Where Death Delights by Bernard Knight Read Free Book Online Page B

to look into all that?’ she countered. ‘But no, he had had nothing like that. Came all through the war in the Rifle Brigade without a scratch, he did!’
    Trevor felt he was getting nowhere, fast.
    â€˜Tell me about the last day, when he went missing,’ he asked.
    â€˜He just went off one Saturday morning on his bike, going fishing as usual. Mad keen on fishing, he was.’
    â€˜Did he say where he was going?’
    â€˜No, only that it was over Hereford way. I never took much interest in his fishing.’ She sniffed as if that was a pastime beneath her contempt.
    â€˜Obviously, he would have had his rods and things with him?’
    â€˜Of course he would – he had a long canvas bag slung on his back, the rods came to pieces to fit in.’
    Mitchell enquired about his health and if Albert Barnes had had any heart trouble that might explain a sudden collapse.
    â€˜He had a terrible cough sometimes – he smoked too much. But I never heard he had a bad heart.’
    â€˜Did he go to his doctor at all? Have any X-rays?’
    She shook her head emphatically. ‘Fit as a fiddle, my Albert. He had to be in his job, he worked on the railway, humping heavy tools about.’
    Trevor was running out of questions and had one last shot in his locker.
    â€˜Could I see the watch and the ring, please?’ he asked.
    Molly Barnes looked at him suspiciously. ‘What would you want to look at them for?’ she demanded. ‘The police and the coroner had them for over a week.’
    â€˜Just to tie up any loose ends,’ he answered humbly. ‘I have to look as if I’m earning my fee,’ he added in an attempt to lighten her mood.
    Muttering under her breath, she went out and he heard her going upstairs. A few minutes later she returned with an old Cadbury’s chocolate box with a faded picture on the lid looking very much like his own cottage in St Brievals. Opening it, she sorted through a tangle of bead necklaces, brooches and shiny buttons and retrieved a gold ring and a steel-cased wristwatch without any strap.
    â€˜The coroner’s officer told me the strap had rotted away,’ she volunteered, as she handed them over.
    â€˜This was his wedding ring, I presume?’
    â€˜Yes, my Albert always wore it,’ she said bleakly.
    â€˜Which year were you married?’ he asked idly.
    â€˜Nineteen forty-one, in the war. He was on a week’s embarkation leave, before going to Egypt.’
    Mitchell held the narrow band between his finger and thumb, squinting at it briefly. ‘What about the watch? Where did he get that, d’you know?’
    The widow shrugged her thin shoulders. ‘I don’t know, he brought it back when he was demobbed at the end of the war. Picked it up in Germany perhaps, he was posted there later on. He said you could buy anything there with a packet of fags.’
    The watch had a black dial with the famous logo above the word ‘Omega’. In tiny letters at the bottom, it said ‘Swiss Made’. There was nothing written on the plain metal of the back.
    â€˜So how did you know that this ring and the watch belonged to your husband?’ he asked, handing them back.
    â€˜I just did!’ she snapped. ‘I’ve been looking at them every day for the past nine years, since he came home from the army.’
    â€˜But one gold ring looks much the same as any other,’ pointed out Mitchell. ‘And this watch isn’t particularly unusual.’
    The woman slammed the lid down on the chocolate box.
    â€˜I tell you I knew them! I knew every scratch and mark on that watch,’ she spat angrily. ‘You’re just trying to make me out to be a liar, you should be ashamed of yourself.’
    She jumped out of her chair and went to hold the door open.
    â€˜I think you’d better go, I’ve got nothing else to say to you. I’m going to complain to my solicitor.’
    Trevor