A Pale Horse - Charles Todd [68]
“From a sketch.”
“You yourself saw both the sketch and the victim. Are you telling me that the sketch is faulty?”
“Then what was your Berkshire man doing, hanging about in Yorkshire?”
“I don’t have the answer to that. Yet. My sergeant told me,” Rutledge went on, “that Shoreham had left Whitby shortly after the Crowells refused to press charges against him, and no one has seen him since. Where has he been, these last few years?”
Madsen sat down in his chair and leaned back, suddenly smug. “London isn’t as thorough as a good Yorkshire man can be when he puts his mind to it. We ran Shoreham to earth in the village of Addleford, living quietly with a cousin. Only, he went to stay with another cousin, and vanished. This cousin, one Lewellyn Williams, swore he never arrived. And he left Addleford because a family from Whitby moved there and he feared he’d be recognized.”
“Why didn’t one or the other of these cousins raise the alarm when Shoreham failed to arrive in Wales? Surely they were concerned about him?”
“The one in Wales thought Shoreham had changed his mind about coming just then. The one in Addleford thought he was snug in Wales. Constable Pickerel got the distinct impression that the cousin in Addleford hadn’t been in any great hurry to contact Williams.”
“How did Crowell find Shoreham, if it was impossible for the Yard to locate him?”
“It’s our view that Crowell ran into him quite by chance. Lucky for him, not so fortunate for Shoreham. The Crowells weren’t living in Dilby when the accident happened. Shoreham had no way of knowing his danger.”
“For the sake of argument, let’s say you’re right—”
Madsen smiled. “Very well.”
“Where did Shoreham die? And why did Crowell take the risk of leaving him in the abbey ruins? It was not the cleverest thing to do.”
The legs of Madsen’s chair smacked the floor with a sharp thump. “Early days yet, Rutledge, but we’ll have that soon enough.”
“I’d like the name of the cousin in Addleford. And the direction of the Welsh cousin as well.”
“Where’s the need? We’ve been over that ground already.”
“So you have,” Rutledge responded with more patience than he felt. “But the Yard will require assurances that all the evidence has been thoroughly examined. More to the point, we appear to have some confusion about identity. I’ll remind you that Mrs. Crowell didn’t recognize the drawing, and Crowell himself said he couldn’t identify the body, when he was taken to the doctor’s surgery.”
“Well, they would say as much, wouldn’t they? Crowell because he had no intention of drawing attention to himself, and Al—Mrs. Crowell, that is—because she’s not about to betray her husband.”
Rutledge saw something in Madsen’s face as he said the last few words that was very different from his manner to this point. “Nothing in my conversations with her made me feel she would lie for her husband’s sake. And what about Crowell’s feelings about killing? They’re on record.”
“This is the man who ruined his wife’s face, for God’s sake. It’s all very well to make a public display of forgiving the bastard, but deep down inside? Crowell was probably biding his time for a bit of quiet revenge.” Madsen shook his head. “I don’t hold with conscientious objectors. I never have. They were perfectly willing to let someone else die in their place, weren’t they? I’ll stay home, cozy by my hearth, thank you very much, and leave you to do the fighting!”
“I remind you he drove an ambulance.”
“Yes, that’s all very well. A bit of conscience overcoming him, for a guess.” It was a sneer. “And Alice thought him quite the hero, didn’t she, bringing back the wounded and saving lives. And those of us who had to carry on back in England, doing the job we were meant to do, were not good enough—”
Madsen stopped short, but not before Rutledge had seen more than he was meant to see.
Alice…
And those of us who had to carry on here in England were not good enough…
As Madsen struggled to rein in his temper, Hamish said, “Ye ken, he’s jealous, and he canna’ live with it.”
The inspector looked away from Rutledge, his gaze going