Anthem for Doomed Youth (21 page)

‘Yes, he teaches my daughter English.’ Cautiously, she asked, ‘What makes you think he would have liked to murder Harriman?’

‘He was witnessed shouting at him and threatening him with one of his crutches, on the school field yesterday. The trouble is, I can’t for the life of me see how anybody as badly crippled as him could have managed it.’

‘I quite agree, Inspector. He couldn’t possibly.’

Gant looked gratified. ‘We have to consider every possibility,’ he said pompously, ‘but Mr Pencote is an impossibility. If you happen to remember anything else, Mrs Fletcher, anything at all, please telephone the local police station at any hour.’

‘Are you going to work all night, Inspector?’ asked Sakari.

Flushing, he said pettishly, ‘You can’t interview people in the middle of the night, madam. Besides, a man needs his sleep if he’s to outwit villains. The local police will take messages for me.’

‘I’ll ring them right away,’ Daisy said quickly, ‘if I think of anything I’ve forgotten to report.’

‘Thank you, madam. I’ll say good-night, then.’

He brought the silent acolyte to heel with a crooked finger and departed.

‘Well!’ said Sakari. ‘I can’t believe he told you so much! Or anything at all. You must have learnt your interrogation technique from Alec.’

‘That’s part of it. Mostly, it’s just that you were so
obnoxious
, darling, that in comparison, I was charming!’

‘You have pulled the wool over his eyes nicely so far. Little does he know he ought to be enquiring not as to what you have forgotten to report but what you have chosen not to report.’

‘We can but hope,’ said Daisy, holding up crossed fingers. ‘Is there any coffee left in the pot? My throat’s dry after going through all that again.’

Sakari felt the coffee pot. ‘It is barely lukewarm. I shall order another pot, and you deserve another Drambuie as a reward for brilliant obfuscation. I should have asked the inspector to ring the bell before he left.’

‘Shall we move to the lounge? It’s much more comfortable.’

‘Privacy is more important at present than comfort. You have still to explain your theories, Daisy.’

So Daisy rang the bell, and once they were provided with hot coffee and another tiny glass of liqueur each, she expounded her reasoning.

Sakari listened to her speculations with interest, but frowned when she unravelled the case against Tesler and Miss Bascombe. ‘Are you certain you do not dismiss your
suspicions
because you like Mr Tesler and admire his character?’

‘How can I tell?’ said Daisy crossly. ‘It’s true that I don’t want to think they’re guilty, but I truly don’t believe it, either.’

‘What would Alec say?’

‘That’s easy. He’d tell me it’s none of my business and I’m not to meddle in a police investigation.’

‘In spite of his unfortunate experience with Detective Inspector Gant?’

‘He does have a low opinion of Gant.’

‘So perhaps he would not mind your meddling quite so much. However, this is not at all to the point. What would be his opinion of your basing your case, or your lack of a case, on your view of the suspect’s character?’

Daisy pondered. ‘I think he’d say, character can be a guide but not a determining factor, and to what extent it guides one should be based on how well one knows the suspect. I suppose I can’t claim to know Tesler well after talking to him a few times.’

‘And hearing about him from Belinda, I am sure.’

‘Yes,’ said Daisy, brightening. ‘She really likes him, and not just because she’s keen on science. She loves English, too, but prefers Tesler to Pencote because unlike Pencote, who has quite a temper, he never gets “in a bate,” as they say. Alec would take her opinion into account.’

‘Unfortunately, one cannot expect the same of Gant. Do not look so downcast, Daisy. Fortunately there are plenty of other suspects.’

‘With whom I’m even less familiar.’

‘Did you not hear the headmaster speaking of his dislike of Harriman? When we were sitting on those abominably uncomfortable chairs on the field?’

Daisy burst out laughing. ‘Darling, you can’t suggest Mr Rowntree might have killed Harriman because he was a rotten choice as a member of staff!’

‘Suppose he cherishes the school as if it were his own child. What if Harriman were to ruin its reputation, so that parents no longer wish to entrust their children to it?’

‘He’d give him the sack.’

‘Perhaps he cannot. Do not teachers belong to unions?
Everyone else seems to. But never mind. As you told Gant, there are a great many possible suspects of whom we know little or nothing.’

‘Yes, and probably never will know much. My only reason for picking out Tesler and Miss Bascombe was that I do know them a little. But I must admit, I still wonder what they were so upset about today!’

