The Coniston Case Read Online Free

going to be a few minutes. You know how expensive all the car parks are around here. It would wipe out practically all my profit if I’d paid, and you’re not allowed to leave the car in the street. I walked up to his house, which is on the road that goes to the edge of Lake Coniston. It’s pretty along there, with those big houses. Anyway, he answered the door quite quickly and then just stared blankly at me for about a minute—’
    ‘Not possible,’ Ben interrupted. ‘A minute is
ages
. More like fifteen seconds.’
    ‘Okay. It was much longer than normal, anyway. I said “Mr Hayter?” and he nodded, so I tried to give him the flowers. At first he didn’t take them, but then he reached out and grabbed them and gave them a little sniff. Then he smiled a bit, thanked me and shut the door.’ She shook her head. ‘I’m not absolutely sure of every detail, or the sequence they came in. Do you think it matters?’
    ‘Did he look at the card?’ Moxon asked.
    ‘Um – I’m not sure. He said, “Thank you, dear,” and closed the door.’
    ‘You said before that he seemed preoccupied.’
    ‘Yes, that’s right. He never seemed to pay full attention – as if he was listening out for the phone maybe, or in the middle of writing an important letter and wanted to keep the words in his head. I felt as if I’d distracted him from important business and he thought flowers were just frivolous and irrelevant.’
    ‘And yet he opened the door quickly. If he’d been in the middle of something, wouldn’t he have taken a long time to get up and go to the door?’ It was Melanie, thinking aloud.
    Nobody answered her. Simmy scanned her memory for any more details. ‘I hope he’s all right,’ she said. ‘He seemed quite a nice man, even if he didn’t want me bothering him.’
    ‘He called you “dear”,’ said Melanie. ‘Is that why you liked him? Was he good-looking?’
    ‘Fairly,’ said Simmy with a repressive look.
    Moxon closed his notebook, having written down the meagre facts so far elicited. ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘I think that’s all.’
    Simmy heard the silent
for now
, and sighed. Unlike her two young friends she had no curiosity as to what might have happened to Mr Hayter from Coniston. It was blatantly obvious that it had nothing whatever to do with her, and she had eight more Valentine bouquets to construct, with more orders very likely to come through before she was done.
    ‘I’m sure you’ll find him,’ she said.
    ‘I’m sure we will. Enjoy your lunch.’ He nodded at Ben,his expression part reproach and part admiration. The boy was, after all, highly intelligent and basically on the side of the angels when it came to matters of law enforcement. ‘And don’t you get above yourself, my lad,’ he said.
    Before Ben could speak, the detective had gone, leaving the youngster red-faced and wide-eyed. Simmy could see he was upset and thought he probably deserved it.
    ‘Silly old bugger,’ said Melanie, patting Ben lightly on the shoulder.
    ‘Yeah,’ said the boy thickly.
    Seventeen, Simmy dimly remembered, was an awkward age. Emotions ran wild and careless words cut deep. Ben might be genius-level intellectually, but he could still be brought down and humiliated all too easily. Even so, it was time he learnt to respect authority and not flaunt his brains. ‘I’ve got work to do,’ she said, with little hope of being allowed to get on with it.
    ‘I’m going to google him,’ said Ben. ‘That Mr Hayter.’
    ‘You can’t. I need to keep the computer free for any new orders. Melanie – tell him he can’t. He might listen to you.’
    They both looked at her pityingly, and Ben proffered a gadget she realised was the latest in communications technology and was sure to be able to manage some googling. Somewhere in her conscience was a sense that it was intrusive to search for people’s backgrounds without their permission. Rationally, she knew they willingly displayed all sorts of