A Pale Horse Part 22

"We played a little game. He'd tell the rector I'd seen him pa.s.s by the house. Or the butcher that I'd appreciated the bit of beef for Sunday dinner. But Peter's children were getting to an age where someone might ask them how I fared. We were casting about for a way to explain I'd gone to London to search for work when the constable came looking for Henry Sh.o.r.eham. They told Peter no one knew the dead man, and he was quick to see how it might help me to be dead and buried. We didn't know the Crowells were back in Yorks.h.i.+re."

"You were interfering with a murder inquiry. It was a stupid thing to do."

"I never meant harm to anyone, I swear it. You don't know what it has been like. The Crowells are everywhere I turn, and I can't escape them. He forgave me, did you know that? In public. I fell on my knees and cried afterward, but he never knew that. Others blamed me, though, and word that I wasn't to be tried ran round like wildfire. I couldn't go on. If Peter hadn't asked me to come and stay, I'd have killed myself somehow. I didn't mean to harm Alice Crowell, but she's repaid me in kind. I've suffered as much for my sins as she has for my carelessness. What am I to do to find any peace?"

"Come to Yorks.h.i.+re with me. The case will be closed and you can come back here and get on with your life. I don't think Inspector Madsen is going to make a great noise about any of this. It can be done quietly."

Sh.o.r.eham looked up at him. "I have no money. If I go to Yorks.h.i.+re, I'll have no way to get back to Wales. I can't ask Peter, he's strapped as well."

"I'll see you safely back," Rutledge said.

"Inspector Madsen will be furious. He'll know we lied to him."

"It might do him some good," Rutledge said. "He needs a lesson as much as you do."

"I'll pack my things and find someone to see to the dog. If you'll come back later, I'll be ready."

"And find a dead man here in your place?"

"I won't end it, I swear it."

"The temptation may be stronger than you think." He began to turn the motorcar again, and Sh.o.r.eham walked beside it to the house.

Rutledge waited until the battered valise was closed, then took up the dog in the motorcar with them, to leave with a neighbor while Sh.o.r.eham was away.

Then they turned toward England.

It was a silent drive. Only once did Sh.o.r.eham break the silence. And that was to say, "Who's the dead man, then?"

Rutledge answered, "A man who also lost his way, I expect."

Rutledge drove straight through to Elthorpe, fighting drowsiness and an ache across his shoulders as he took the most direct route back-Shrewsbury to Manchester, Leeds, and then Harrogate. Rutted roads, slow-moving drays, overladen lorries, and the occasional wandering livestock made the journey feel longer than it was. Outside Shrewsbury he waited impatiently for cows to make their way along the road for morning milking, and in Ches.h.i.+re, the Royal Mail had come to grief in a ditch, where heavy rains had made a bend tricky. A farm cart and a half-dozen burly men were doing their best to pull it out again.

Hamish said, "They willna' manage without help."

Rutledge caught himself just before he answered aloud, then called to the driver to offer his services. He gratefully accepted, and in short order the Royal Mail was on the road again.

They stopped for food and petrol and sometimes to stretch their legs.

Sh.o.r.eham was quiet, resigned now, though Rutledge kept an eye on him throughout to gauge his mood.

One act of drunken unruliness, unintended yet preventable, had altered the direction of Henry Sh.o.r.eham's life. And Crowell's forgiveness, well meant, had only driven the guilt deeper, without hope of expiation. It had become, in a way, retribution.

It was possible he'd change his mind at some stage of the journey to Yorks.h.i.+re, preferring to take his chances alone and nearly penniless rather than revisit his nightmare.

And in truth, if he did change his mind, there was no legal way to stop him. The need to identify a stranger had brought him back to his own personal h.e.l.l, and indeed, the closer they got to Elthorpe, the more noticeably anxious Sh.o.r.eham got.

Still, he said nothing, and the silence was a strain on both men. Hamish filled it instead, his voice alternately hostile and questioning.