Shadd had trouble finding the right way to start his long story. Thinking about it, he looked unseeingly round the dimly lit stock room. His roving gaze paused on the massive figure of Tom, uncomfortably perched on a crate of Gordon’s gin. He started to sweat heavily and wiped his brow with the back of his sleeve.

‘You gotta understand, guv, I didn’t know what he was going to do. I couldn’t’ve guessed, could I!’

‘Let’s start with his name,’ Alec suggested in his most soothing voice. He was afraid the landlord might decide silence was the better part of discretion before he’d given that essential bit of information.

‘Clem – Clement Rosworth.’

Not John Smith, thank goodness! Ernie wrote it down and kept his pencil poised.

‘How did you come to know Rosworth, Mr Shadd?’

‘We grew up just round the corner from each other, right here in Tottenham. Went to school together, went to Spurs games, kicked a ball round and dreamt of
getting
on the team. Fat chance! Me dad was a tapster, so I went in as pot-boy at fourteen. Clem, he had a yen to see
the world and got took on by a carter. I didn’t see much of him for a while, just when he’d come home to visit his mum.’

‘When was this?’

‘In the ’90s. Must’ve been roundabout 1898, ’99, he met a girl somewheres not too far off – St. Albans, it was. Baby on the way, you know how it goes, so he married young. Well, being a travelling man, he was off on a job when she went into labour early. The baby survived but his wife died. He brought the boy back home and his mother took him in – still had a couple of her own at home.’

‘Is she still around? The mother?’

‘Nah, she died a few years ago. Dunno where the rest of ’em went off to. There’s none left hereabouts.’

A pity
, Alec thought. ‘Go on.’

‘Well, Clem, he worshipped that kid. Quit his
long-distance
carting because he wanted to stay nearby. I was a barman meself by then. Talked to some pals and found him a job as drayman with a local brewery.’

Ernie looked up from his rapidly filling notebook with a triumphant expression. Here was additional evidence for his beloved pub link.

‘What’s the name of the brewery?’ Alec asked.

‘That won’t help you. It went out of business years ago. Clem got taken on by McMullen’s.’

‘Where are they based? Local?’

‘Hertford. Not too far. McMullen’s Hertford Brewery.’

‘Right. Go on.’

‘Then the war came along and Clem was called up in the first draft. So was I, but I ended up in France, and he got sent to Mess-pot.’

‘Rosworth never fought in France?’ So what became of the military link?

‘Nah. Learnt to drive a motor-lorry out East. Me, I ended up as a mess orderly.’

‘A nice easy billet.’

‘Don’t make me laugh. Wasn’t that fun in the trenches, trying to cater to a bunch of officers that like as not had been blowed up before you got there, and often as not ended up eating the same rations as the men! I can tell you, I carried a rifle more often than a soup-plate, and they drank their whisky straight from the bottle. Come to think of it, it was soup near as nothing done me in. Buried up to me neck in a trench I was, with a satchelful of thermos flasks of soup on me back. They pulled the other blokes out easy, even the two that was dead, but that satchel got in the way and weighed me down. Nearly drowned in mud, that’s me.’

‘And Rosworth?’

‘Sand, that was his trouble. Sand and dust.’

‘But he came through in one piece?’

‘
He
did. It was his boy didn’t.’ Shadd passed his hand across his face as if trying to hide the first real emotion he’d shown. ‘Very close they was, like I told you. He missed his dad something dreadful. Lied about his age, didn’t he, thinking he’d get to go join him. And where does he end up? In bloody France, in my outfit, under Colonel bloody Pelham.’

‘Ah!’ said Tom softly. The others held quite still. After a short, brooding silence, Shadd continued.

‘Sixteen, should’ve been knee-high to a brussels sprout, but he put on his growth early, did Sammy Rosworth. All the same, that mud that came up to me neck, it was up to his
nose, and I’m not a tall man. Half drowned he was before they got him out. The poor little bugger should’ve been sent back to base to recover. Lieutenant Devine – he wasn’t a captain then, not till Captain Douglas bought it – he wanted to send Sammy back, I’ll give him that. But Colonel bloody Pelham said he was fit to go right back into the next trench, which hadn’t collapsed – yet.’ Again he fell silent. ‘Devine didn’t argue. He wasn’t the arguing sort.’

‘Sammy was caught in a second collapse and killed?’ Alec asked.

