Wexford 22 - The Monster In The Box Read Online Free Page B

chair, and when he went back to free it he looked out into the darkness and saw the figure of a man coming away from the back door of number 16 and making for the gate in the rear wall. At the time he thought it was George Carroll who went out that way if he was going on his bicycle which he kept in the shed by the gate. But now he was less sure.
       'He thought the man he had seen was short, no more than five feet four while George Carroll was five feet seven. But it was dark and Harold Johnson said he wouldn't be able to take his oath – that was his expression "take his oath" – on its being Carroll. The time he could be sure of: just after seven. Elsie, of course, couldn't say what time her husband had left the house but Dawn Morrow told Ventura next day that he usually left before seven, maybe as much as ten minutes before.'
       'So when did Carroll come home?'
       'A good deal later than was expected. About ten forty-five. It looked to me as if it was a terrible shock for him but as Pendle said to me afterwards, whether he'd killed her or not finding the place a blaze of light and his home full of cops would have been a shock anyway. Fulford told him he could see his wife's body if he wanted to but Carroll refused and began to cry. Fulford wasn't sympathetic. He said brusquely that he'd like to ask him some questions and he wanted to do it now, that was unavoidable. He and Ventura questioned the man and Pendle and I were sent home.
       'If you're interested you can read what Carroll said in Chambers' book. You can have this photocopy I made for you. But the real thing of importance is that Carroll told Fulford he had spent the evening with a woman called Tina Malcolm. The term "girlfriend" wasn't used so much then and Carroll told Fulford he was the woman's "lover". That put Fulford against him from the start. He was exceptionally strait-laced and puritanical – worse than you.'
       'Thanks a bunch.'
       Wexford laughed. 'This woman, Carroll said, would confirm that he had been with her from seven thirty until ten and he was glad it had "all come out", it was better this way with his wife knowing. Then he remembered his wife was dead and began crying again.'
       'My God,' said Burden. 'That's a bit grim.'
       'Well, it was. I was glad to get out in the fresh air. The car we'd come in was parked outside. Pendle got into the driving seat – he lived fairly near me in Kingsmarkham High Street – and I went round to the passenger door. No remote opening of car doors then, of course . . .'
       'I had been born, you know – I even remember the moon landings.'
       'Sorry,' said Wexford. 'Though why I should apologise to a man for treating him as if he were younger than he is I don't know. Pendle had to reach across and lift up the thing – don't know what it was called – that locked the door, and while he was doing that I noticed a man standing outside number 16. He had a dog with him on a lead and he was waiting while the dog took a pee up against a tree in the pavement. His name was Targo, Eric Targo, though I didn't know it then. Mostly someone you encounter like that will immediately look away when he knows you've seen him. Especially when you've been watching his dog foul the pavement. Targo didn't look away. He stared at me. You'll think I'm exaggerating but I'm not. You know how you sometimes read that someone's eyes pierced into your very soul?' Burden plainly hadn't read that and didn't know it. 'Well, never mind, but that's what Targo's did. He stared at me – it was under a street lamp – and then he nodded slightly. Oh, it was a very faint nod, not much more than a tremor, and as he turned away I saw the birthmark. He had a scarf round his neck – he always wears a scarf or he did – but it slipped a little because he turned his head. At first I thought it was some sort of shadow, a trick of the light, but when he moved I saw it for what it was. Cancer the crab crawling across his