Blood on the Line (17 page)

‘What do you mean?’

‘I think that you should bear him in mind, sir.’

Tallis was stung. ‘How dare you!’ he cried. ‘Peebles has never been
out
of my mind. Since his death yesterday evening, I’ve thought about nothing else.’

‘Then why are you turning your back on him?’

‘I’m doing nothing of the kind, man.’

‘Yes, you are,’ argued Colbeck. ‘If you feel culpable for his death, you should feel an impulse to avenge it. In your shoes, I know that I would. Yet you’re actually walking away from the case. You are, in effect, letting his killer go free.’

‘I’ve lost the right to run this investigation.’

‘I don’t believe that and neither does the commissioner.’

‘It’s all over, Colbeck. I’m finished as a detective.’

‘You’re bound to feel guilty,’ said Colbeck. ‘I understand that. But the way to assuage that guilt is to lead the pursuit of Jeremy Oxley and his accomplice – not to abandon it.’

‘I’m accepting my punishment for failure.’

Colbeck laughed. ‘In that case, everyone in the department should resign, sir. I still squirm when I recall some of my failures and the same applies to others. Detection is not a perfectible art and never will be. The most that we can hope for is a reasonable amount of success. We simply don’t have the resources to solve every crime that’s committed,’ added Colbeck. ‘We have to select priorities and you are a master at doing that, sir. It’s your forte.’

‘It was, perhaps. That’s all past now.’

‘Is that what you wish me to tell the young lady?’

‘What young lady?’

‘The one who was betrothed to Constable Peebles – I believe that you spoke to her. When she gets over the initial shock of his death, she’ll want to know that we’re making every effort to apprehend his killer.’ His smile was quizzical. ‘Am I to tell her that you have no desire to take part in the search?’

‘That would be a gross misrepresentation.’

‘It’s exactly how it will appear to Catherine, sir.’

‘Nobody is more anxious to see Oxley brought to book than me. He’s a fiend in human shape and his accomplice is just as bad as him. They’ve now killed three policemen between them.’

‘I make the number four.’

‘There were two from Wolverhampton and one from London.’

‘You’re missing someone out, sir.’

He was perplexed. ‘Who’s that?’

‘Superintendent Edward Tallis,’ said Colbeck. ‘To all intents and purposes, he’s been killed as well. He’s withdrawn from the fight. He poses no threat to Oxley and is, in effect, posthumous.’

‘That’s babbling idiocy.’

‘I only describe the situation as I see it.’

‘And I’ve not withdrawn from the fight,’ said Tallis, vehemently. ‘I simply felt that I no longer deserve to hold the authority that I did.’

Colbeck sat back in the chair. Having planted a seed of doubt in Tallis’s mind, he sought to nourish it so that it would grow. He looked up at the portrait of Wellington whose stern eyes stared down either side of the famous hooked nose. Like Tallis, the Duke had never inspired great affection in those under his command but he did earn their respect. There was another similarity. Both men had a will of iron.

‘It’s a striking portrait,’ remarked Colbeck.

‘He was a striking man,’ said Tallis, ‘and merits the thanks of the whole nation for trouncing the French at Waterloo.’

‘Did he have an unblemished record of success?’

‘Nobody has that in the army, Colbeck. There are always minor setbacks and situations over which you have no control. The Duke was often hampered by scant
resources but he nevertheless managed victories against superior numbers.’

‘That’s another parallel with you, then, sir.’

‘I’m no Duke of Wellington.’

‘Perhaps not, but you have some of his qualities. For example, you know how to get the best out of men under your command, especially when they are up against insuperable odds. You are a true leader, Superintendent.’

‘Stop using that title!’

‘Would the Duke have resigned when he met with a setback?’

‘He resigned because he had incompetent rivals alongside him. It was only when they realised how great a loss he was to the army that they restored him and put him in full command.’ Colbeck glanced at the portrait then stared at Tallis. ‘It’s presumptuous to compare me with the Duke. He was a genius. Besides, I’m no longer in the army.’

