhouse. ‘Now, here’s what happened, or what possibly happened supported by a strong scaffolding of what did happen. There was a lot of broken glass scattered around here. Did you notice? From a whisky bottle, that was easy enough to establish. Were they hard drinkers, your friends?’

‘Only on occasions,’ answered Pascoe, recognizing the start of interrogation. ‘And the occasion rarely merited the expense of scotch. But that was years ago. Things change.’

‘Yes. Of course. Well, we’ve got a thorough house-to-house on now, but the first place my men called was the Eagle and Child, the second the Queen Anne. That’s where she bought it.’

‘The whisky?’

‘That’s right,’ said Backhouse pensively. ‘At about quarter to nine last night. Curious that. The Eagle and Child’s nearer. No matter. The landlord’s wife, who sold it to her at the off-licence counter, didn’t see the car, but heard it drive away. She reckons it sounded more like the Mini-Cooper than the Hopkinses’ Cortina.’

‘A good ear,’ commented Pascoe, watching a pair of thrushes which had decided the policemen were harmless, and were drilling for worms.

‘No doubt we’ll find someone to corroborate it,’ said Backhouse. ‘As things stand, it seems likely that they started drinking after dinner. When the scotch began to get low, Mrs Hopkins volunteered to fetch more; she used her visitors’ car as it would have to be moved anyway to get her own out. On her return she either walked straight into the garden or went through the front door into the lounge, then the dining-room and out of the french windows.’

‘And then she was shot,’ said Pascoe.

‘It seems likely. Very soon after she came back. She was still holding the full bottle, you see. We found the cap with the seal complete. She must have held the bottle in front of her, either to ward off the shot or to use as a weapon. The blast from the shotgun went right through it. There were splinters of glass embedded deep in the wound. Would any of your friends own a shotgun, do you think?’

‘I don’t know. I just don’t know,’ said Pascoe irritably. ‘I’ve told you, Superintendent, this was a kind of reunion. I hadn’t seen these people for years. How should I know what they were likely to do now?’

‘Do people change that much?’

‘They change all right. When someone’s put a couple of ounces of lead pellets into your face, you change!’

Pascoe realized he was nearly shouting. Jesus, he thought, I should be back there too, lying on one of Constable Crowther’s comfortable beds with some of Doctor Hardisty’s comfortable pills inside me.

‘Sir!’ It was Hamblyn from the french window. Behind him stood two men.

‘It’s Mr French, the coroner, sir.’

‘Hello, Superintendent,’ said the taller of the two men who now stepped into the garden. He was over six feet, rather gaunt of feature, well tanned, his nose showing the pale indentations left by a frequent wearing of spectacles. His companion was a good nine inches shorter, less dramatic in every way, but his pale oval face was intelligent and far from weak. Both men wore casual, sporting clothes, French going in for bright colours, his companion much more subdued.

‘Sorry to take so long. You must have thought I’d be first on the spot, living on the doorstep so to speak. But I was half-way round the golf-course with Culpepper here. Dreadful business, this. Dreadful. You’d better tell me what I need to know.’

Culpepper, thought Pascoe, as Backhouse and the coroner moved back into the cottage together. The committee secretary – Marianne Culpepper. Her husband?

The man spoke to him and his words seemed to confirm this. His eyes were taking everything in. Despite his air of quiet authority, he felt a need to explain himself.

‘Excuse me, could you … You are with the police, I’m right?’

‘Pascoe, sir. Sergeant Pascoe.’

‘It’s not just morbid curiosity that brings me here, Sergeant. I live close by. I knew these people, the Hopkinses, I mean. When Mr French told me why he had to come back, I couldn’t believe it.’

He fell silent.

‘How close do you live, sir?’ asked Pascoe. It was easier to fall into the policeman role than explain his true position.

‘About half a mile. Round the side of the hill.’ He gestured vaguely towards the rising ground which lay to the south of the village.

‘What happened here, Sergeant? Is it true they are all dead?’

‘Mrs Hopkins is dead, sir,’ said Pascoe evenly. ‘And Mr Mansfield and Mr Rushworth, two guests who were spending the night with them.’

‘Oh, my God. What about Colin, Mr Hopkins? And the other guests?’

‘Other guests?’ said Pascoe sharply.

‘Yes. I ran into Mrs Hopkins in the village yesterday evening when I got back from the office. About five o’clock. It seems impossible … anyway, I asked them round for a drink tonight, but she explained they would have a houseful of guests. Four, she said. At least.’

It had been five-thirty when Pascoe had rung to say he and Ellie couldn’t make it that evening. If only that case hadn’t come up … or Dalziel hadn’t insisted … another two made the odds very strong against anyone trying anything with a double-barrelled shotgun. What an adaptable thing blame was; so easy to shift or attract.