Death of an Expert Witness Read Online Free Page A

if he were ill or whether this was the extremity of tiredness. Then the pathologist straightened himself and said, with an attempt at briskness: “I’ll do the PM at nine o’clock tomorrow at St. Luke’s. The hall porter will direct you. I’ll leave a message.”
    He nodded a goodbye, forced a smile, then eased himself into his car and slammed the door. The Rover bumped slowly towards the road.
    Howarth was aware that Doyle and Lorrimer were beside him. Doyle’s excitement was almost palpable. He turned to look across the clunch field to the distant row of houses, their yellow-brick walls and mean square windows now plainly visible.
    “He’s over there somewhere. In bed probably. That is, if he doesn’t live alone. It wouldn’t do to be up and about too early, would it? No, he’ll be lying there wondering how to actordinary, waiting for the anonymous car, the ring at the door. If he’s on his own, it’ll be different, of course. He’ll be creeping about in the half-dark wondering if he ought to burn his suit, scraping the mud off his shoes. Only he won’t be able to get it all off. Not every trace. And he won’t have a boiler big enough for the suit. And even if he had, what will he say when we ask for it? So maybe he’ll be doing nothing. Just lying there and waiting. He won’t be asleep. He didn’t sleep last night. And he won’t be sleeping again for quite a time.”
    Howarth felt slightly sick. He had eaten a small and early dinner and knew himself to be hungry. The sensation of nausea on an empty stomach was peculiarly unpleasant. He controlled his voice, betraying nothing but a casual interest.
    “You think it’s relatively straightforward then?”
    “Domestic murder usually is. And I reckon that this is a domestic murder. Married kid, torn stump of a ticket for the local Oddfellows’ hop, letter in her bag threatening her if she doesn’t leave another bloke alone. A stranger wouldn’t have known about this place. And she wouldn’t have come here with him even if he had. By the look of her, they were sitting there cosily together before he got his hands on her throat. It’s just a question of whether the two of them set off home together or whether he left early and waited for her.”
    “Do you know yet who she is?”
    “Not yet. There’s no diary in the bag. That kind don’t keep diaries. But I shall know in about half an hour.”
    He turned to Lorrimer. “The exhibits should be at the Lab by nine or thereabouts. You’ll give this priority?”
    Lorrimer’s voice was harsh. “Murder gets priority. You know that.”
    Doyle’s exultant, self-satisfied bellow jangled Howarth’s nerves. “Thank God something does! You’re taking your timeover the Gutteridge case. I was in the Biology Department yesterday and Bradley said the report wasn’t ready; he was working on a case for the defence. We all know the great fiction that the Lab is independent of the police and I’m happy to go along with it most of the time. But old Hoggatt founded the place as a police lab, and when the chips are down that’s what it’s all about. So do me a favour. Get moving with this one for me. I want to get chummy and get him quickly.”
    He was rocking gently on his heels, his smiling face uplifted to the dawn like a happy dog sniffing at the air, euphoric with the exhilaration of the hunt. It was odd, thought Howarth, that he didn’t recognize the cold menace in Lorrimer’s voice.
    “Hoggatt’s does an occasional examination for the defence if they ask us and if the exhibit is packed and submitted in the approved way. That’s departmental policy. We’re not yet a police lab even if you do walk in and out of the place as if it’s your own kitchen. And I decide priorities in my Laboratory. You’ll get your report as soon as it’s ready. In the meantime, if you want to ask questions, come to me, not to my junior staff. And, unless you’re invited, keep out of my Laboratory.”
    Without waiting for