‘But you run the department with military precision.’

‘That’s just my way.’

‘Ian Peebles understood that, sir. He admired you greatly. I think he’d have expected you to atone for what you did by helping to catch his killer. Will you desert your post now of all times?’

Tallis was discomfited. His eyes went up to the portrait and he had to make an effort to turn them away. After weighing up what he’d been told, he turned away to ponder. Colbeck did not disturb his cogitations. It was minutes before Tallis broke the silence.

‘You say that there have been developments.’

‘Yes, sir,’ replied Colbeck, ‘I made two critical arrests this morning. In doing so, I solved a crime that’s been troubling the Bradford Borough Police for a number of years.’

Colbeck told him about the early morning visit to Willesden and how Gordon and Susanna Younger had been unmasked. They had provided an immense amount of information about the activities of Jeremy Oxley and Irene Adnam. Though he tried to remain indifferent, Tallis was patently intrigued by the sudden progress made. He wished that he’d been there to interrogate the two prisoners. His interest in the case was reawakened so much that he even tried to shift part of the blame onto Colbeck.

‘You must take some responsibility for what happened to Peebles,’ he said. ‘If you had not gone off on a wild goose chase to Coventry, you’d have been there to read your letter and to take the appropriate action. Constable Peebles would still be alive today.’

‘I wish that were true,’ said Colbeck, ‘but my trip to Coventry was not a wild goose chase. Mrs Darker, who runs the Sherbourne Hotel there, was able to identify two of her guests as Jeremy Oxley and Irene Adnam. She did so for the second time today.’

‘How can you possibly know that?’

‘When they fled from the house, they decided to go to ground in a hotel where they’d enjoyed their stay. Accordingly, they arrived at the Sherbourne late this morning. Mrs Darker recognised them and sent for the police.’

‘Were they apprehended?’

‘Alas, no,’ admitted Colbeck, ‘but they were chased away. I had a telegraph from the local police. They’re scouring the town in case the two suspects are still in the vicinity.’

‘The chase is on, then,’ said Tallis, excitedly. ‘We have their scent in our nostrils.’

‘Are you going to miss out on the hunt, sir? Or would you prefer to sit here and read about the campaigns of the Duke of Wellington?’ He stood up. ‘Please excuse me. I must get back. Urgent matters demand my attention. But I leave you with this thought,’ he said. ‘Were his ghost standing before you now, what do you think Constable Peebles would want you to do?’

Tallis pondered afresh, looked up at the portrait then rose to his feet. He walked across to the window and stared out in the direction of Scotland Yard. Colbeck opened the door to leave.

‘Goodbye, sir,’ he said, hovering. ‘I’m very sorry to discover that you are beyond the reach of persuasion. I’ll pass on the bad news to the commissioner.’

‘Wait!’ said Tallis, making up his mind. ‘I’ll come with you.’

A night in her lover’s arms did much to reassure Irene Adnam and to banish her fears of arrest. In spite of setbacks and scares, the fact remained that they were still at liberty and were now over a hundred and sixty miles away from London. Crewe was essentially a railway town, far more interested in its mundane daily round than in searching for dangerous criminals. The hotel was accustomed to people coming and going on a regular basis. It had no eagle-eyed manageress like Gwen Darker and no watchful staff. Oxley and Irene were not under surveillance.

At the same time, however, she nursed one justified anxiety. It was all very well for Oxley to point out that Inspector Colbeck would have no clue as to their whereabouts but that would not stop him continuing to look for them. He would never give up. Colbeck had
already spent ten years in pursuit of Oxley and – from what she’d heard of him – was the kind of man prepared to spend another decade in the hunt. His persistence was legendary. It meant that the fugitives could never fully relax.

