Читать книгу Murder Gone Mad - Philip MacDonald - Страница 14

SUPERINTENDENT ARNOLD PIKE of the Criminal Investigation Department was talking with his immediate chief. Pike was saying:

‘Very well, sir, but you realise that I shall have to drop the Brandon business?’

Lucas shrugged. ‘Of course you will. But Broxburn can take that on. Anybody could do that, Pike, but this Holmdale job isn’t anybody’s meat.’

‘If you asked my opinion, sir,’ Pike said, with a wry smile, ‘I’d tell you that the Holmdale job isn’t really doable!’

‘Oh, rubbish!’ said Lucas. ‘Take two men and get off there by car as quick as you like. Get down there by lunch time. Who do you want with you?’

Pike considered a moment. He looked among the pages of a small notebook pulled from his waistcoat pocket. ‘Blaine,’ he said, ‘and Curtis. They’re not on anything special at the moment, sir.’

Lucas nodded. ‘Right! Take them and for God’s sake catch this lunatic or whatever it is before we get any more questions in the House. If only these County Police would ask us in at once instead of waiting until they’ve made a mess of everything, life might be easier.’

Pike nodded. ‘By jing, sir,’ he said, ‘I echo that wish!’ He turned towards the door.

Lucas recalled him. ‘Oh, Pike. You’d better stay down there, I think. And the men.’

Pike nodded. ‘It’s the only way, sir, to get at the thing properly.’ Once more he started for the door. Once more he was halted, but this time by himself. With his fingers on the door knob he turned. ‘By the way, sir,’ he said, ‘heard anything of Colonel Gethryn? How he is, I mean, sir?’

Lucas grinned and shook his head. ‘No. Beyond the fact that he’s going to be in bed for another three weeks with that thigh, nothing.’ He smiled at Pike with some slyness. ‘Why? Want help already?’ Pike laughed. ‘I’m not proud, sir, you know. I was just wondering whether, if he wasn’t doing anything, he might like to come down.’

‘Well, he can’t go down,’ said Lucas and laughed again. ‘And anyhow it’s not his line and you know it. This isn’t a job for a man so much as a job for an organisation. When you can’t find a motive, in fact when there isn’t a motive, you’re dealing with some form or other of lust-killing and to pick a lust-killer—who may be, on the surface, a most ordinary, respectable citizen—out of a crowd of six thousand citizens, isn’t a job which can be done by deduction. It’s got to be done by massed police work, cleverly directed … You get along, Pike, and don’t forget to show the world how the Düsseldorf business ought to have been handled.’