Colin Dexter - The Dead of Jericho

'If you'd come off the boil a minute, sir, I might have a chance, mightn't I? You want me to ring up these three-'

'Yes. Straight away!'

'Which one shall I ring first?'

'Use a bit of bl-' But Morse stopped in mid-sentence and smiled beatifically. 'Whichever, my dear Lewis, seems to you the most appropriate. And even if you ring 'em up in some cock-eyed order, I don't think it'll matter a monkey's!'

He was still smiling sweetly as Lewis reached for the phone. The old brain was really working again, he knew that, and he reached happily for the documents once more. It was the start he'd been waiting for.

Within half an hour, Lewis's trio of tasks had been completed. Anne Scott had called at the Jericho Testing Laboratories on the afternoon of Monday, 1 stOctober, to ask if there was any news and she had been told that as soon as the report was through a letter would be in the post-which it had been on Tuesday, 2 ndOctober: pregnancy was confirmed. The Jericho post was delivered somewhat variably, but during the week in question almost all letters would have been delivered by 8:30 a.m. Only with the Richards' query had Lewis experienced any difficulty. No reply from Charles's private residence; and at the business number, a long delay before the call was transferred to Conrad Richards, the junior partner, who informed Lewis that the company had indeed moved to Abingdon about three months ago: to be exact, twelve weeks and four days.

Morse had sat silently during the phone calls, occasionally nodding with quiet satisfaction. But his attention to the documents in front of him was now half-hearted, and it was Lewis who finally picked up the small pink slip of rough paper which had fallen to the floor.

'Yours or mine, sir?'

Morse looked at the brief note. '"Birthdays", Lewis. It seems that one of the old codgers at the bridge evening remembers they were talking about birthdays.'

'Sounds pretty harmless, sir.' Lewis resumed his study of his documents, although a few seconds later he noticed that Morse was sitting as still as the dead, the smoke from a forgotten cigarette drifting in curling whisps before those unblinking, unseeing eyes.

Later the same morning, Conrad Richards dialled a number in Spain.

'That you, Charles? Buenos something or other! Come esá? '

'Fine, fine. Everything OK with you?'

'The police rang this morning. Wanted to know how long we'd been in Abingdon.'

'Was that all?'

'Yes.'

'I see,' said Charles Richards slowly. 'Celia all right?'

'Fine, yes. She's gone over to Cambridge to see Betty. She'll probably stay overnight, I should think. I tried to persuade her, anyway.'

'That's good news.'

'Look, Charles. We've had an enquiry from one of the Oxford examination boards. They want five hundred copies of some classical text that's gone out of print. No problem over royalties or copyright or anything. What do you think?'

The brothers talked for several minutes about VAT and profit margins, and finally the decision was left with Conrad.

A few minutes later Charles Richards walked out into the bright air of the Calle de Alcata and, entering the Cafe Leon, he ordered himself a Cuba Libre. On the whole, things seemed to be working out satisfactorily.

All the way, Celia Richards's mind was churning over the events of the past two weeks, and she was conscious of driving with insufficient attention. At Bedford she had incurred the honking displeasure of a motorist she had not noticed quite legitimately overtaking her on the inside in the one-way system through the centre; and on the short stretch of the A1 she had almost overshot the St. Neots turn, where the squealing of her Mini's brakes had frightened her and left her heart thumping madly. What a terrible mess her life had suddenly become!

In the early days at Croydon, when she had first met the Richards brothers, she had almost immediately fallen for Charles… Charles with his charm and vivacity, his sense of enjoyment, his forceful masculinity. Yet, even then, before they agreed to marry, she was conscious of other sides to his nature: a potential broodiness; a weakness for false flattery; a slightly nasty, hard streak in his business dealings; the suspicion-yes, even then-that his eye would linger far too long on the lovely limbs and the curving breasts of other women. But for several years they had been as happy as most couples: probably more so. Social events had brought her into an interesting circle of friends, and on more than one occasion other men had shown more interest in her own young and attractive body than their wives would have wished. Just a few times she had been fractionally disloyal to her marriage vows, but never once had she entertained the idea of any compromising entanglement. But Charles? He had been unfaithful, she knew that now: knew it for certain, because at long last-when there was no longer any hope of screening his impulsive affairs with his fond, if wayward, affection towards her-he had told her so… And then there was Conrad. Poor, faithful, lovely Conrad! If only she'd been willing to get to know him better when, in the early days, his own love for her had blazed as brightly as that of Charles… But he'd never had the sparkle or the drive of his elder brother, and he'd never really had a chance. A bit ineffectual, a bit passive-a bit 'wet', as she'd once described him to Charles. Oh dear! As things had turned out, he'd always been wonderful to her. No one could have been more kind to her, more thoughtful, more willing to forget himself; and she thought again now of that mild and self-effacing smile that reflected a dry, fulfilled contentment in the happiness of others… What would it have been like if she'd married Conrad? Not that he'd ever asked her, of course: he was far too shy and diffident to have joined the lists with Charles. Physically he and Charles looked very similar, but that was only on the surface. Underneath-well, there was no electric current in Conrad… or so she'd thought until so very recently.

In Cambridge she turned into the Huntingdon Road and drove out to Girton village, where her sister lived.

When Betty brought a glass of sherry into the lounge, she found her sister in tears-a series of jerky sobs that stretched her full and pretty mouth to its furthest extent.

'You can tell me about it later, Celia, if you want to. But I shan't mind if you don't. A drop of booze'll do you good. Your bed's aired, and I've got a couple of tickets for the theatre tonight. Please stay!'

Dry-eyed at last, Celia Richards looked sadly at her sister and smiled bleakly. 'Be kind to me, Betty! You see-you see-I can't tell you about it, but I've done something terribly wrong.'

Although Morse insisted (that lunch-time) that a liquid diet without blotting-paper was an exceedingly fine nutrient for the brain cells, Lewis opted for his beloved chips-with sausages and egg-to accompany the beer. 'Are we making progress?' he asked, between mouthfuls.

'Progress? Progress, Lewis, is the law of life. You and I would be making progress even if we were going backwards. And, as it happens, my old friend, we are actually going forward at this particular stage of our joint investigations.'

'We are?'

'Indeed! I think you'll agree that the main facts hang pretty well together now. Anne Scott goes to a bridge evening the night before she kills herself, and I'm certain she learns something there that's the final straw to a long and cumulative emotional strain. She writes a note to Edward Murdoch, telling him she can't see him for a lesson the next afternoon, and from that point the die is cast. She gets home about 3 a.m. or thereabouts, and we shall never know how she spends the next few hours. But whatever doubt or hesitation she may have felt is finally settled by the Wednesday morning post, when a letter arrives from the birth clinic. She burns the letter and she-hangs herself.'