Malice Aforethought Read Online Free PDF Page A

we had a bit of a laugh about Sociology.’
    ‘Yes. People do, I understand.’ Hook was grave as a rubicund Buddha. No one would have known he was about to complete an Open University degree which had included a Social Studies module. He made a note about the date of this exchange, which was almost certainly irrelevant, but which would need to be followed up in due course.
    Lambert said, ‘Is there anything else you can tell us about the life of this man? What about his habits outside the routine of his school life? Did he play any sports? Was he a member of any clubs? Was there anywhere he went regularly, say every week?’
    Mick Yates listened earnestly to each prompting, then shook his head sadly. He wondered if these men would think he was concealing things, when all that was becoming apparent was that he knew so little about the life of the man whom he had thought of as a friend and mentor. ‘Ted went skiing every winter. Usually over New Year, I think. But I’m pretty sure he wasn’t a member of any sports club. He played a bit of squash and tennis, but he wasn’t a member of a club.’
    ‘How about golf?’ said Hook hopefully. The dead man might be a fellow-sufferer; even better, his killer might be a golf club committee member.
    ‘No, he wasn’t interested. He said it was a game for old fogies.’
    Lambert didn’t even flinch: you had to admire his professionalism, Hook thought. The Superintendent said rather wearily, ‘Habits, Mr Yates. Was there any evening or day that Ted Giles set aside for himself and his own interests?’
    At first, Mick Yates looked as blank as ever. Then he brightened with a recollection. ‘Ted was never around on a Friday evening. I asked him out for a drink after school was over for the week quite a few times, but he always had some prior commitment on Fridays.’
    ***
    Detective Inspector Rushton found he got on well with Dr Saunders, the pathologist at the Home Office Forensic Science Laboratory at Chepstow.
    Both men favoured facts rather than speculation; both had a liking for documentation and the logical ordering of information; both felt happier with the tabulation of facts and the scientific approach to crime than with understanding its perpetrators and its victims. Chris Rushton explained that he had come to Chepstow in an attempt to save the time that was always vital in a murder investigation rather than because he hoped to gain anything extra from a personal hearing of what would be in Cliff Saunders’ confidential report.
    Once an initial stiffness between the two had evaporated, Saunders found that Rushton was genuinely interested in his findings and how they might best be incorporated into the police computer system. He felt himself being drawn into the puzzles of detection, wanting to provide the best detail he could for the man beside him, who would take his findings on into the hunt for the man or woman who had perpetrated this. ‘Everything will be in my report, which you’ll have tomorrow,’ he said, Tut if there are any key areas, we can talk about them now.’
    ‘Time of death,’ said Rushton without hesitation.
    ‘Between ten and twenty hours before he was found. You’ll find the details of body temperature and the stage of rigor mortis in my report, but I’d be prepared to say in court between four p.m. on Saturday the tenth of November and two a.m. on Sunday the eleventh.’
    Rushton didn’t push him further. Mentally, he made a note that whilst Saunders would not go further than this in court, the middle of this time period was the likeliest time for their murder — say between six and twelve on the Saturday night. Not the best time — during hours of darkness and when the police themselves would have been fully engaged with the normal tedious vandalism and violence of Saturday night drinkers.
    ‘And where did he die?’ The three questions every young DC learned to ask first about suspicious deaths: where, when and how. Saunders had