Irene came down late for breakfast. When she entered the dining room, she saw that Oxley was already occupying a table in the far corner. She sat down on the other side of the room and made a point of ignoring him. It was too early for the newspapers to have arrived from London. Eager to read an account of their escape, Oxley had told her that he’d walk to the railway station in due course. The meal was acceptable but it lacked the quality of the breakfasts they’d had at the Sherbourne. Indeed, the hotel could not compete on any terms with the one in which they’d stayed in Coventry. Its merits were that it was quiet, anonymous and close to the station. If they had to flee from the town, they could do so very quickly.

When he’d finished his meal, Oxley made a point of walking close to her so that he could let his hand gently brush her shoulder. Irene felt a delicious thrill coursing through her, heightened by the fact that nobody else in the dining room had been aware of the contact. If this was the game that they had to play for a while, she was ready to enjoy it. Passionate nights together would be balanced by times in the public rooms of hotels where the pair of them pretended to be complete strangers. It might leave her vulnerable to propositions from amorous gentlemen but Irene was used to rebuffing those. The sight of an attractive young woman travelling on her own always
excited unwelcome interest. It was a fact of life to which she had long since adjusted.

Seated near a window, she was able to watch Oxley striding jauntily away from the hotel. He looked smart, imposing and urbane. He was a man of the world, at ease in every situation. At their first encounter, she had been struck by his courteousness. As he passed an elderly woman, Irene saw him touch the brim of his hat out of politeness. Oxley was every inch a gentleman. It was one of the things that she loved about him. He’d elevated her in every way. She was no longer an unfortunate girl, forced to enter domestic service. Irene Adnam was now a lady in her own right. She could book into a hotel on her own and order the staff around at will. It made her feel empowered.

She lingered at the table so that she could watch Oxley return and feast her eyes on him. It was not long before they’d be alone together in her room again, discussing what they should do next. First, however, he’d want to celebrate. Their latest escape was bound to have been reported in the London newspapers and Oxley would gloat over them. When he came back into view, however, there was no sense of gloating and still less of celebration. His head was down and his stroll had now become something of a scurry. Passing a lady who was exercising her dog, he didn’t even spare her a glance. There was no time for courtesy now.

Irene’s stomach lurched. Something was wrong. Leaving her tea untouched, she rose from the table and hurried out.

Leeming was impressed. ‘How on earth did you manage it, sir?’

‘I appealed to his sense of duty.’

‘The commissioner did that but to no avail.’

‘I had an ally, Victor.’

‘Oh – who was that?’

‘It was the Duke of Wellington,’ said Colbeck.

‘He’s dead. The superintendent went to the funeral.’

‘He’s still alive in Mr Tallis’s heart.’

‘I didn’t know that he had one,’ said Leeming, sourly. He brightened immediately. ‘But it’s a relief to have him back. When he bawled at me earlier on, I felt almost glad.’

They were in Colbeck’s office, collating a lot of information that had come in. On the wall was a large map of the British Isles. Colbeck explained how he’d convinced Tallis to return to work and how the Duke of Wellington had unknowingly lent his aid. Not for the first time, Leeming admired the inspector’s diplomacy.

‘It was the revelations about Dr and Mrs Oldfield that really secured his interest,’ said Colbeck. ‘It was quite miraculous. A treasure trove of crime was both unearthed and solved in one long conversation. I wish that it was always so easy.’

‘Yet they appeared to be highly respectable,’ said Leeming as he recalled his meeting with the Youngers. ‘Looking at them, I’d never have guessed what the truth was.’

‘They worked hard to reinvent themselves, Victor. Had it not been for the arrival of unexpected guests, the doctor and his wife might have lived happily ever after as
Gordon and Susanna Younger. He might even have made an excellent churchwarden.’

‘Not anymore, sir – they’re back in Bradford now, answering for their crimes. They’ll get no mercy.’

Colbeck was philosophical. ‘Justice has a way of catching up with people in the end. It just takes a little longer in some cases.’

