The Disciple Read Online Free PDF

you recognise the man, Mr Sowerby?’ asked Grant.
    Sowerby concentrated fiercely on the photograph. ‘No,’ he said after a few moments of unconvincing deliberation. He handed back the photograph, returning his attention to the reception desk and fiddling with some papers as if to imply a heavy workload.
    ‘Mmmm.’ Hudson wandered off to the front door but neither he nor Grant made any attempt to leave. After a minute, Hudson ambled back to the desk, picked up the local newspaper from under a stack of documents and jabbed a finger at the picture of Tony Harvey-Ellis, smiling on the front page. ‘Perhaps this is a better likeness, Mr Sowerby?’
    ‘Is that the guy?’ said Sowerby, hardly bothering to look.
    ‘That’s him,’ said Hudson. ‘His name is Tony Harvey-Ellis. But then you knew that because he stayed here Saturday night. Mr Harvey-Ellis drowned in the early hours of Sunday morning. The picture we showed you was taken at the mortuary.’
    ‘Most people who see a picture of a dead body tend to react in some way,’ added Grant, smiling coldly.
    ‘You, on the other hand, didn’t react at all, sir. Now why might that be?’
    Sowerby tried to look Hudson in the eye but couldn’t hold on. ‘I didn’t realise …’
    ‘You didn’t realise how important my time is, did you?’
    ‘I … I …’
    ‘You didn’t realise that I get very pissed off when someone
wastes
my time when I’m investigating a suspicious death …’
    His words had the desired effect and Sowerby’s eyes widened. ‘Suspicious!’ he said, agitated. ‘It doesn’t say anything in the papers about suspicious. It says he drowned.’
    ‘You calling me a liar now, sonny?’ said Hudson, fixing Sowerby with a cruel glare.
    ‘No, no.’ Sowerby raised his hands in pacification.
    ‘Cuff him, Sergeant. I don’t like this dump. We’ll do this at the station …’ Hudson turned and began to saunter away. Grant made no attempt to reach for the handcuffs.
    ‘Wait! Just hang on …’ pleaded Sowerby to Hudson’s retreating back. ‘I’ve got a business to run.’
    ‘Guv,’ said Grant. ‘Give him a minute. I think Mr Sowerby wants to help.’ She turned back to Sowerby. ‘Don’t you, sir?’
    ‘I do. I didn’t realise …’
    Hudson stopped at the front door but didn’t turn around. There was a brief silence as Grant considered how best to continue. ‘Maybe Mr Sowerby was just trying to protect a valued client.’
    Sowerby looked from Hudson to Grant and nodded eagerly. ‘That’s it, a valued client – a regular.’
    ‘I mean, we can understand that, can’t we, guv?’ continued Grant. ‘He was just being … discreet.’ Sowerby continued to nod eagerly and looked with hope towards Hudson’s back. ‘I mean, we’d want the same discretion if we stayed at a hotel, guv. Wouldn’t we?’
    Hudson turned now, his lips pursed. ‘I suppose,’ he conceded eventually and padded back towards the bureau. ‘All right, we’re listening.’
    Grant nodded and smiled encouragement at Sowerby, who wasted no further time. ‘Mr H is … was,’ he corrected himself, ‘a regular. He had an understanding that we’d turn a blind eye. You know …’ He looked encouragingly at Grant.
    ‘Discretion,’ she obliged.
    ‘That’s it. Discretion. He was married, see …’
    ‘No?’ said Grant.
    ‘He was. But he had a right eye for a pretty girl. And he alwayspaid cash, you know,’ added Sowerby enthusiastically, before suddenly realising he’d said the wrong thing. ‘Not that I don’t …’
    Hudson held up his hand. ‘Any particular pretty girl this last time?’
    ‘Well, he had more than one but this weekend it was the usual.’ ‘Usual?’
    ‘Yeah, the one he’d brought here a few times. Very pretty. Brown hair. Slim but not …’ Sowerby darted a glance at Grant, who raised an eyebrow ‘…not flat.’ Hudson now had to douse down a smirk. ‘And, of course…’ Sowerby now stopped himself, beginning to look