The Cambridge Theorem Read Online Free PDF Page A

because ’e’s usually not there. I knocked, as I always do, because sometimes the young gentlemen are sleepin’ or something and they calls out if they don’t want you to come in.
    â€œAs usual, there was no reply, so I goes in. I don’t take the broom and duster in first because I like to get the old coffee cups and plates out to the kitchen before I start on the room.
    â€œI didn’t even see him at first. I looked on ’is desk and by the fireplace and there was no mugs and then I looks by the winder and I seen him ’anging there.”
    Here she faltered and began to wring her hands in her lap. The two men waited in silence.
    â€œSo then I runs out down the steps to the lodge and I tells Mr. Beecroft that young Mr. Bowles has ’ung himself. Then I waited while he was on the phone and came back ’ere with him and made some tea while Dr. Hawken arrived. Then all these police and ambulance fellas came. But it’s no good. ’E’s dead, i’n’t he?”
    â€œYes, I’m afraid he is,” said Smailes.
    â€œSuch a nice young fella. So quiet and shy and neat, not like some of them. Real slobs they are, officer. You wouldn’t believe some of the things I ’ave to clean up.”
    Here Hawken interceded. “Well, thank you, Mrs. Allen. Sergeant?”
    â€œNo more questions, Mrs. Allen. We may need you to make a statement.”
    The remark did not seem to register on her.
    â€œTake the rest of the day off, Mrs. Allen. Just tell Beecroft on your way out that you’re going home,” said Hawken.
    Smailes stepped out of the tiny kitchen on to the landing as Bert Ainsworth came up the stairs with the DC from the coroner’s office and two mortuary attendants. Ainsworth stepped up and said in a low voice, “We told them to bring the wagon up the drive on the Backs. Less of a crowd.”
    Derek Smailes had always liked Bert Ainsworth. He was old school; no procedural hand-wringing like Dickley.
    Smailes handed him the folded suicide note. “This is the young fella’s note. Give it to the coroner’s DC will you, Bert, and help them get the body in the bag,” said Smailes. The other officers had already disappeared into Bowles’ room. Mrs. Allen made her way gingerly down the steps as Hawken watched her. He turned to look at Smailes, who noticed for the first time how short he was. The disabled arm made him look almost frail. The light from the overhead bulb made his glasses flash like mirrors.
    â€œSergeant, I suggest we discuss this matter further in my rooms,” he said.
    â€œCertainly,” said Smailes, catching part of the formality of his speech. He turned to Ainsworth.
    â€œStick around for the SOCO boys, Bert, and then secure the room yourself.” He handed Ainsworth the dead man’s keys. “Put these in the personal bag at the station—and keep an eye on Dickley, will you?” He winked at Ainsworth, who grinned.
    He followed Hawken down the stairs and out into the court, where the crowd of students had dissipated.

Chapter Two
    D EREK SMAILES had never intended to join the police force. In fact, he had resisted the idea vehemently when his father had begun to suggest it after he entered the sixth form and started seeing Yvonne. His father had liked Yvonne from the beginning. She showed Harry Smailes the frank deference he expected from the world, and her father was a fire captain, well within the canon of his acceptance.
    His father, with some justification, had always been skeptical of his chances for University, although Derek resented his pessimism. By the time he was seventeen, he had to deal with the insistent suggestion that he should look around for a career, that he should consider alternatives if he decided to settle down. The prospect appalled him. While he was quite determined to find a strategy to conquer Yvonne’s sexual resolve, he had no intentions of settling