The Evil That Men Do.(Inspector Faro Mystery No.11) by Alanna Knight Read Free Book Online Page A

knew something of his case history.’
    ‘Case history?’ he repeated warily.
    ‘We understand from the family that Cedric Langweil was incurably ill, that he had a disease of the brain,’ said Vince, ‘and that he had only a short while to live.’
    Dr Wiseman’s bewildered glance went from Vince to Faro and back again. ‘I’m sorry to hear that, gentlemen. Very sorry indeed.’ And shaking his head, ‘What you say may be true, but it is new to me. I assure you he never consulted me about any such condition. Your informant is mistaken. It must have been some other physician.’
    ‘Are you sure?’ demanded Vince.
    ‘I am indeed. As I am personally acquainted with Dr Adrian and have had the honour of attending various members of the family, it is unlikely that I would not have remembered such an illustrious patient as Cedric Langweil.’
    Dr Wiseman smiled and in his expression Faro detected relief. Somehow this was not what he had been expecting.
    ‘I do apologise for having seemed so vague when you asked me about him. You see, I think I only saw Cedric professionally once and that was when he had a festered thumb. I have attended Miss Langweil and her mother on one or two trivial medical matters.’
    You don’t know then who he might have consulted?’
    ‘I’m sorry. I haven’t the least idea. But surely Mrs Langweil would be the one to ask.’
    A now very cheerful Dr Wiseman saw them to the door, his parting remarks about the coming golf championship and comforting words on the present state of Vince’s handicap. With an early meeting proposed between two doctors, they shook hands and parted most cordially.
    As they headed towards Princes Street, Vince said: ‘I don’t know about you, Stepfather, but I’m completely baffled. Why on earth did Cedric lie to his family about Wiseman? A complete waste of time, and very embarrassing for a colleague, I can tell you. And we’re not one whit wiser now than we were before.’
    But Faro, remembering Wiseman’s anxiety, had his own thoughts on the matter. ‘I wonder who is lying. You realise, lad, that in the circumstances, with no evidence apart from his family’s insistence that Cedric was a dying man, we now have no other option than to treat this as a murder case.’
    At the Central Office, Superintendent McIntosh wasn’t at all pleased by this turn of events as he threw down the postmortem report on to his desk and regarded Faro darkly across the table.
    ‘This is your province, Faro, and frankly not one I envy you. Dashed difficult I know, with your stepson almost a member of the family. And the Langweils respected pillars of society. I’m afraid this is going to create one hell of a scandal.’
    McIntosh’s feelings were understandable, since he too had enjoyed the Langweil hospitality at Priorsfield over a number of years.
    ‘If only we hadn’t brought in the Fiscal,’ he sighed. ‘I suppose we could have ignored it. Presumed that the poor chap had taken his own life. Not unusual in the circumstances for a dying man to be unable to face up to the last weeks—’
    ‘Look here, sir,’ Faro interrupted, ‘you know as well as I do that if Langweil was poisoned, for some motive as yet unknown to us, then the possibility exists that the murderer will strike again.’
    ‘He or she,’ McIntosh reminded him, ‘especially as the first place you’ll need to look is in the victim’s family circle.’ He shrugged. ‘Devoted family like that too.’
    Faro regarded him cynically. The words were beginning to have a familiarly hollow ring. As for his superior, McIntosh could display almost childlike credulity at times, quite at odds with a tough exterior and more than thirty years’ experience of violent crimes and criminals.
    His own thoughts at that moment were concentrated not only on who had given Cedric Langweil an overdose of arsenic, but also on why? To kill a man known to be dying imminently called for an exceptional motive. If he could find