Found Guilty at Five by Ann Purser Read Free Book Online

and urgent. Cowgill could hear him clearly, and carefully pushed the door a little wider. Akiko’s answer sounded close to tears, but he could hear her last words clearly. “Wait outside, Parsons!” she said, and it sounded like an order.
    Then she was returning, and as Cowgill eased open the door a fraction more, he saw her ascend the spiral staircase, stumble halfway up and carry on with what sounded like a cry of pain.
    The bell for the second half rang, and Cowgill made his way back to the balcony safely. Gareth Pearson had obviously given up on him. He threaded his way past a dithering couple to the end of the row. In the seat next to his, he saw a familiar figure.
    “Ah, there you are, Cowgill,” a whisper reached him. “I thought you’d done a runner. I was quite late, but sat at the back until the interval. Hush, now. They’re on again.” It was Lois Meade, dressed in her best, and looking irresistible.

E IGHT

    C OWGILL COULD NOT BELIEVE HIS LUCK. H IS L OIS! S ITTING beside him in the warm, cosy dark of the Wilmore Hall!
    He had had little time to ask her questions, or tell her how marvellous she looked and how much she meant to him, before the lights had gone down and the second half began. He felt in his breast pocket and found a pen. Then in the wide margins of his programme he wrote her a message.
    She read it in the dim light, and he could have sworn she smiled as she turned her head and looked at him. Then she very gently eased her hand from under his and shifted in her seat, putting space between them. He prayed for the music to go on forever, but the spectre of Derek’s angry face rose up before him, and he subsided. At least he would be able to take her out for a meal before she got the train home. How had she managed to get here? And why? He knew Lois well enough to know she would not waste time on a jolly jaunt to listen to her son playing the piano. She would have some information, something important enough to bring her here to find him.
    At the end of the concert, Lois was up and making for the stairs, saying to Cowgill that he was to follow her closely. He was alarmed to see her heading for the same door that he had used in the interval, and quickly told her what he had heard there.
    “How can you be sure it was Akiko,” Lois said, “if it was dark and you were shut in a cupboard?”
    “I am sure,” he said. Then they were through and ascending the spiral staircase, and there was Jamie, staring at them in delight. “Mum! Inspector! Why didn’t you let me know you were coming?”
    “Last-minute decision,” said Lois, and added, making it quite clear, “Inspector Cowgill was here already, and he didn’t know I was coming. I was very late, but got a returned ticket for a seat up in the balcony.”
    “It was an extraordinary coincidence,” said Cowgill. “But may I say how very much I enjoyed your programme. Just my kind of music. And is Akiko around? Such a wonderful musician . . .”
    “She had to get off straight after the end of the concert. I’m afraid the theft of her own cello has upset her a lot. She’s a professional, of course, and played really well, considering she was playing an unfamiliar instrument. But she couldn’t face people afterwards, so she’s gone home.”
    “And that is where, Jamie? I really was hoping to meet her.”
    “Oh, I’m afraid she doesn’t allow the general public to know where she lives. She is a very nervous person.”
    “I am not the general public,” Cowgill said gently. “Although I admire her playing enormously, I am also here on police business, and need to talk to her urgently. We believe she may be in danger.”
    “What danger!?” Lois butted in, seeing the alarm in Jamie’s expression. “Aren’t you going over the top, Cowgill? After all, this is only a case of theft of a musical instrument. Don’t worry, son, it’ll turn up soon, and then Akiko will relax.”
    The inspector looked at her kindly. “I understand