At one point Rutledge asked, just to silence it, "Sh.o.r.eham. Do you know a Gerald Parkinson? Or g.a.y.l.o.r.d Partridge?"

"No. Should I? Is this another test?"

"Not at all."

And the silence reigned once more.

When the motorcar pulled at last into Elthorpe in the late afternoon, a cold rain was falling and the streets were empty. In the teashop they pa.s.sed, the tables were filled and steam clouded the windows. The pub was dark, but there was a motorcar in front of the hotel, two men descending and walking briskly through the door.

Sh.o.r.eham said, "Peter Littleton lied as well. But for my sake. Don't punish him for my sins."

Rutledge didn't answer.

Inspector Madsen had gone home for his tea. Elthorpe was tranquil once more and no murderers wandered in the ruins of an abbey, or anywhere else. He could afford to take his time.

Rutledge sent the constable on duty for the inspector, and it was with studied reluctance that the man did as he was asked.

In short order, Inspector Madsen came striding in, confident and in good spirits. His gaze swept over the stranger and moved on to Rutledge.

"Well, then, what brings you north again? Track down Littleton, did you? Fool's errand, I could have told you as much, but there you are."

"Not quite," Rutledge replied. "Don't you recognize this man?"

Madsen turned his attention to Sh.o.r.eham's face, and he frowned. "The Welshman, is it? What possessed you to bring him back with you?" Some of the confidence in his face faltered.

"His real name is Henry Sh.o.r.eham, not Llewellyn Williams."

Madsen laughed. "I daresay you could find a dozen Henry Sh.o.r.ehams across the breadth of England, if you set your mind to it." But the laugh rang hollow.

"You found Littleton, I grant you, and Sh.o.r.eham had stayed with him for some time. But it was two years years ago, not two weeks, when Sh.o.r.eham left to take up a cousin's farm in Wales. Littleton was clever, he saw a chance to bury his cousin, and the two of them were convincing." ago, not two weeks, when Sh.o.r.eham left to take up a cousin's farm in Wales. Littleton was clever, he saw a chance to bury his cousin, and the two of them were convincing."

"You're mad!"

"Hardly that. Bring out Crowell, if you will, and see what he has to say."

"Of course he'll identify your man as Sh.o.r.eham. He's no fool."

Sh.o.r.eham said, his voice not quite steady, "They will know me in Whitby. You've only to take me there, to the police. I don't want to see Crowell. Or his wife."

Madsen was staring at him with a hard expression on his face now, convinced against his will, and yet unwilling to admit to it, he was wis.h.i.+ng Sh.o.r.eham at the very devil.

Rutledge said into the silence, "He's right."

"Then who is the dead man from the abbey? Answer me that, if you're so d.a.m.ned clever clever."

"It is my belief he's one Gerald Parkinson, of Wilts.h.i.+re."

"Wilts.h.i.+re, is it? And what was he doing in Yorks.h.i.+re?"

"I'm not sure. But there was this business of Sh.o.r.eham to settle once and for all. You'll have to let Crowell go, you know."

"Maybe he mistook this Parkinson for Sh.o.r.eham," Madsen snapped.

"Do they look that much alike to you?" Rutledge countered. "Generally, of course, in coloring and height. The same could be said of your constable, there by the door. But there's no question about the features. They aren't the same."

Madsen said, "Bring me Parkinson's murderer and I'll let Crowell go. Not before."

But it was bravado. They had only to look at Sh.o.r.eham, standing there with his eyes downcast and his face pale, the strain evident, to know that Rutledge had found his man.

"All the same, I'll take him to Whitby," Madsen went on.

"At your expense. And after that, he's free to return to Wales. Agreed? I'll leave you the money to pay for his journey."

"Agreed." It was reluctantly promised, but Madsen knew he had lost his gambit. He'd been wrong about Crowell. If in fact he had ever truly believed that the schoolmaster was a killer. And now it was time to save face and back out with as much grace as he could muster.

