“And he acted on your advice?”
“He certainly questioned Biggadyke officially. And with a witness. I don’t think that any stories—malicious stories, mark you—about protection or turning a blind eye would stand up after that.”
“A timely demonstration, was it, Mr Pointer?” Purbright’s tone was guileless.
“If you like to put it that way. I’m quite sure that Hector was doing his duty without prejudice.”
“Prejudice occasioned by friendship?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me, Mr Pointer: did you approve of that friendship?”
Pointer answered without hesitation. “No, I did not. Biggadyke was a scoundrel. He was the last man in the town anyone in my son-in-law’s position should have mixed with.”
Purbright said nothing. His companion regarded the coins that he still shuffled irritably in his hand and finally thrust them back in his pocket. “Look here,” he said, “what exactly did you come over here to find out?”
“Oh, come now, sir...”
“No, don’t dodge, man. You weren’t sent to help a bunch of country bobbies catch a joker who couldn’t even work his own tricks properly. I’m not fool enough to believe that.”
“What do you believe?”
“I’m not sure. Unless it’s politics—is that it?”
Purbright smiled.
“You might well smile, Inspector, but I wouldn’t put it past that Special Branch lot, or whatever they’re called, to believe the blatherings of that poor idiot Mulvaney. He confessed, you know.”
“Yes, sir. There was something mentioned about a Mr Mulvaney.”
“Don’t let him hear you call him mister. It’s lieutenant. He thinks he’s in the I.R.A. We’ve all known him for years, though. The poor fellow wouldn’t know a bomb from a baby’s bottle.”
The inspector seemed preoccupied with the prospect of the opposite hill.
“Do you mind telling me, sir, if your daughter was friendly with Mr Biggadyke?”
Pointer stiffened. “My daughter?”
“Yes. sir. Mrs Larch.”
“Both Hector and Hilda saw a good deal of him, I believe.”
Purbright turned to face him. “Did you know that Mrs Larch was seen, on one occasion at any rate, to visit Biggadyke’s caravan on her own and late at night?”
Pointer’s expression changed, but not as Purbright had expected. Instead of furious disbelief, it registered bitter resignation. He shook his head slowly. “No, I didn’t know.”
“Do you suppose Mr Larch may have been aware of it?”
“It’s very difficult to say. Hector keeps his feelings to himself. Some people think he hasn’t any, but they’re wrong. When there’s something on his mind it just smoulders away until he can do something positive about it.”
“At all events, he gave no sign?”
“Oh, no. Not the slightest.”
“I don’t want to intrude into your family’s private affairs. Mr Pointer, but if I could have a word with your daughter...perhaps on your introduction and in your presence, if you wish...”
Pointer frowned. “Talk to Hilda? But what about?”
“About Mr Biggadyke, for one thing.”
“Do you mean to say you’re prepared to come over into another’s man’s police division and start snooping into his family affairs just because you’ve heard some unsavoury gossip about his wife? Damn it all, man, I think it’s high time you told me exactly what you have been sent here to ferret out!” Pointer looked as if he had just swallowed a heavy draught of his own port.
“Very well, sir,” replied Purbright patiently, “I’ll tell you. We wish to find where Biggadyke obtained his fireworks. Also, if at all possible, the real reason for his using them.”
He hesitated. “You see, sir, there are three disturbing things about this case—disturbing, that is, when considered in association. One is the disappearance from a Civil Defence store in Flaxborough of a quantity of explosive. The second is the fact that Mr Larch is an instructor who has access to that store. Thirdly, as you’ve told me yourself, Mr Larch was a close acquaintance of the man we now know to have been addicted to blowing things up.”
“Are you saying that the theft of that explosive has been traced to my son-in-law?”
“Not at all. The Chief Constable believes that one of the instructors must have taken it because they have keys to the store, but he might be adopting too narrow a view. From what I know of the place, almost anyone of moderate initiative could lift what he liked if he waited for an opportunity. The point is, though, that this Biggadyke affair lays Larch open to ten times as much suspicion as could possibly have attached to him otherwise.”
“But why on earth should he have wanted to pass the stuff to Biggadyke—even if he did steal it?”
“I’ve wondered a good deal about that, Mr Pointer. I suppose you can see how serious some of the possibilities are?”
Pointer gave no sign of seeing anything of the kind.
“Your son-in-law,” Purbright went on, “is an expert in the handling of explosives. Biggadyke, to the best of our knowledge, was not. But he couldn’t resist spectacular jokes. It is conceivable, you know, that he might have been encouraged to dabble in what he didn’t understand in the hope that he’d make a fatal mistake. Long odds, perhaps, but they could have been shortened by a wrong instruction. Detonators, now...they’re extremely tricky little things, I understand.”
“But that would be a wicked thing to do,” exclaimed Pointer. “Absolutely wicked. Hector would never have thought of anything so dreadful.”
“Not even if he’d learned of his wife’s relationship with his friend?”
“I’m certain he didn’t know of that. Hilda gave no one the slightest excuse for suspecting.”
“You suspected, though, Mr Pointer.”
“I happen to be the girl’s father. Naturally I...” He faltered.
“What about her mother? Did she know?”
“Her mother? Good God!”
Purbright saw the wrinkled flesh around the councillor’s little eyes constrict suddenly with bitter contempt. The revelation of marital loathing shocked him, but he repeated his question. “Did Mrs Pointer know of her daughter’s affair?”
“I’ve no idea,” said Pointer sullenly. “She...she doesn’t discuss things with me.”
Purbright waited. Pointer’s earlier air of officiousness had gone. He seemed depressed and nervous. When finally he spoke, the edge to his voice was occasioned, Purbright thought, not by irritation but by fear.
“There’s something I wanted to tell you before we got on to this business about Hilda. It’s something that happened a year ago, but I’ve been thinking it over and I can’t help feeling it might have had some connection with...with what you’ve been hinting.”