A Long Shadow by Charles Todd Read Free Book Online Page A

but the houses turned their backs to the land, as if ignoring it, and the barns were a low afterthought, tucked here and there, as if no one had known what to do with them. It lay north of the county town, but Rutledge's first call was in Northampton.
    He found his way to the hospital there, only to be turned away because Hensley was still recovering from his surgery.
    Rutledge spent what was left of the night in a hotel recommended by an orderly and returned early in the morning.
    Over the objections of Matron, he stepped into the ward to see if Hensley was awake.
    The constable was in the men's surgical ward, halfway down the row and on the left, watching through half-closed lids as a nursing sister bathed his neighbor in the next bed. There were some six or seven other patients in the long room, two of them snoring heavily, and the others lying quietly, as if in too much pain to move.
    Hensley looked up as Rutledge stopped by his bed. "You a doctor, then?" he asked hoarsely. "I was told they were giving me something for the pain."
    He was pale, his barrel chest swathed in bandages, his thinning dark hair combed and parted, as if he'd already been tidied by the plump sister who now turned to Rutledge.
    "It's not visiting hours for another forty minutes," she told him crisply. "I'll have to ask you to leave!"
    "I'm here on police business, Sister," Rutledge said, bringing a chair from another bedside to place it next to Hensley's.
    She tried to stare him down and failed. "You won't tire my patient, then. Or I must ask Matron to throw you out."
    "No, I won't tire him." Rutledge sat down, dropping his hat on the foot of the bed. "How are you feeling?" he asked Hensley. It was a rhetorical question, asked as a courtesy.
    "Bloody awful," Hensley complained in a strained voice. The roughly handsome features were drawn, giving them a sharper edge. He made an effort to collect himself. "I'm told the doctors here saved my life. I can't say. I don't remember much about what happened. Who are you? Not a local man ..."
    "The name's Rutledge. I've come from London to look into this business."
    "Was it Old Bowels who sent you?" Hensley asked, showing more interest. "He always did look after his own." Not waiting for Rutledge to answer, he shifted uncomfortably. "It's these damned bandages—they stick and pull at the stitches, and there's no help for it. Bad enough what they did to remove the point of the arrow. Aches like the very devil! Between that and the catgut, I've not had a minute's peace since I came out of the ether and found myself in this bed." He shot a black look in the direction of the sister, but she ignored him.
    "You say you remember very little of what's happened. Do you remember where you were when the arrow struck you?"
    Even as Rutledge spoke, his mind conjured up an image of the windscreen shattering, and he pushed it back into the shadows.
    Hensley looked away. "I'm told they found me at the southern edge of Frith's Wood. I can't say if that's true or not. If it was, I didn't get there under my own power."
    "Would this wood normally be a part of your regular rounds? Close enough, for example, for you to see or hear something that attracted your attention? Even if now you can't remember going that far?"
    Hensley answered him with more intensity than the question merited. "The last thing I remember was riding my bicycle along the road to Letherington, well to the east of the wood! How could I see or hear anything from there? I draw a blank on the rest of it. They tell me I came to my senses as they were lifting the stretcher into Mr. Staley's wagon. If I did, I couldn't tell you what was said to me."
    "Do you have any idea who might have shot you? Would someone practice archery in the wood, or hunt rabbits there?"
    "Not in Frith's Wood, they wouldn't. People avoid it." He stirred again, trying to find a little comfort. "At any rate, the trees are too close for true archery or much of anything else."
    "Is there anyone