At two forty-five, Jamie cast her eyes around the living room. Thanks to China, it looked clean and respectable. There had been a flap earlier when Dot failed to show up for work. It was unexpected because she had told Jamie yesterday that she would be in early, on account of the meeting, to get the place cleaned up and do some baking. It had happened a couple of times before, and on those occasions Dot had eventually phoned, so Jamie wasn’t unduly concerned. China had filled in and done a presentable job, taking it upon himself to clean the kitchen, too.
Kingston made an appearance just as Jamie was about to leave the room. She told him about Dot, saying she had to go and check on things in the kitchen. After she left, knowing that it was going to be a long session, he commandeered the wingback chair before Chadwick or his sergeant could get it and picked up a copy of Country Life from the pile of magazines on the coffee table. He enjoyed it as much for the property listings in the front pages as anything else. Every time he read them, he found himself gasping at the prices.
Inspector Chadwick and an attractive redhead he introduced as Detective Sergeant Wendy Lawson, who was taking DS Eldridge’s place, arrived a few minutes before three. Because they had just come from lunch at the Griffin, they declined Jamie’s offer of tea or coffee.
Chadwick looked as if he had dressed for a dinner date, right down to the polka-dot hanky in his breast pocket. Kingston smiled inwardly; it was for Wendy’s benefit, he was thinking. The four of them sat in a circle of sorts, separated by the coffee table, which Jamie had cleared of magazines and other decorative bits. The DS had a notebook open on her lap.
‘So,’said Chadwick. ‘I’ve brought Wendy up to speed on most of what’s been going on up here, including the thoughts you expressed the last time we met, Lawrence.’ He sniffed, rubbing his nose between thumb and forefinger. ‘So, to start with, why don’t we go back to the very beginning and work from there. That way, hopefully we won’t miss anything.’
The DS sat motionless and expressionless, pen at the ready.
‘Makes sense,’said Kingston, more to fill the pause than anything.
Chadwick crossed his legs, carefully adjusting the crease in his trousers. ‘First, the skeleton in the well,’ he said. ‘Not much to report there, I’m afraid. As you both know, the bones are those of a white male in his mid to late forties, approximately five-eleven, indications of healed trauma to the knee and upper tibia. Impossible to tell how long the body was down there. No soft tissue, ligaments, scraps of clothing, jewellery or any other means of identification.’ He nodded towards Kingston. ‘Other than the watch, that is, which I told you about, Lawrence. The body could’ve been there many years according to the pathologist.’
‘But no more than sixty-odd years?’said Kingston.
‘Right,’ Chadwick nodded. ‘Not before 1936, the year the watch was made.’
Kingston had decided to let Chadwick rattle on a bit before he told him what Loftus had said about the injury to Kershaw’s knee.
Jamie shot Kingston a glance. ‘What about dental records, inspector?’
‘We’ve been checking all the dentists in a fifty-mile radius. If the body has been down there for, say, less than thirty or so years, the odds are much greater of the forensic odontologist finding a match—if the man was from this area, that is. But so far, nothing.’
‘I know this is far-fetched,’ said Jamie, ‘but it’s been suggested that the body may be that of Major Ryder!’
‘Yes, Lawrence discussed that possibility with me. Given the enormity of the cover-up—that someone would have to have posed as Ryder for as long as that body’s been down the well—it is highly unlikely.’ He glanced at Kingston. ‘As I recall, I think you had given up on that idea, too, hadn’t you?’
‘Yes. It’s just not possible.’
‘You thought it was more likely the other chap—the other soldier, Kershaw, I believe?’
Jamie looked puzzled. Kingston knew that this was new ground as far as she was concerned. Earlier, he had told her everything he’d learned from Loftus, but hadn’t mentioned his more recent conversation that reinforced his supposition that the bones in the well were those of Sergeant Kershaw. That is, until he’d learned about the watch. But that by no means squelched his theory entirely.
Kingston nodded. ‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘As a matter of fact, I learned something very recently that tends to reinforce that supposition.’
‘Really?’said Chadwick. ‘What’s that?’