‘Nah. A shell did hit it that night – five men dead – but he was gone by then. Absent without leave. Deserting his post. The Redcaps brought him back at dawn. My sergeant – I was a corporal then – he talked to them and they said they was just returning him to the battle line. But that wasn’t enough for the bloody colonel. He convened a scratch court martial – no judge-advocate nor nothing, nobody to speak for the kid. He didn’t have a hope in hell, and hell was where he was, and we all was, come to that. The bastard was bound and determined to convict him.’

‘The other two members of the court were … ?’

‘Come off it, guv, them’s who you’re here about, aren’t they? He picked ’em carefully, them that wouldn’t go against him. Major Halliday, he was so set on discipline, used to quote Nelson at us, you know: “England expects that every man will do his duty.” Well, there’s this to say for him, he stuck to it himself. Everything by the rule book, he was, which don’t always make the best officers, mind. And Sammy broke the rules, there’s no arguing about that.’

‘And Devine?’

‘Like I said before, he wasn’t the arguing sort. Not a chance
he’d go against that bastard Pelham and the major. Sammy hadn’t got a hope. The sergeant rounding up the firing squad had a tough time of it. Everyone made themselves scarce at the sight of him – the Boche weren’t pounding us for a change. But he was a bully like the colonel. Twin souls, they was. He found his “twelve good men and true”. Not their fault, poor buggers, and I know for a fact most of ’em aimed to miss. But it only takes one.’

For a moment the only sound in the gloom was a faint murmur from the bar. Then Alec heard the softest of sighs, as if Tom, Ernie and Mackinnon were all letting out the breath they’d been holding.

‘Sixteen, shell-shocked, executed.’ Enough motive for any father to contemplate murder. Unhappily, this father had carried through. ‘How did Rosworth find out? I didn’t think they notified families.’

‘Nah. Killed in France was what they told him. He knew I was in the same outfit and came to me to ask. I didn’t want to break it to him, but he was desp’rit to know how his boy died, and did he suffer much. So I told him. Then he had to know all the details. They didn’t have too many deserters in the desert – nowhere to run to.’ Shadd shrugged. ‘Maybe I should’ve kept me mouth shut.’

‘Maybe you should have,’ Alec agreed grimly.

‘How was I to know he’d go berserk? He just got quieter and quieter when I told him how they’d blindfolded the kid and tied him to a post. Didn’t even turn pale – well, after a coupla years in the desert he couldn’t’ve, I s’pose. They used to make ’em drunk first, I’ve heard, but that Sergeant Harris – Harrison – I’ve forgot his name, something like that – he didn’t give him a drop. He pinned a bit of paper over his
heart for a target. The squad had their backs turned. When the sergeant gave the order to fire, they had to turn round, aim and shoot. Only a coupla shots hit the kid, but that did for him, all right. Only takes one.’

There was a long silence before Alec could bring himself to say, ‘When was it – how long ago, that you told Rosworth the story?’

‘Not long after we was demobbed. I got the job of barman here soon as I got home, and he got his old job back. Must’ve been the first time I seen him after the war.’

‘Obviously you told him the names of the officers involved. Did you mention Sergeant Harris by name?’

‘Can’t remember. That was a long time ago. Prob’ly.’

‘And the men on the firing squad?’

‘Nah, not them. Didn’t have any choice, did they.’

‘So it’s Harris we have to worry about. Harris or Harrison?’

Shadd shook his head. ‘Dunno. Can’t remember. He wasn’t my sergeant and I think he got transferred not long after. There’s ways of making even a sergeant uncomf ’table. Like the thought of a nasty mistake when he’s making the rounds at night, sentries nervous, took him for a Boche infiltrator … It happened.’

‘I dare say. We’ve got to find him. Your sergeant would know his name.’

‘Dead.’

They would have to go back to the army records. ‘What about Rosworth? Where does he live? You said he still works for the brewery in Hertford?’

‘McMullen’s. ’Sright. That’s how come I seen quite a bit of him over the years. He delivers here.’

‘Regularly?’

‘Nah. I let ’em know when I need a delivery. Sometimes it’s him, sometimes one of the other blokes that drives for ’em.’

‘He drives a motor-lorry, you said?’

‘Sometimes. Sometimes a horse dray. Depends what other deliveries they’re making. We’re one of the closest customers, and you don’t have to drive through the Smoke to get here. They deliver right down to the south coast. Use the lorries for that, of course. They’re switching over to all motors, but it takes a few quid to spare.’

