Midnight Runner - Jack Higgins [52]
"Fair enough. Do you want me to see what the police are up to?"
"Hannah's working on that, but it can't hurt to see what you can find, too. I've got to get going. Let me know if you turn up anything."
Dillon left and Roper cut into Scotland Yard's Central Records Office. He examined what was there and frowned. There was an ancillary link to the case of one Alan Grant, Canal Street, Wapping, believed drowned and believed to be the person who had delivered Helen Quinn to the hospital. Roper sat back, still frowning again. The name, Alan Grant, was familiar, and then he remembered where he'd seen it. He went back to the Act of Class Warfare website, and there he was: Oxford, a second-year student at St. Hugh's College also, reading physics.
Another coincidence he didn't believe in. He picked up the phone to Ferguson.
A t Cavendish Place, Dillon looked out of the French window in the drawing room, then turned. Ferguson was sitting by the fire.
"So, we not only know why she went to London, we know that this Grant delivered her to the hospital, did a runner, and ended up dead by drowning."
"And I've got more." Hannah Bernstein bustled in from outside. "Both Quinn and Grant went to London on a special bus hired by a professor named Henry Percy, and guess who came along for the ride?"
"Who?" Ferguson said mildly.
"Would you believe, Rupert Dauncey?"
Dillon laughed harshly and Ferguson said, "What on earth was he doing there?"
"Percy gave Scotland Yard what would usually be termed a full and frank statement. Rashid funds ACW, as we know, and Dauncey came down to try to call off their participation in the rally. Said it was too dangerous. Both he and Percy even made speeches to the busload of students pointing out the dangers of the rally."
"Did Dauncey end up going?"
"With Percy, but they left when it got rough. Percy went back to the bus and Dauncey said he was going home."
"Very convenient, Dauncey just showing up like that," said Dillon. "Making noble speeches."
"And get this," said Bernstein. "Percy actually introduced Dauncey to Helen Quinn. Said he wanted to meet a fellow American. Percy says he heard him urging her not to go to the rally but that her boyfriend, this Alan Grant, mocked him in front of everybody. They ended up going to the rally, but then people lost sight of each other, and that was the last Percy saw of either of them."
"Hmm," Ferguson said. "So on the face of it, they went to Canal Street after the riot, probably for sex, had a few drinks, some drugs, and she had an adverse reaction. Grant takes her to the hospital, she dies on the instant, and he runs for it, doesn't know which way to turn...and commits suicide."
"Which might be believable...if it weren't for the damn smell of the Rashids."
The phone rang. Hannah answered it and found Roper on the other end. "I'm faxing the autopsy through now. They're doing Grant next. I'll send those details when they come in."
She got the fax from Ferguson's study and read it as she went back to the living room. She looked up. "Confirmed, sir. She was heavily over the line on alcohol, had certainly taken Ecstasy. Otherwise healthy, well nourished. Not a virgin, but no evidence of sex before her death."
She handed the fax to Ferguson, who read it through. "Poor girl. God knows what her father will make of it." He looked up. "I still don't know what I make of it."
"Well, I do," Dillon said. "If you'll excuse me, I've got things to do."
"Such as?" demanded Hannah.
"That's my business. Talk to you later, Charles."
He left, got a taxi to the Ministry of Defence, booked a limousine, and told the driver to take him to Oxford. There was something he wanted to check.
Traffic was light and they were there in one and a half hours. As they reached the outskirts, he called Roper on his mobile.
"Can you pull me in Henry Percy's address from that police report perhaps?"
"Hang on." He was back in two minutes. "Has an apartment, 10B Kaiser Lane. What are you up to?"
"I'll let you know later."
They found Kaiser