The Altered Case Read Online Free PDF Page B

Hennessey and this gentleman –’ Hennessey indicated to Yellich – ‘is Detective Sergeant Yellich. We are from Micklegate Bar police station in York.’
    The man remained silent.
    ‘We understand from the land registry that you own the field near here?’
    ‘Which field near here? There’s plenty of fields round here, so which one in particular? No shortage of fields round here.’ The man was in his middle years, Hennessey assessed, probably mid to late fifties. He was tall, and perhaps could be said to be of aristocratic bearing, his near-perfect physique being marred only by a large pink birthmark on the back of his left hand. He wore casual but expensive-looking clothes and an equally expensive-looking watch. His attitude was, Hennessey found, far from aristocratic. He was, in fact, openly hostile to the police. His attitude was more akin to that of a career criminal, Hennessey found, than it was akin to the attitude of the establishment.
    ‘You are Thomas Farrent?’ Hennessey asked, coping very easily with the man’s hostility, though he was grateful for Yellich’s supportive presence.
    ‘Yes, I am,’ Farrent sneered. ‘That is I.’
    ‘Good, good.’ Hennessey smiled. ‘We just have to be certain that we are talking to the right man. The field in question is the one by the wood close to the village of Catton Hill.’
    ‘Yes, that will be mine. I own all the land round here.’ Farrent’s voice was cold, suspicious, guarded.
    ‘All of it?’
    ‘Yes, all the land round Catton Hill. You can walk from York to Selby without stepping off land I own. Sometimes it’s a narrow path, and the route is not direct, but it can be done.’ The man looked a little smug, Hennessey thought. ‘So yes, I will own the field you mention, and the wood, and the leases on the properties in Catton Hill village.’ Despite the brief show of smugness Farrent continued to seem wary and was very defensive of his house. He stood solidly in the doorway in a manner which stated very clearly that he had not the slightest intention of allowing Hennessey and Yellich to enter, keeping, as he did, the door half closed behind him. Nobody, Hennessey realized, was going to get into that house without a fight or a warrant, and most probably both. Farrent’s height of in excess of six feet, plus the elevated step upon which he stood made it possible for him to look down upon his unexpected callers and he did so with the steely eyes of a hungry predator. Farrent, Hennessey sensed, was looking upon him and Yellich as if looking upon fair game, and when he did take his eyes off the officers it was to look beyond them from left to right, carefully scanning the shrubs beyond the driveway of his house as if he was searching for any lurking prey or adversaries.
    ‘This really is just a courtesy call,’ Hennessey explained. ‘There is no need to be worried.’
    Farrent seemed to relax, though only slightly. Hennessey still sensed, with the intuition of a very experienced police officer, that Farrent was a man with something to hide and, or, something to fear. ‘We got the precise directions to your house from a farm worker,’ Hennessey explained.
    ‘Oh? Which one?’
    ‘We never asked his name.’
    ‘Where was he working?’ Farrent snapped the question.
    ‘We feel most disinclined to tell you,’ Hennessey replied calmly.
    ‘I see,’ Farrent growled, ‘but yes, the house is difficult to find, that’s how my father liked it. You’d have to know this area very well in order to know the house existed. It occupies a natural hollow in the landscape.’
    ‘Long driveway,’ Hennessey commented.
    ‘Half a mile long,’ Farrent advised, ‘narrow gateposts, thick shrubs and trees between the house and the road; my father planned it like that. He valued his privacy and, quite frankly, so do I.’
    ‘Well, we won’t take up too much of your time,’ Hennessey reassured Farrent. ‘The situation is, you see, that there has been a