Sins of the Fathers Read Online Free Page B

timetable for how long it should take you.’
    â€˜Well, of course I realize that, but—’
    â€˜In fact, it’s much more like gardenin’.’
    â€˜Gardening!’ Marlowe exclaimed. ‘How could it possibly be like gardening?’
    â€˜Because you can do all kinds of things to encourage the seeds to begin sproutin’, but until they actually do
,
you can’t even think of beginnin’ to think of harvestin’ them.’
    The chief constable shook his head – slowly, and almost despairingly. ‘There are times when you don’t sound at all like an officer working in a modern police force,’ he said.
    â€˜There are times when I don’t
feel
much like one, either,’ Woodend admitted. ‘Listen, sir, you’ve often enough made it quite plain that you don’t have a lot of confidence in my ability to lead an enquiry—’
    â€˜And you’ve often enough given me ample grounds for that belief—’
    â€˜â€”so why don’t you simply assign the case to somebody you
do
have confidence in?’
    Marlowe swallowed hard.
    â€˜It’s true that there have been times when your approach has made me seriously doubt your competence,’ he said, ‘but there have also been times – especially in dealing with crimes of a bizarre nature – when you seem to have been able to solve cases which have quite baffled most of your colleagues.’
    It was not a wise move to grin at his boss’s obvious discomfort, but Woodend did it anyway.
    â€˜Thank you, sir,’ he said. ‘That means a lot to me – especially comin’ from you.’
    â€˜I don’t know
why
you should have been so successful in those cases,’ Marlowe continued, hurriedly. ‘Perhaps, after all, it was no more than a matter of luck.’
    â€˜Aye, that might explain it,’ Woodend agreed.
    â€˜Or perhaps, when the crime
is
bizarre, your brain is better attuned to the insane mind behind it than those of more
professional
officers.’
    â€˜So it’s a case of set a nutter to catch a nutter, is it?’ Woodend asked innocently.
    â€˜I wouldn’t have put it quite in those terms, Chief Inspector,’ Marlowe said frostily, ‘but you will concur with me that Bradley Pine’s murderer is a dangerous lunatic, won’t you?’
    â€˜Murderers are pretty much dangerous by definition,’ Woodend agreed, ‘an’ slittin’ open another man’s stomach is not somethin’ I’d normally associate with a well-balanced feller.’
    â€˜Precisely!’ Marlowe said. ‘So, in this particular investigation, there’ll be no real need to delve very deeply into the victim’s background, will there?’
    â€˜I’m sorry, sir,’ Woodend said, ‘I think I must have missed a step in the logic of that argument.’
    Marlowe sighed. ‘Bradley Pine was killed by a madman, so it is certainly worth looking closely at any madmen who he might have had dealings with in the past,’ he explained. ‘On the other hand, it would be a complete waste of time to dwell too much on the dealings he had with people who were perfectly sane.’
    â€˜It doesn’t work like that,’ Woodend said.
    â€˜What do you mean?’
    â€˜There was real rage behind the attack on Bradley Pine, an’ maybe that rage had taken the killer to the point of madness. But the
cause
of the rage may have been perfectly understandable an’ perfectly sane.’
    â€˜You’re splitting hairs,’ Marlowe said dismissively.
    â€˜People sometimes kill simply because they’ve been taken beyond the point of endurance,’ Woodend argued. ‘An’ what’s got them to that stage is often somethin’ that happened a long time ago.’
    â€˜You will not waste time and resources looking too closely into Bradley Pine’s background,’ Marlowe said