Charles Todd - A Fearsome Doubt

“I am desperate,” he admitted. “I need to find the truth before there’s another death.”

“I heard there’s someone taken in charge. If that’s true, why are you wasting time over the likes of me?”

“Because the evidence against him is not satisfactory.”

“Whose fault is that?” she demanded. “Not mine!”

Rutledge drove from his last call, the Bartlett house, toward Melinda Crawford’s home on the Sussex border.

She was in a chair by the windows watching the play of light across the lawns and the distant Downs.

“It’s very beautiful,” she said, turning as Shanta ushered him into the sitting room. “I don’t know why. I’ve seen far more exotic landscapes in my time. How is Elizabeth?”

“I don’t know.” He sat down in the chair she indicated and closed his eyes. “Will you answer a question honestly?”

“Of course. You know that.”

He opened his eyes. She saw the wretchedness in them, and caught her breath for an instant.

“Was there ever anything-anything between Richard Mayhew and my sister?”

She regarded him for a moment. “Who told you there was? Elizabeth?”

“I’d-rather not answer that. Not yet.”

Melinda Crawford said, “I can tell you truthfully that I never saw any relationship between them that exceeded the bounds of friendship. I think they cared greatly for each other. But that was all.”

He couldn’t be sure whether it was a denial-or an affirmation that she herself had not witnessed any untoward relationship in spite of her own doubts.

It troubled him.

“It’s not precisely the answer I wanted to hear,” he said after a moment.

“Are you asking me if they were lovers?”

“Yes,” he replied baldly.

“I don’t know, Ian. But I can tell you that they never gave me any cause to suspect them of misbehavior.” She smiled. “My dear, do you think either Frances or Richard would be so stupid as to arouse suspicion, if they were intent on adultery?”

“I’d always wondered why Frances hadn’t married. It never occurred to me that she couldn’t marry the man she loved.”

“Ian, who told you this? You must always consider the source when there’s malicious gossip.”

“That’s just it. I have. And I don’t believe it, I don’t want to believe it. But it’s there, a worm niggling in the back of my head, and I can’t walk away from it.”

“Someone has set out to hurt you. I ask you again, was it Elizabeth?”

“No. If she’d even suspected, I think I’d have guessed. She’s not a very good liar.”

“Well, that makes me feel a great deal more cheerful!” She glanced out the window again and then said, “And the murderer. Have you found him yet?”

“Not yet.” There was a wariness in his voice. He couldn’t prevent it.

“And our German friend?”

“I haven’t got any name to put forward in place of his. The Chief Constable is eager to close the investigation, and he will. After that, it’s all in the hands of the courts.”

“Who is taking the brief?”

“Elizabeth has asked Hamilton.”

Mrs. Crawford nodded. “Yes, a good choice. I do rather wish she’d asked Raleigh Masters.”

Surprised, Rutledge said, “I thought his health had forced him to give up his practice.”

“So it did. But he needs such a challenge right now. It might be the salvation of him.”

“At the German’s expense,” Rutledge answered ruefully.

“Why are you so ambivalent about this man?”

“Am I?” he asked, startled.

“I think you are. I’ve never known you to be indecisive. What did you do to Hauser in the war?”

“I nearly got him killed,” he answered, getting up to pace the room.

“But he didn’t die, did he?”

“No.”

“Then you don’t owe him a life, do you?”

“I expect I don’t.” Except perhaps my own, for what that’s worth. ..

“Have you a stronger suspect than Hauser?”

“No. Yes.”

She smiled. “You’ll do the right thing, Ian. You always do.”

But how could he, he thought, when the choice could very well lie between this woman he cared so much for and a man he didn’t want to see hanged?

It was late afternoon when Rutledgereached Marling, and he found three messages waiting for him at the hotel-frantic requests from Inspector Dowling for his immediate presence.

Without preamble Dowling said as Rutledge walked into his office, “Thank God you’re here! There’s been another murder. We’ll take your motorcar, if you don’t mind.”

“Where? Who is the victim?” He was already following Dowling through the office door, down the passage to the street.

“Mr. Brereton, I’m afraid. Out the Marling road. The house where he lives has been turned upside down, and there’s blood everywhere. Where have you been! ”

“When did you learn about this?”

“Not a quarter of an hour ago. A man called Adams, delivering firewood for the winter, reported it. I’ve been trying to reach Inspector Grimes in Seelyham, to ask him to block the road north. Sergeant Burke has already put men at the crossroads, and I’m damned shorthanded! And this morning we had to let that Dutchman go-Mr. Hamilton is that clever, he even spoke to the Chief Constable, and in the end, we had no choice but to agree to release him.”

“Where is the man now?” They had reached the hotel and were walking swiftly around to the yard.

“God knows. Sergeant Burke saw Mr. Hamilton at The Plough, but he was alone. That was at noon.”

“Did this man Adams see the body? So far all the murders have been at night, on the road. It’s a different pattern.”

“It’s different, yes. But I’d lay odds it’s the same killer. Who else could it be? Marling is not so cosmopolitan that we can boast of two murderers running amok in the same month!” He cranked the motorcar for Rutledge and climbed in. “Adams didn’t search the house, and rightly so. He came straight here, crying murder. Sergeant Burke is at the crossroads, and I’ve sent Weaver to fetch Dr. Pugh. It will be crowded in the back, but we can take them up with us.”

Rutledge, driving out into the square, said, “No-!”

Dowling said, “Be sensible, man, we need them. Adams carried Burke to the crossroads, and he’ll be staying there, with another man.”

But where would Hamish sit-!

Rutledge fought down sheer panic, reminding himself that it was an illogical reaction. Hamish lived in his head, however often the voice seemed to come from just behind his shoulder. And yet he was so accustomed to the reality of Hamish in the seat behind him that he couldn’t breathe at the thought of men crowding him out, sending the dead Scot to jostle with Dowling for space in front. Rutledge had lived in dread for three years that he would turn one day and come face to face with the voice whose owner he never saw, that no one heard, that was the Nemesis in his mind It took a formidable act of will to accept Dowling’s proposition.

They found the young constable, Weaver, his face shiny with nervous sweat, standing at the gate to the doctor’s surgery, and even as they drew up and the constable stepped into the motorcar, Pugh came running out his door, bag in hand, to join him in the rear seat.

Dr. Pugh was a slim man in his fifties, with a high forehead and an air of competence. “I’ve had to put off the rest of my patients,” he said. “I hope this isn’t a mad scramble for nothing. Weaver says Adams didn’t see the body.”

They drove quickly out of Marling, and at the crossroads-where Harry Bartlett had been killed the night Rutledge was driving Elizabeth Mayhew home from the Hamiltons’ party-he could recall clearly the German’s face in his headlamps, eyes wide and alarmed. Where was Hauser now?