Peter Robinson - A Necessary End

There was no sign of Dirty Dick. He sent for coffee and went to peer out of the window. The good weather had certainly enticed people outdoors. Tourists drifted in and out of the church, and some, wearing anoraks over warm sweaters, actually sat on the worn plinth of the market cross already eating KitKats and drinking tea from Thermos flasks.

Banks spent an hour or more staring out on the busy square trying to puzzle out why PC Gill's number had turned up in Seth Cotton's old notebook. Had it even been Cotton's handwriting? He examined the book again. It was hard to tell, because only the faint imprint remained. The numbers were exaggeratedly large, too, unlike the smaller scrawl of most of the measurements. Carefully, he rubbed a soft pencil over the page again, but he couldn't get a better impression.

He remembered Mara Delacey telling him that Paul spent a lot of time working with Seth in the shed, so the number could just as likely have been written down by him. If so, that implied premeditation. Boyd's name hadn't appeared on Grant's list of complainants, but that didn't mean they hadn't come into conflict before. A kid with a record, like Paul, would hardly walk into the nearest police station and lodge a complaint.

The only thing of which Banks could be sure, after two cups of coffee and three cigarettes, was that somebody at Maggie's Farm knew of PC Gill before the demonstration and expected him to be there. The number had been written down hard enough to press through, and that indicated some degree of passion or excitement. Who had a grudge against Gill? And who had access to Seth Cotton's notebook? Anybody, really, as he never locked the shed. Boyd was the best candidate, given the evidence against him, but Banks had a nagging suspicion that he'd been telling the truth, especially when he stuck to his story after Burgess had put the lights out on him. But if Boyd was telling the truth, who was he more likely to be protecting than Seth, Mara, Rick or Zoe?And where, Banks asked himself, did that leave Osmond, Tim and Abha?

Tim and Abha had so far been the only ones to admit to knowing of PC Gill's existence, which probably indicated that they had nothing to hide. Banks doubted, in fact, that they had anything to do with the murder. For a start, they had no real connection with the farm people other than a mutual interest in wanting to save the human race from total obliteration.

Osmond, however, was a friend of Rick, Seth and the rest. He had been up to the farm often, and he knew Gill's number all right, because he had used it on his complaint. Perhaps he had written it in the notebook himself, or had seen it there and recognized it. Paul Boyd may have been telling the truth about not killing PC Gill, but had he been an accomplice? Had there been two people involved?

Like so many of Banks's thinking sessions, this one was raising far more questions than it answered. Sometimes he thought he could solve cases only after formulating a surfeit of questions; he reached saturation point, and the overflow produced the answers.

Before he did anything else, though, he needed something to stop the growling in his stomach. Burnt toast wasn't sufficient fuel for a detective.

On his way out to the Golden Grill for elevenses, he bumped into Mara Delacey entering the station.

"I want to see Paul," she said, brandishing the morning paper. "It says here you've caught him. Is it true?"

"Yes."

"Where is he?"

"Downstairs."

"Is he all right?"

"Of course he is. What do you think we are, the Spanish Inquisition?"

"I wouldn't put anything past Burgess. Can I see Paul?"

Banks thought for a moment. It would be unusual to grant such permission, and Burgess wouldn't like it if he found out, but there was no reason Mara shouldn't see Boyd. Besides, it would give Banks the opportunity to ask him a couple of questions in Mara's presence. Through body language and facial expressions, people often gave more away than they intended when friends or enemies were nearby.

"All right," he said, leading the way down. "But I'll have to be there."

"As you can see, I've not brought him a birthday cake with a file in it."

Banks smiled. "Wouldn't do him much good anyway. There aren't any bars on the window. He could only escape to the staircase and walk right up here."

"But his claustrophobia," Mara said, alarmed. "It'll be unbearable for him."

"We got a doctor." Banks relished his small victory over Burgess's callousness. "He's been given tranquillizers, and they seemed to help."

The four cells were the most modern part of the building. Recently overcrowded with demonstrators, they were now empty except for Paul Boyd. Mara seemed surprised to find clean white tiles and bright light instead of dark, dank stone walls. The only window, high and deep-set in the wall, was about a foot square and almost as thick. The cells always made Banks think of hospitals, so much so that he fancied he could smell Dettol or carbolic every time he went down there.

Boyd sat on his bunk and stared out through the bars at his visitors.

"Hello," Mara said. "I'm sorry, Paul."

Boyd nodded.

Banks could sense tension between them. It was due in part to his being there, he knew, but it seemed to go deeper than that, as if they were unsure what to say to each other.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"I'm okay."

"Will you be coming back?"

Paul glared at Banks. "I don't know. They're determined to charge me with something."

Banks explained the procedure.

"So he might still be arrested for murder?" Mara asked.

"Yes."

There were tears in her eyes. Paul stared at her suspiciously, as if he wasn't sure whether she was acting or not.

Banks broke the tense silence. "Does the number 1139 mean anything to you?" he asked Boyd.

Paul seemed to consider the question, and his answer was an unequivocal no.

Banks thought he was telling the truth.

"What do you know about that old notebook Seth kept in his workshop?"

Paul shrugged. "Nothing. It was just for addresses, measurements and stuff."

"Did you ever use it?"

"No. I was just an assistant, a dogsbody."

"It wasn't like that, Paul," Mara said. "And you know it."

"It doesn't matter now, does it? Except maybe it'll get me a job in the prison workshop."

"Did anybody else ever use it, other than Seth?" asked Banks.

"Why should they?" Paul was obviously puzzled by the line of questioning. "It wasn't important."

"Do you know who took the knife?"

Paul looked at Mara as he answered. "I've already told you I don't, haven't I?"

"I'm giving you another chance. If you really aren't responsible for PC Gill's death, any help you give us will count for you."

"Oh, sure!" Paul got to his feet and started pacing the narrow cell. "Why don't you just bugger off and leave me alone? I've nothing more to tell you. And tell the quack to bring me another pill."

"Is there anything we can do, Paul?" Mara asked.

"You can leave me alone, too. I curse the day I met you and the rest of them. You and your bloody protests and demonstrations. Look where you've got me."

Mara swallowed, then spoke softly. "We're still on your side, you know. It wasn't anything to do with me, with any of us, that you got caught. You can come back to the farm whenever you want."

Paul glared at her, and Banks could sense the questions each wanted to ask and the answers they hoped for. But they couldn't talk because he was there. Mara would implicate herself if she assured Paul she hadn't tipped the police off about the warning, the money and the clothes she'd given him. Paul would incriminate her if he thanked her or questioned her about these things.

"Come on." Banks took Mara's arm gently. She shook his hand off but walked beside him back upstairs. "You've seen that he's all right. No bruises."