The Wood Beyond

Who's been rattling his cage? wondered the sergeant.

'We make up our own capsules here if we need them, so it's not just a matter of counting. Twelve, you say? Couple of grams tops. Well, we'd know of course how much has been used and where it's been used. But if anyone cared to change the proportions slightly, or if a spillage was reported…’

'Spillage? What do you mean?'

'For heaven's sake, don't you speak English?' snapped Batty. 'These are animals we are dealing with here, sergeant. Some of them quite large and strong. They don't all just lie there and take it, you know. Quite often there will be some wastage as we administer a dosage. Of course then we start again from scratch. A spillage will be sluiced away, not swept up and used again.'

He gave a little shudder as though offended by the thought.

'Very hygienic, I'm sure,' murmured Wield. 'Can we take a look?'

They took a look. The records and the amount of the drug remaining checked exactly. There were however three reported spillages involving Jane Ambler.

'Butterfingers,' said Wield.

'Even these amounts wouldn't be enough for twelve capsules,' objected Batty.

'Then mebbe she put a bit aside for herself whenever she used the drug,' said Wield.

'But that might have had an effect on some of our experiments!' said Batty indignantly.

'I assume, if it were being used as an anaesthetic, it wouldn't have been very pleasant for the poor animals either,' retorted Wield.

Batty eyed him narrowly.

'Sergeant Wield, I assure you we have the very highest regard for the welfare of our animals. Now before we go further I insist you tell me what precise evidence you have against Miss Ambler or any other member of my staff.'

'Not enough to bring charges, not yet,' Wield replied. 'But enough to make me suggest, sir, that you take a very thorough inventory of the drugs in your care and review your security procedures in respect of them.'

It sounded pretty neutral to him but Batty was clearly at the end of his short fuse.

He said harshly, 'I don't need you to tell me how to run my labs, sergeant. Not when you can't organize a piss-up in your own brewery.'

'Don't follow, sir,' said Wield, conventionally stolid.

'You're acting like you're one hundred per cent sure that a crime's been committed here but you're telling me there's nothing you can do about it,' he sneered. 'What a way to run a police force! Well, if you can't act, I can. Good day to you, sergeant.'

He turned and marched away.

Dismissed again, thought Wield.

As he unlocked his car, Patten reappeared, smiling.

'Warned you not to upset the doc, didn't I? He can be really vindictive.'

'How do you know what I've been doing?'

'Watching you on closed-circuit of course. It's all right, it's not wired for sound but I could tell you weren't whispering sweet nothings in his ear. Look, I should mebbe have warned you, you could be on a hiding to nothing bad-mouthing Miss Frigidaire. They're very close, know what I mean?'

He gave an exaggerated pelvic thrust.

Wield looked at him in surprise. He hadn't got the feeling that Batty felt particularly protective to Jane Ambler. On the contrary.

'How do you know this?' he asked.

'The old CCTV again. Like Nixon and them tapes, you get so used to a thing you forget it's still working even when you don't want it. Saw them at it right there where they keep the animals. Makes you wonder who should be in cages, doesn't it?'

'No competition. This system, was it running the night those women ran wild?'

'Sure.'

'Why'd you not mention it?'

'Why the hell should I? No crime, no damage, no charges, what's to mention? If you'd asked you could have seen it. And don't say you didn't know. The cameras are there for all to see and you've seen the monitors.'

'Fair point. Like to see it now but if it's not been wiped.'

'We do a five-day cycle so you should be just in time. Anything in particular?'

'When you cornered Marvell and she looked set to take a swing with the wire cutters.'

'You keep on about that. Why so interested? There was no harm done.'

'Not this time.'

It was a silly thing to say. The old silent Wield wouldn't have let it slip. The sweet relaxing air of Enscombe wasn't all beneficial.

He could see Patten's sharp mind working.

'This time … er, you're never trying to tie that old bird in with that poor devil those bastards topped at Fraser Greenleaf?'

He laughed his derision out loud.

'Suppose that old bird had taken a swing,' said Wield. 'And your head had got in the way?'

Patten considered and his expression became serious.

'Yeah, well, she's certainly got the upper-body development to get that thing moving.. and there was a moment when I thought she was going to have a go for sure. . but look, there has to be something else behind all this. I mean, you can piss around with the likes of Jimmy Howard because it suits you, but someone who talks like her..'

It was a crude but not altogether inaccurate analysis of what Pascoe would call the social dynamic of police investigation.

Wield said carefully, 'We should have checked the TV tapes earlier. That was an oversight. All I'm doing now is covering my back. And I would be particularly interested if you could watch with me and try to recall exactly what was being said.'

'Always keen to cooperate with the police, sergeant,' said Patten. 'Let's go take a look.'

xiv

'If a condemned man has bad toothache on the eve of his execution, what does he spend the night thinking about?'

'Sorry, Peter?' said Lionel Harris. 'Is this relevant?'

'Oh yes,' said Pascoe. Doubly so. First, it dramatized his own dilemma in that ever since his conversation with Ellie, despite being landed with an inquiry which looked like tying in Andy Dalziel with a double killer, all he could think of was Hilary Studholme, junior and senior. He recalled his feeling the night the major called round that the man had had more to say, or not to say. Would he have come running so quickly merely to confirm that the Sergeant Pascoe his father had so unsuccessfully defended was Ada's father if that was all he knew? And why hadn't he mentioned his own family involvement?

No, there had to be more. There might be a clue in Poll Pollinger's digest, but Pascoe guessed it was going to take another trip to the regimental museum to get to the real bottom of this.

On a quieter day he might have bunked off, but today he owed it to Dalziel to keep his nose to the grindstone. If only he could keep his mind there too!

Then he'd been told that Cap Marvell's brief wanted a word and when he saw who it was, he'd known he needed all his wits about him.

Lionel Harris, familiarly known as 'Bomber', might be greyer round the temples and roomier round the waist than on their first encounter many years ago, but he was still the same sharp little man who'd made Pascoe look a twit (and without him noticing it!) on the young DC's very first appearance in a Mid-Yorkshire court.

So he chucked his disguised dilemma at the solicitor's head in an effort to wrong-foot him as soon as he came through the door.

'I've never come across a case of suicide while the balance of the molars was disturbed, so I assume that on the whole the greater fear would dominate the lesser pain.'

'I wonder,' said Pascoe thoughtfully. 'Still, it's always good to get a legal perspective. So how can I help you, Lionel?'

They had become friends, or at least, friendly foes over the years. But each knew the other had a different bottom line.

'I just wanted a word, off the record, about the position of my client, Amanda Marvell. You know how I hate making an official fuss …'

'Oh yes. Printed in block capitals on the file we keep on you,' murmured Pascoe. 'Hates making a fuss.'