‘How long will it take before Oxley and Miss Adnam are caught?’

‘The net is slowly closing around them. Now that we’ve engaged the British public in the search, we’re getting real assistance.’ He opened another letter and scanned it. ‘Here’s another example.’

‘Who sent it?’

‘The manager of a hotel in Stafford,’ said Colbeck. ‘He believes that they might have stayed there after the escape from the train. His description of Oxley doesn’t tally in every particular with the one that we’ve circulated but it sounds as if it could be him, Victor.’

Leeming was sceptical. ‘Wait a moment, sir,’ he said. ‘Stafford is close to Wolverhampton, isn’t it? If you kill two policemen and make a run for it, surely you’d want to get as far away as possible.’

‘That’s what everybody would think and it’s what Oxley and his accomplice would
want
us to think. After all, they came to London, didn’t they? Who would have imagined that they’d move close to Scotland Yard when the search for them was being directed from here? It was a cunning move on Oxley’s part.’ He took a pin from a small tray on his desk and stuck it in the map. ‘I’m sure
that they did stay at Stafford.’ He studied the map then beckoned Leeming over. ‘What do you notice about their movements?’

‘They never stay long in one place, sir.’

‘Take a closer look.’

Leeming stared at the map and tried to find a connection between all the pins they’d inserted in it. Because his knowledge of geography was limited, he struggled to discern a pattern. Since the reward had been advertised in the newspapers, information had poured in from a number of sources. Many of the claims were obviously fraudulent and had been tossed aside by Colbeck, but some deserved to be taken seriously.

Leeming was baffled. ‘Give me a clue, sir.’

‘Think of my future father-in-law.’

‘Why should I want to think about Mr Andrews?’

‘He works for the LNWR,’ replied Colbeck. ‘Join up all of those pins and you’ll see that the majority of them are stations on the route used by the LNWR. Here,’ he went on, moving a finger from pin to pin. ‘We have Watford, Leighton Buzzard, Rugby, Coventry, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Stafford and so on, all the way up to Warrington and beyond. If our informants are correct, Oxley and Miss Adnam have stayed at all of those places some time over the last few months.’

‘You can see why they’d choose to be close to a railway station, sir. In an emergency, they’d be able to get away by train.’ He peered at the map. ‘Where are they now – that’s what I want to know?’

‘I’d venture to suggest that they’re following tradition,’
said Colbeck. ‘They’ll be staying in a town somewhere along the same route.’ He breathed in deeply. ‘Which town is it, I wonder?’

When he came into her room, Oxley’s face was as dark as a thundercloud. He closed the door behind him and barked an order.

‘Pack your things – we’re leaving here at once!’

‘Why?’ asked Irene in alarm. ‘What’s happened?’

‘Just do as you’re told.’

‘But nobody knows that we’re here, Jerry.’

‘
He
knows,’ sneered Oxley. ‘That bastard, Inspector Colbeck, knows every damn thing.’ He handed over the newspaper. ‘Read that.’

Irene took it from him and saw the relevant article. She read it with mounting concern. All her fears flooded back. She was so jittery that she almost dropped the paper.

‘They’ve arrested Gordon and Susanna.’ Irene was incredulous.

‘We got away just in time.’

‘How could they possibly have linked us with that house?’

‘I don’t know,’ he confessed.

‘You said that they wouldn’t find us there in a month of Sundays. That’s why you chose the place.’

‘I thought it was safe, Irene. More important, it kept us out of the public gaze for a while. In any case, I’d wanted to see Gordon and Susanna again. We’re old friends.’

‘Their real names are Philip and Anna Oldfield,’ she
noted, looking at the article. ‘They were well known in Bradford at one time.’

‘They’ll be even more well known now that they’ve been caught,’ he said. ‘Well, that’s their problem. We can’t waste time feeling sorry for them. The most disturbing line in that article is the last one. It says that the police are very grateful for the cooperation given by the two prisoners. In other words,’ he added with a snarl, ‘they’ve given us away, Irene. They’ve betrayed us.’