Rutledge took Sh.o.r.eham to the hotel across from the police station and found rooms for them. He said to Sh.o.r.eham as they turned toward the stairs, "You couldn't have hidden forever. You couldn't have lived with the lie."

Sh.o.r.eham stared at him for a moment, then said, "Yes, I could could have done that, if you hadn't come to my door. I could have ignored the truth and told myself the man was dead, and there was no harm in giving him a name-my name. He didn't have one of his own, did he? But when you stopped in my yard, it was different, somehow. I couldn't pretend after that. I'd lost the chance." He held out his hand for his key and added, "You told me you'd pay for my way back to Wales." have done that, if you hadn't come to my door. I could have ignored the truth and told myself the man was dead, and there was no harm in giving him a name-my name. He didn't have one of his own, did he? But when you stopped in my yard, it was different, somehow. I couldn't pretend after that. I'd lost the chance." He held out his hand for his key and added, "You told me you'd pay for my way back to Wales."

"The money will be waiting at Inspector Madsen's office, when he's finished with you."

Sh.o.r.eham grimaced. "I wasn't going to run." And then he was gone, the door shut behind him.

After four hours' sleep, Rutledge left Elthorpe and turned south. He took with him the words that Madsen had said to him when he brought the money for Sh.o.r.eham's journey home.

"It must be nice to sleep at night, knowing you're always right."

"I wasn't blinded by wishful thinking, Madsen. There's the difference."

"Still and all," the inspector told him bluntly, "I wish you'd never come here. We'd have managed very well without you."

"Let go, man, before you destroy your career."

"It'ud been worth it. I'll say that to you and no one else. I don't know which of them I wanted to hurt more. Him or her. It wouldn't have changed anything, but it might have taken away a little of the pain on my side."

It was something Rutledge was to remember in the days ahead.

14.

Rutledge put in a call to Bowles when he stopped for the night in Lincoln.

Chief Superintendent Bowles wasn't there, he was told. But Sergeant Gibson had a message for Inspector Rutledge.

There was a delay while the sergeant was located and brought to the telephone.

He was gruff. "You're to come directly to London, sir."

"What's happened?"

"I'm not to say, sir. It's a family matter. Your sister will be waiting for you at your flat."

If she was waiting there, she must be all right. But she wouldn't have had the Yard pa.s.s on a message if it were only another snag in her relations.h.i.+p with Simon Barrington. He could feel his mind searching for a solution, and finding none.

"Very well. Thank you, Gibson. I'll be at the Yard in the afternoon."

"Yes, sir." He sounded doubtful, but then Gibson was not known for his cheerfulness.

Rutledge put up the receiver and turned around, on his way out of the small room where the hotel telephone had been installed. As he opened the door, he was surprised to see Simon Barrington walking into the hotel dining room, a woman on his arm. Rutledge could see only the back of her head, dark hair and a slim figure.

He decided on the spot to find somewhere else to dine. He had no wish to come face-to-face with the pair.

But what was Barrington doing here in Lincoln?

Hamish said, "Ye're too weary to go on to London. It would be foolish."

He had read Rutledge's mind.

The policeman, however, walked briskly to Reception and turned the book toward him to see who had registered with Barrington.

There were two names. Separate rooms. S. Barrington and J. Fellowes. Barrington had given his address as London, but Fellowes had listed Boston.

The clerk saw what Rutledge was doing and came out of the office. "Here-"

"Police business," Rutledge said curtly, and went out to find his dinner.

He reached London in the late afternoon, stopping twice on the road for a brief respite.

Hamish had rumbled through the night, as he'd often done in the trenches, and the soft Scots voice had brought tension with it.

Rutledge went straight to his flat, and he found Frances waiting as promised, her face filled with concern. He knew at once that someone was dead.