• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

'Hello is that Mr Emrys Hughes? It is! Good. I'm Inspector Stevens of Scotland Yard. I'd like a word with you if that's all right? No, not over the phone, I'm actually waiting at your gate. You'll come and let us in? Too kind, sir, too kind.' Stevens threw the phone on to the back seat of his car. 'About bloody time too,' he swore, staring down the amused look David was giving him.

Five minutes later, a tall figure wearing an undersize Barbour jacket and shabby brown trousers ambled up to the gate.

'You Inspector Stevens?' he asked suspiciously.

'That's right.' Stevens showed his identity card to the man.

'Well, you'd better come up to the house then.' He dug in his pockets for a bunch of keys and then reached through the gate to unfasten the chain and padlock. He swung open the metal gates and let Stevens drive through, then closed and locked the gates behind the car. He wandered over to the driver's window and leaned against the side of the car.

'You follow the gravel road up and round, see, and I'll meet you up at the house.'

'You wouldn't like to hop in the back, would you?' Stevens offered.

Emrys laughed harshly. 'No, I'll meet you up there.' He pushed himself off the car and walked slowly round in front of it. 'I'll be waiting.'

'He must have run,' David said, looking at the man standing calmly outside the front door of the house.

'He doesn't look out of breath,' Jack commented.

'Yeah, but he must have run,' David protested. 'There's no other way he could have got here ahead of us. '

'Stop trying to work out how he got here. Let's just talk to him, Stevens suggested, getting out of the car. 'Mr Hughes, thank you for seeing me.'

'Well, you're police, isn't it? Who are these two?'

'Mr Gibson and Mr Pilgrim,' Stevens replied in an attempt to give some sense of official involvement.

'Ah, well, you'd better come inside. I'll brew up some tea.'

He took them inside and sat them down at a flimsy kitchen table that swayed ominously when Jack rested his elbows on it. The kitchen was untidy with no sign of order in the way it was arranged.

'So what can I do for you?' Emrys asked.

‘I would have come to see you sooner, but I was told you were away. It's about the coach accident a few days ago.'

‘Oh, yes?'

‘The coach is registered as belonging to you.’

Hughes acknowledged this with a nod.

‘So do you know anything about what it was being used for on that night?'

‘No. Should I?'

‘I had hoped so,' Stevens admitted. 'We need to clear some details up.’

‘Well, Selwyn would know ... but, obviously, he’s in no fit state to tell.' He didn't seem particularly upset at his brother’s death, but these things affected different people in different ways.

‘So you wouldn't know anything about the large amount of money that was found in it?' Stevens pressed him.

'No.’

‘And you wouldn't be able to identify any of the passengers?’

'I very much doubt it.'

‘You're sure?'

'Sure. Is that all?'

Stevens considered this, but thought of something else. ‘So why have you bought a new coach?'

'Got to keep my brother's business going, haven't I? There's his family to think of.'

'I didn't know he had family.'

'No. Is that all?'

'Well there's also the matter of a stone circle on your land. Would you mind if we took a look at it?’

'Yes,' Emrys answered bluntly.

Jack leapt up. 'What do you know about centaurs? Where are you hiding them?'

'I don't know what you're talking about. And I don’t think you're a police officer. I think I should ask you to leave.’

'Why won't you let us see the circle?' David asked.

'It's private property, isn't it? Why should I?'

'This is where he came from, isn't it?' Jack shouted. ‘This is where the centaur came from?'

'Centaurs?' Hughes sneered. 'They don't exist, boy, they're legend.'

'I think we might as well leave, lads,' Stevens told them. ‘I don't think Mr Hughes has any reason for letting us see his circle. If you'd come down and let us out of the gates, Mr Hughes?'

'Aye, sorry you had a wasted visit. I think your American friends would do better to look in Greece for centaurs.'