The Dark Lady Read Online Free PDF Page B

Chatterton. “Can you arrange that for me, Tim?”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    â€œAn’ while we’re waitin’ for him to turn up, what I think I’d like to do is go an’ take a look at the room in which the late Herr Schultz had been livin’ for the last few weeks.”
    Gerhard Schultz’s bedroom was spacious and had a fine view over the part of the park which contained chestnut trees rather than huts. The dead man had been only in temporary residence, but he must have been comfortable enough, because in addition to the bed there was a desk, a sofa, a refrigerator, and a bookcase.
    Woodend headed for the bookcase first, and Bob Rutter, who’d placed a private bet with himself that that was just what his boss would do, made no effort to hide his grin.
    â€œAccordin’ to young Chatteron, the room’s already been gone over thoroughly by forensics,” Woodend said, “so we’ve no need to pussyfoot around.” He ran his eyes over the books. “A whole stack of stuff on management techniques – or to put it another way, how to squeeze the last drop of sweat out of your underpaid workforce,” he grunted. “A few travel books – but all about travellin’ in England. I wonder why that is. Ay up, what’s this?
The Old Curiosity Shop
! An’ A
Tale of Two Cities
!”
    Rutter let out a loud stage groan. “Not another Dickens fan, for God’s sake!” he said.
    â€œThere’s more of us about than you’d think,” Woodend told him. “He’s got some other good stuff as well. George Eliot, Jane Austen. The Brontës. I’ll say this much for him – whatever he was like as a manager, when it came to literature the feller had taste.”
    He pulled
The Old Curiosity Shop
out of the bookcase, examined it, frowned, replaced it, and repeated the process with another three books.
    â€œNever been read,” he said in disgust. “Now that really
is
acrime – havin’ books like these an’ never even dippin’ into them.” “So why do you think he bought them?” Bob Rutter asked.
    â€œFor show?”
    â€œHow do you mean?”
    â€œTo demonstrate how English he’d become.”
    â€œEither that or he was one of these fellers who are always meanin’ to improve their minds but never quite get round to it,” Woodend said. “Let’s see what else we can find, shall we?”
    The wardrobe was built into the wall. Woodend opened the door. Hanging at the left-hand side were several suits, all of them in dark colours, and all made of wool. Next to them were a dozen white shirts. Finally, at the right-hand end of the rail were three sports jackets and matching pairs of trousers. There were six pairs of lace-up shoes – one pair for golf – all placed so that they were exactly parallel to the sides of the wardrobe. In the tie rack were eight ties in muted shades.
    â€œImpressions, Sergeant?” Woodend asked.
    â€œThe man doesn’t appear to have been much of a snappy dresser, does he?” Rutter replied.
    â€œNo,” Woodend agreed. “I’d say that, even for a senior manager, he was conservative. Anythin’ else?”
    â€œVery organised. Very military.”
    â€œAye,” Woodend said. “I bet he wore them suits of his in strict rotation. Let’s see what we can find in the desk.
    The desk had two drawers. In the top one were the standard elements of office stationery – paper clips, a hole puncher, a stapler, writing paper and several pencils. As with the shoes, they seemed not to have been put in there haphazardly, but to have been carefully arranged.
    In the second drawer they found Gerhard Schultz’s correspondence. There was a letter from a building society, which said that as soon as he’d found a house to his liking, he should apply for a loan, which the writer thought he would have no difficulty in