The Adept Book 3 The Templar Treasure Read Online Free PDF

get back. Keep things ticking over smoothly, will you? I don’t want to come home to find half a dozen crises on my desk.”
    “Aye, sir,” Cochrane returned with a grin. “See you in a couple of days.”
    On the way out to McLeod’s house in Ormidale Terrace, Adam gave the inspector a concise briefing on Nathan Fiennes’ medical condition.
    “No wonder Walter and his lads are frantic, down in York,” McLeod said when Adam had finished. “A burglary with assault is bad enough, but if the case gets compounded with a murder charge, they’re really going to have their work cut out for them.”
    “If the charges extend to murder,” Adam said grimly, “the perpetrators are going to have more than the Yorkshire police to contend with.”
    They picked up McLeod’s bag and made it to the airport in time to rendezvous with Humphrey a good twenty minutes before flight time. The intrepid Humphrey had already checked them in, and handed over tickets and boarding cards along with Adam’s overnight bag before bidding them farewell. The flight itself was uneventful, touching down at Leeds-Bradford within a minute or two of its appointed arrival time.
    With only carry-on luggage, Adam and McLeod disembarked along with the rest of the passengers and made their way into the arrivals lounge. Here they were intercepted by a short, wiry individual in a dapper three-piece tweed suit and sunglasses. McLeod’s look of intense scrutiny transformed immediately into a grin of recognition.
    “Hello, Walter!” he exclaimed. “I didn’t expect you’d come in person.”
    His associate shrugged and smiled.
    “I figured I might as well, and save time all around. My driver’s waiting outside in the car. We can talk on the way back to York. Do you have any luggage?”
    “No, just what we’re carrying,” McLeod replied. “Walter, I’d like you to meet Sir Adam Sinclair, special psychiatric consultant for Lothian and Borders Police. As I mentioned earlier on the phone, he’s a longtime close friend of Nathan Fiennes, and Fiennes apparently asked his wife to call Adam, right after the assault. Adam, this is Superintendent Walter Phipps, whose men are following up on the investigation.”
    “I’m grateful for any assistance you and your men can render, Superintendent,” Adam said, taking stock of his new acquaintance as he and the Yorkshireman traded handshakes. Half a head shorter than McLeod, Phipps was lean and active-looking, with short-cropped fair hair and a crisp moustache, both lightly touched with hints of silver. Steady grey eyes returned Adam’s gaze with shrewd regard, then crinkled slightly at the edges, as if their owner was favorably impressed by what he saw.
    “Your reputation precedes you, Sir Adam,” Phipps said with a tight-lipped smile. “And please call me Walter, if you’re a friend of Noel’s. I seem to recall that you’re the man Scotland Yard called in several years ago to construct a psychiatric profile of the man they eventually arrested as the so-called Scarborough Slasher. Nobody looks for a miracle like that to come along every day, but maybe you can come up with some leads in the present case—because I’m afraid we haven’t much to go on, so far.”
    “I’ll certainly do whatever I can,” Adam promised, as they headed out to the curb and a waiting black Ford Granada. “Right now, however, I’d like to get to the hospital as soon as possible. I gather that Professor Fiennes’ prospects are not good, and I’d like at least to attempt to speak with him before time runs out.”
    “Well, I don’t know how successful you’re going to be in that,” Phipps replied, opening the boot so McLeod and Adam could stash their bags. “He was still unconscious when I left York, three-quarters of an hour ago, though at least he was holding his own. It doesn’t look good, though.” He got into the front, next to the uniformed constable who was driving, and McLeod and Adam piled into the back.
    It