Edward Marston - The excursion train

'Emily needs to be looked at properly by the doctor.'

'I know, Gregory. After I'd calmed her down, I told Emily that I couldn't let her go on like this any longer. But she begged me not to call in the doctor again.'

'Why not?'

'She wouldn't say. Emily just cried and cried.'

'It's been weeks since the execution now,' said Newman, running a hand through his beard. 'I'd have expected her to be over the worst. It's not as if she was actually there, after all.'

'No, I made her stay away.'

'How did she sneak out today?'

'Eventually,' she said, 'I went out to call the doctor and Adam was busy elsewhere. Emily must have picked her moment and gone. As soon as I realised she wasn't here, we went off in search of her. Then we heard all the noise coming from the churchyard.'

'It must have been dreadful for you,' he said, getting up to put an arm around her. 'To lose a child is bad enough for any parent, Win, but to lose one in that way would have been unbearable.'

'Yes,' she whispered, nestling against his body.

'I just can't believe it. Emily was always so trustworthy.'

'Not any more, Gregory.' She pulled back to look up at him. 'I'll be afraid to take my eyes off her from now on. I dread to think what might have happened if Inspector Colbeck hadn't gone up that tower after her.'

'What did he do exactly?' he said, standing away from her.

'He talked to her very quietly and made her change her mind. When she tried to get down again, she slipped and almost fell. Honestly, Gregory, my heart was in my mouth at that moment.'

'But the Inspector grabbed her just in time?' She nodded. 'We all owe him thanks for that. I could see that even Adam was upset and he's never got on well with his stepsister.' He resumed his seat. 'You said that Inspector Colbeck called earlier today.'

'Yes, he wanted to question Adam.'

'What about?'

'That murder the other night.'

'It had nothing to do with Adam,' he said, staunchly.

'I know but the stationmaster remembers someone who looked like him, taking a train to Paddock Wood that same night.'

'Lots of people look like Adam. There are two or three young men at the railway works who could be taken for his twin. Did the Inspector have anything else to say?'

'A great deal. He came in here to see me.'

'Why?'

'It was rather upsetting, Gregory,' she said, wrapping her arms around her body as if she were cold. 'Out of the blue, he asked me what happened to my first husband. He wanted to know how Martin died.'

'That was an odd thing to ask.'

'He did apologise when I told him I didn't want to talk about that. So he turned to Emily instead. The Inspector was interested to know what she said to me after she was attacked by Joe Dykes.'

'But you weren't here at the time, were you?'

'No, I was over in Willesborough. She spoke to Nathan.'

'And – like any father – he went charging off after Joe. I remember him telling me about it afterwards,' said Newman. 'He said that this fierce anger built up inside him and he couldn't control himself. It was just as well that he didn't catch up with Joe that day.'

'But it helped to hang him all the same,' she said, grimly. 'Going off in a temper like that. There were half a dozen witnesses who couldn't wait to stand up in court and talk about the way they'd seen him running down the street with a cleaver.'

'I'd have done no different if Emily had been my daughter.'

'I suppose not.'

'Joe Dykes was a menace to any woman.' He sat back in his chair. 'So what did you tell Inspector Colbeck?'

'The truth – that Emily wouldn't talk to me about it.'

'She confided in Nathan.'

'Yes, and he told me what she said but it was not the same. I wanted to hear it from my daughter's own lips. And there was another thing that worried me at the time, Gregory.'

'What was that?'

'Well,' she said, 'Nathan and I had always been very honest with each other. Yet when I tried to talk to him about Emily, and what she'd said when she came running back here that day, I had the feeling that he was holding something back. I only ever got part of the story.'

It took Colbeck less than two minutes to establish that Peter Stelling was not the killer. Since he had a business to run, and a wife and four children to look after, the ironmonger would not have had the necessary freedom of movement. In addition, Stelling was such a mild-mannered man that it was difficult to imagine him working himself up into the fury symbolised in the slaughter of Joseph Dykes. The second name on Colbeck's list did not keep him long either. As soon as he learnt that Moses Haddon, a bricklayer, had been in bed for a week after falling from a ladder, he was able to remove his name from the list. In the case of both men, however, he took the trouble to ask if they could describe Amos Lockyer for him. Each man spoke well of the former policeman and said that he was short, stout and well into his fifties. They confirmed that the wound in his leg had left him with a rather comical waddle.

He owed a debt of gratitude to Madeleine Andrews for providing a possible link between Lockyer and Jacob Guttridge, and it gave him his first surge of optimism since they had arrived in Ashford. Relishing the memory of Madeleine's surprise visit to the town, he went on to question the next person, wearing a broad smile on his face.

She was in the kitchen when she heard the front door open and shut.

'Where have you been?' she asked, chastising her father with her tone of voice. 'Your dinner is getting cold.'

'I was held up, Maddy,' said Caleb Andrews, coming into the kitchen to give her a conciliatory kiss. 'We got talking about the murder of that prison chaplain and time just flew by.'

'Helped along by a couple of pints of beer no doubt.'

'A man is entitled to a few pleasures in life.'

Madeleine served the meal on to two plates and set them on the table. She sat opposite her father and passed him the salt. He shook a liberal quantity over his food.

'They all agreed with me, you know,' he said.

'You mean that they didn't dare to disagree.'

'The killer was someone who served time in Maidstone prison.'

'I'm not so sure, Father.'

'Well, I am,' he asserted, stabbing the air with his knife. 'For two pins, I'd give you the money to take a train to Ashford so that you can tell Inspector Colbeck what I said. He'd know where to look then.'

'Oh, I fancy that he can manage without your help.'

'I have this feeling in my bones, Maddy.'

'Save it for your workmates,' she advised. 'Robert is a trained detective. He knows how to lead an investigation and it's not by relying on suggestions from every Tom, Dick and Harry.'

'I'm not Tom, Dick or Harry,' he protested. 'I'm your father and, as such, I've got connections with this case. I told them all that Inspector Colbeck had come calling here.'

'Father!'

'Well, it's true, isn't it?'

'I don't want you and your friends gossiping about me.'

'What am I supposed to tell them – that you've taken the veil?'

'Don't be silly.'

'Then stop pretending that you and the Inspector are not close. You're like a locomotive and tender.' He swallowed a piece of meat. 'Well, maybe not that close.' He winked at her. 'Yet, anyway.'

Her gaze was steely. 'You're doing it again, aren't you?'

'It's only in fun, Maddy.'

'How would you like it if I stopped cooking your meals for you and told you it was only in fun?'

'That would be cruel!'

'At least, you'd know how I feel.'

'Maddy!' She picked at her own food and he watched her for a moment. 'Look, I'm sorry. I let my tongue run away with me sometimes. I won't say another word about him. I promise you.' He sliced up his beans. 'What have you been doing with yourself all day?'