Part 18 (2/2)

'That was real, of course: a plan to bring down the government, like the Gunpowder Plot. Conspiracies are not necessarily the product of overheated imaginations.'

'Would you say there are ones we could consider true today?'

Almost certainly,' said Dame Maud, s.h.i.+ning the cutlery and carefully replacing it piece by piece. 'There are corporate conspiracies to keep company prices artificially inflated, and government schemes to slip through parliamentary bills under the cover of controversial world events.' She indicated the teaspoons. 'I didn't bend these with the power of my mind, by the way, but with my fingers. It's a parlour trick. I was just showing Margaret how it was done.'

'You think your murderer was playing a similar trick on you,' said Maggie, smiling as she set down tea. There seemed to be holly in her hair, although Christmas had long gone.

'What makes you say that?'

'You wouldn't be here otherwise.'

'Do you think he was? Playing some kind of trick on us? I told you my doubts on the phone. I feel I've been hoodwinked somehow.'

'You have no reason to disbelieve this person's history, have you?'

'That's the problem; I don't,' said Bryant, a little perplexed. 'It's all true. And his culpability has been proven beyond doubt.'

'Then he must be cleverer than you imagined.'

Bryant munched his pudding thoughtfully and somewhat carefully. 'But to what end?'

'In conspiracy theory there's the issue of cui bono, ”who stands to gain?” You must ask yourself the same question. If your chap Pellew is found guilty of these murders, who is the beneficiary? Certainly not the doctor who discharged him, for he can only appear in a bad light after the confirmation that his patient has been released to commit murder. Who else? Five women are dead. Who gains an advantage from their deaths?'

'Someone who featured in all of their lives. Someone who was important to each one of them.' 'Someone you haven't found.'

'We've made detailed examinations of their recent movements.' Bryant sighed. 'There's a dark patch on the X ray, so to speak, a period when they all justa”went missing.'

'There you are,' said Dame Maud, who had been so sensible up until this point. *Alien abduction.'

'No, dear, he thinks they worked together,' Maggie explained, 'doing something they couldn't tell their relatives about.'

'Oh, ladies of the night? Jezebels, is it? Painted harlots?'

'No, in an office,' said Bryant, giving Dame Maud a wary look. 'Legal secretaries.'

'I'm confused. Why would they lie to their loved ones about working in an office?'

'That's rather the question,' Bryant admitted.

'ATM machines,' said Dame Maud, perking up suddenly. 'They'll have needed lunches, won't they? Find out where they drew their money from. Women have to eat in the morning, it's a metabolism thing. Read their journey details from their Oyster cards, then check the coffee bars nearest to the stations from which they all alighted.'

'Are you sure you haven't worked with the police before?' asked Bryant. 'You have a criminal turn of mind.'

'No, dear, I haven't worked with the police.' Her moon-eyes swam innocently behind aquarium gla.s.s.

'No, but you've been in trouble with them a few times,' Maggie pointed out.

'It wasn't my fault that last time; it was your Maureen and her familiar, pulling my skirt off like that.'

'You were in the Trafalgar Square fountain swearing like a navvy.'

'I was in a state of advanced transcendentalism.'

'You were in a state of advanced inebriation, dear.'

As Bryant left the witches arguing in the little terraced house, he found himself wondering what a handful of kindly, maternal legal secretaries could have done to place themselves on the death list of a deranged killer.

37.

OPEN AND SHUT.

W.

hat do you mean, the case isn't closed?' Raymond Land looked like someone had just thrown a bucket of iced water over him. Bryant had never seen him looking so tired. There were bags like suitcases under his eyes, and for once he hadn't tried to plaster his remaining strands of hair across his head.

'I've just told you; we think there may be at least two more victims, people we haven't considered. They could have been kidnapped by Pellew before he made a run for it. And there's something else. Pellew was being monitored by a community warden called Lorraine Bonner. When he skipped his apartment, she notified his probation officer. The authorities knew he'd broken the terms of his release, but it looks like they did nothing about it. Why?'

'I can't go back to Faraday and tell him the case is still open. He'll have kittens.'

'I don't care about upsetting Faraday's little world when there may be human lives at stake.'

And anywaya”I suppose I'd better tell youa”there's an other problem.' Land's sigh was like air leaking from an old accordian.'Kasavian's closed the unit.'

'Again? My dear Raymond, every time we take on a case he closes the unit. It's getting so that people come here half-expecting to find us shut at odd hours. We're a crime-detection unit, not a French patisserie.'

'Listen to me, Arthur: This time it's for good. They've removed our lease on the building, with immediate effect. We're required to vacate the premises today.'

'Don't be ridiculous,' Bryant scoffed, before suddenly losing confidence. 'You're not serious?'

'As a heart attack. They've sold the property. There's another department moving in on Monday at noon.'

'How long are we supposed to vacate for? Where are we to go?'

'Kasavian says we'll be rehoused eventually, but I don't believe it for a second. It really is the end of the line.'

'Oh, you've said that before. We'll continue on, we always do. I haven't finished my autobiography yet.'

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