John le Carré - A Murder of Quality

The few strands of white hair which ran laterally across his otherwise bald head were painstakingly adjusted to cover the maximum area. This gave him an oddly wet look, as if he had just emerged from the river. His moustache, which lavishly compensated for the scarcity of other hair, was yellow and appeared quite solid. He was a very small man, and he wore a brown suit and a stiff white collar with rounded corners.

'Sir,' Rigby began, 'may I introduce Mr Smiley from London?'

He came out from behind his desk as if he were giving himself up, unconvinced but resigned. Then he pushed out a little, knobbly hand and said, 'From London, eh? How d'you do, sir,' all at once, as if he'd learnt it by heart.

'Mr Smiley's here on a private visit, sir,' Rigby continued. 'He is an acquaintance of Mr Fielding.'

'Quite a card, Fielding, quite a card,' the Chief Constable snapped.

'Yes, indeed, sir,' said Rigby, and went on:

'Mr Smiley called on Mr Fielding just now, sir, to take his leave before returning to London.' Havelock shot a beady glance at Smiley, as if wondering whether he were fit to make the journey.

'Mr Fielding made a kind of statement, which he substantiated with new evidence of his own. About the murder, sir.'

'Well, Rigby?' he said challengingly. Smiley intervened:

'He said that the husband had done it; Stanley Rode. Fielding said that when his head boy brought him Rode's writing-case containing the examination papers…'

'What examination papers?'

'Rode was invigilating that afternoon, you remember. He was also doing chapel duty before going on to dinner at Fielding's house. As an expediency, he gave the papers to Perkins to take…'

'The boy who had the accident?' Havelock asked.

'Yes.'

'You know a lot about it,' said Havelock darkly.

'Fielding said that when Perkins brought him the case, Fielding opened it. He wanted to see how Perkins had done in the science paper. It was vital to the boy's future that he should get his remove,' Smiley went on.

'Oh, work's the only thing now,' said Havelock bitterly. 'Wasn't the way when I was a boy here, I assure you.'

'When Fielding opened the case, the papers were inside. So was a plastic cape, an old pair of leather gloves, and a pair of rubber overshoes, cut from Wellingtons.'

A pause.

'Good God! Good God! Hear that, Rigby? That's what they found in the parcel in London. Good God!'

'Finally, there was a length of cable, heavy cable, in the case as well. It was this writing-case that Rode went back for, you remember, on the night of the murder,' Smiley concluded. It was like feeding a child—you couldn't overload the spoon.

There was a very long silence indeed. Then Rigby, who seemed to know his man, said:

'Motive was self-advancement in the profession, sir. Mrs Rode showed no desire to improve her station, dressed in a slovenly manner and took no part in the religious life of the school.'

'Just a minute,' said Havelock. 'Rode planned the murder from the start, correct?'

'Yes, sir.'

'He wanted to make it look like robbery with violence.'

'Yes, sir.'

'Having collected the writing-case, he walked back to North Fields. Then what does he do?'

'He puts on the plastic cape and hood, overshoes and gloves. He arms himself with the weapon, sir. He lets himself in by the garden gate, crosses the back garden, goes to the front door and rings the bell, sir. His wife comes to the door. He knocks her down, drags her to the conservatory and murders her. He rinses the clothes under the tap and puts them in the parcel. Having sealed the parcel, he walks down the drive this time to the front gate, following the path, sir, knowing that his own footprints will soon be obscured by other people's. Having got to the road, where the snow was hard and showed no prints, he turned round and re-entered the house, playing the part of the distressed husband, taking care, when he discovers the body, sir, to put his own finger-prints over the glove-marks. There was one article that was too dangerous to send, sir. The weapon.'

'All right, Rigby. Pull him in. Mr Borrow will give you a warrant if you want one; otherwise I'll ring Lord Sawley.'

'Yes, sir. And I'll send Sergeant Low to take a full statement from Mr Fielding, sir?'

'Why the devil didn't he speak up earlier, Rigby?'

'Have to ask him that, sir,' said Rigby woodenly, and left the room.

'You a Carnian?' Havelock asked, pushing a silver cigarette-box across the desk.

'No. No, I'm afraid not,' Smiley replied.

'How d'you know Fielding?'

'We met at Oxford after the war.'

'Queer card, Fielding, very queer. Say your name was Smiley?'

'Yes.'

'There was a fellow called Smiley married Ann Sercombe, Lord Sawley's cousin. Damned pretty girl, Ann was, and went and married this fellow. Some funny little beggar in the Civil Service with an O.B.E. and a gold watch. Sawley was damned annoyed.' Smiley said nothing. 'Sawley's got a son at Carne. Know that?'

'I read it in the press, I think.'

'Tell me—this fellow Rode. He's a grammar school chap, isn't he?'

'I believe so, yes.'

'Damned odd business. Experiments never pay, do they? You can't experiment with tradition.'

'No. No, indeed.'

'That's the trouble today. Like Africa. Nobody seems to understand you can't build society overnight. It takes centuries to make a gentleman.' Havelock frowned to himself and fiddled with the paper-knife on his desk.

'Wonder how he got his cable into that ditch, the thing he killed her with. He wasn't out of our sight for forty-eight hours after the murder.'

'That,' said Smiley, 'is what puzzles me. So does Jane Lyn.'

'What d'you mean?'

'I don't believe Rode would have had the nerve to walk back to the house after killing his wife knowing that Jane Lyn had seen him do it. Assuming, of course, that he knew, which seems likely. It's too cool… too cool altogether.'

'Odd, damned odd,' muttered Havelock. He looked at his watch, pushing his left elbow outwards to do so, in a swift equestrian movement which Smiley found comic, and a little sad. The minutes ticked by. Smiley wondered if he should leave, but he had a vague feeling that Havelock wanted his company.

'There'll be a hell of a fuss,' said Havelock. 'It isn't every day you arrest a Carne tutor for murder.' He put down the paper-knife sharply on the desk.

'These bloody journalists ought to be horsewhipped!' he declared. 'Look at the stuff they print about the Royal Family. Wicked, wicked!' He got up, crossed the room and sat himself in a leather armchair by the fire. One of the spaniels went and sat at his feet.

'What made him do it, I wonder. What the devil made him do it? His own wife, I mean; a fellow like that.' Havelock said this simply, appealing for enlightenment.

'I don't believe,' said Smiley slowly, 'that we can ever entirely know what makes anyone do anything.'

'My God, you're dead right… What do you do for a living, Smiley?'

'After the war I was at Oxford for a bit. Teaching and research. I'm in London now.'

'One of those clever coves, eh?'

Smiley wondered when Rigby would return.

'Know anything about this fellow's family? Has he got people, or anything?'

'I think they're both dead,' Smiley answered, and the telephone on Havelock's desk rang sharply. It was Rigby. Stanley Rode had disappeared.

He caught the 1.30 train to London. He just made it after an argument at his hotel about the bill. He left a note for Rigby giving his address and telephone number in London and asking him to telephone that night when the laboratory tests were completed. There was nothing else for him to do in Carne.

As the train pulled slowly out of Carne and one by one the familiar landmarks disappeared into the cold February mist, George Smiley was filled with a feeling of relief. He hadn't wanted to come, he knew that. He'd been afraid of the place where his wife had spent her childhood, afraid to see the fields where she had lived. But he had found nothing, not the faintest memory, neither in the lifeless outlines of Sawley Castle, nor in the surrounding countryside, to remind him of her. Only the gossip remained, as it would while the Hechts and the Havelocks survived to parade their acquaintance with the first family in Carne.