She was too stunned to reply. As she read the article for the second time, she realised how close the police had come to catching them at the house. Only hours earlier, they’d been sleeping quietly in their beds. Had they not left under the cover of darkness, they’d now be languishing in separate cells. It was a frightening thought.

‘This is Colbeck’s doing,’ he said. ‘I told you that he was clever.’

‘I still can’t believe it.’

‘The facts are there in black and white, Irene.’

‘If he can find us there,’ she argued, ‘he can find us anywhere. It was the perfect hiding place and yet he still managed to track us down somehow. I’m terrified, Jerry. There’s no escape from him.’

‘Yes, there is.’

‘Please don’t say that you’ll try to kill him again,’ she begged. ‘He’ll be on guard against you next time.’

‘I’ve thought of another solution, Irene.’

‘What is it?’

‘We leave the country altogether.’

Hope was rekindled. ‘Yes,’ she said, smiling, ‘that’s the
answer. Remember that poster we saw at the station when we arrived? It said that we could take a train to Holyhead and pick up a ferry to Ireland. Inspector Colbeck would never touch us there.’

‘Oh yes he would. You haven’t followed his career as closely as I have, Irene. He was involved in a case that started in this very town when a severed head was found in a hatbox. Don’t ask me how he did it,’ he said, ‘but Colbeck went all the way to Ireland in the course of his investigation. It’s far too close. We need to be on another continent altogether.’

‘Where do you suggest?’

‘America.’

She was dumbfounded. The only thing she knew about America was that it was a great distance away. A very long voyage would be necessary with obvious dangers attendant upon it. Irene was rattled. It would be a journey into the unknown. On the other hand, it would finally guarantee them the safety they craved. In a new continent, they could forge an entirely new life.

‘If you won’t come with me,’ he warned, ‘I’ll go alone.’

She grabbed his arm. ‘Don’t say that, Jerry!’

‘It’s the one sure way to shake Colbeck off our tail.’

‘What sort of a place is it?’

‘There’s only one way to find out, Irene. Will you come with me?’

‘Of course,’ she said, embracing him. ‘You don’t have to ask. I’ll follow you anywhere. When do we leave?’

‘Not for some days at least,’ he said. ‘There’s a lot to do first. I’ve got to collect all the money and possessions
I have squirrelled away in various places. And it will depend on when we can take ship. Then again, we’ll need documents. I’ll have forgeries made and that will take time. You can say goodbye to Irene Adnam,’ he told her. ‘From now on, we’ll both have another name as man and wife.’

‘And what name will it be, Jerry?’

‘Who knows? Do you have any suggestions?’ He suddenly burst out laughing. ‘I’ve just thought of the ideal name for us, Irene. In the circumstances, it’s the only one to choose.’

‘Stop interrupting!’ roared Tallis, rounding on the hapless sergeant. ‘When I want advice from you, I shall ask for it. Until then, refrain from making inane comments.’

‘Yes, sir,’ said Leeming.

‘Listen and learn – that’s my advice to you.’

It had not taken Tallis long to get back into his stride. Apart from delivering a tirade at some of his officers, he had waded through a mass of paperwork relating to other cases. He’d now come into Colbeck’s office to take stock of progress on the murder investigation. In directing him towards the map on the wall, Leeming had earned himself a stinging rebuke yet, strangely, it caused no pain this time. Having the superintendent back at Scotland Yard was so comforting that the sergeant felt insulated against the fury of his tongue. It was left to Colbeck to explain the significance of the pins in the map.

‘It’s a valid theory,’ said Tallis, ‘but it doesn’t tell us where he is at the moment. We could never check every
hotel within reach of the line operated by the London and North Western Railway.’

‘I accept that, sir,’ said Colbeck.