‘Give DC Piper their address. The brewery’s.’ He waited till Shadd had complied. ‘Are they on the telephone?’

‘’Spect so, but I haven’t got their number. Too bloody expensive by half, trunk calls. My owners won’t stand for it.’

‘Anyone have any questions?’ Alec asked his men.

‘The motor-lorries have the brewery’s name painted on the sides?’ Tom asked.

‘What d’you think? Not likely to pass up a chance for advertising, are they?’

‘What does Rosworth look like?’

‘We-ell, he’s not that big. About my height, but he don’t look brawny. Strong as an ox, though. You have to be to shift them casks about, even with a Spanish windlass. Mid-forties, like me. But he ain’t nothing special to look at, just ordinary. Hair darkish, eyes – never noticed, to tell the truth. You wouldn’t pick him out of a crowd, not even you lot.’

‘How big are these casks?’ Mackinnon wanted to know. ‘The ones Rosworth delivers.’

Shadd waved his hands vaguely, then pointed into the dim recesses of the room. ‘There’s some over there.’

‘Just tell us this,’ said Ernie. ‘Could a man fit inside one?’

‘They pickled Lord Nelson in a cask of rum, didn’t they? After Trafalgar?’

A few minutes later, they returned to the car. Alec had given the landlord a severe warning about withholding evidence from the police. In view of his eventual cooperation, though, he wasn’t going to charge him – unless Sergeant Harris was murdered because of the delay and it could be proved that earlier information might have saved him. It would be
difficult
, Alec thought, considering they were still unsure of his name, let alone his whereabouts.

‘Ernie, I take it you’ve got all those details committed to memory?’

‘Course, Chief.’

‘Then give your notebook to Mackinnon – you have a spare on you?’

‘Course, Chief!’

‘Mackinnon, we’re going to drop you at the nearest Tube station—’

‘Wood Green, Chief.’ Ernie pressed the self-starter and they set off. Trust him, given a chance to glance at a map in advance, to know how to get from wherever they were to wherever they were going.

‘Thank you. Mackinnon, you’ll go to the Yard. You and the inspector on duty will put out an all-stations call, for both Rosworth and Sergeant Harris or Harrison, and a watch on all ports for Rosworth. Don’t forget a warning that he’s armed. Not that we have much hope of finding him, with the rotten description we’ve got, if he’s had the sense to abandon his lorry. You’ll also try to get the War Office
records people back on the job, to find out what that damn sergeant’s name is and if possible where he is now. I don’t expect much success with that till the morning.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Failing immediate action from them, and I mean
immediate
, you’re going to have to get in touch with all the people we’ve already spoken to about Pelham’s regiment. Apart from laying our hands on Rosworth, it’s of the first
importance
to find out the sergeant’s name.’

‘I understand, sir.’

‘The rest of us will go straight to Hertford. You can get in touch through the station there. We’ll go to the brewery. With any luck we’ll find someone who can give us access to the office. Don’t they have to keep an eye on the beer constantly?’

‘Sunday evening …’ Tom said doubtfully.

‘Well, if not, we’ll have to dig up – what’s his name? – the owner.’ Alec had made no attempt to memorise the details, his mind busy planning the necessary moves even as he listened to Shadd.

‘McMullen,’ Ernie supplied, pulling up in front of the Wood Green underground station.

‘Any questions, Mackinnon?’

‘Aye, sir: will I no need permission from Superintendent Crane, or even the Assistant Commissioner, for setting a watch on ports and such?’

‘Technically, yes. But, as Tom has pointed out, it’s Sunday evening. If you can’t get the super on the phone first try, go ahead in the name of the Yard and hope no one asks who’s authorised it. I’ll take responsibility, of course.’

‘Thank you, sir. Good luck.’

‘And good luck to you,’ Alec said as Mackinnon got out of the car.

They headed north towards Hertford. Most of the sparse traffic was moving in the opposite direction, returning to London after a day in the country. As the built-up area fell behind them, Ernie stepped on the accelerator.

‘What did I say?’ he crowed. ‘All three victims
disappeared
after visiting their local pub, and all the pubs were free houses. You even mentioned, Sarge, you’d had a pint of Hertford’s bitter at the Duke of York in Tunbridge Wells. No, I tell a lie, McMullen’s is what you said.’