The Ten Commandments (25 page)

Which, Gillian acknowledged to herself, was at least something.

'Chief Inspector!' Edwina looked at Webb in surprise.

He smiled wryly. 'I suppose you thought you'd seen the last of me. This isn't an official visit, though.'

'It's nice to see you. Come through; we're in the garden.'

He followed her through the hall and large, homely kitchen and out of the back door. Frederick Mace, resplendent in a Panama hat, was seated in a deck chair under an apple tree.

'Good to see you home again, sir,' Webb greeted him, taking the hand the old man held out.

'Thank you. Sit down, sit down – Edwina's bringing out some lemonade. Yes, I had a lucky escape. It's hard to believe Sonia's chap was behind it. I never really took to him – didn't think he was good enough for her – but I never suspected he was a killer.' Mace shook his head sadly.

'So even you aren't infallible!' Webb commented.

The old man smiled.
‘Touché.
Chief Inspector.' He paused, shooting Webb a calculating look from his keen grey eyes. 'Am I right in thinking you had your sights set on Paul Blake?'

'So much for my subtle approach! Only in passing, really, but I noticed you seemed surprised to hear he'd lived in Oxbury.'

'So I was, till I thought about it, but there'd really been no reason to mention it. He left before the murder, and in any case we never discussed his personal life. That, at least, has been rectified to some extent.'

Oh?'

Mace ignored the implied question. 'Was that your only reason for suspecting him, apart from the size of his feet?'

Webb hesitated. 'Not quite, sir. I suspected – quite wrongly, as it turned out – that he might have been gay.'

Frederick Mace leant back in his chair. 'Now that
is
interesting. Why was that?'

'Just an off-the-cuff remark by his parents' next-door neighbour.' Webb paused. 'Why is it interesting?'

Mrs Mace had rejoined them, and her husband waited while she passed round the glasses of lemonade and seated herself. Then he settled back in his chair.

'You know, of course, that along with Philpott's womanizing, I passed on the information that he had strong prejudices against homosexuals?'

Webb nodded.

'Well, I didn't put too much emphasis on it at the time; I was too busy congratulating myself that my suspicions of his being a ladies' man had been confirmed. However, when we left the Bradburns and I decided to go straight on to Oxbury, Paul did his best to dissuade me. I thought it was the long drive he was objecting to, but the following week he visited me in hospital, and when I suggested he went back there, he refused point-blank – said he couldn't fit it in, or some such excuse.

'I was astonished; he'd always agreed to my requests before, and I didn't know what to make of it. We parted, I'm afraid, on rather strained terms. To my relief, though, he returned later that day, saying he wanted to set the matter straight, but before he could do so, you arrived on the scene.'

'And waded in with my size elevens,' Webb said ruefully.

'Which, of course, ruffled him even more, but when you'd gone, I got the full story. It seems that although Paul was never homosexual, one of his friends was. This Charles had been at school with him, where he'd repeatedly stuck up for Paul when he was bullied, and the friendship – totally platonic, of course – had continued afterwards.

'What really is amazing, though, is that it was Paul and Charles whom Philpott insulted that evening at the cricket club. Paul says he was completely poleaxed when Mrs Bradburn mentioned it. He'd forgotten the incident – he was used to that kind of thing when he was out with Charles and had trained himself to ignore it. But what totally stunned him was that he'd had no idea until then that the man involved had been Trevor Philpott.

'It knocked him sideways, and he nearly blurted the whole thing out to me over lunch afterwards. God knows why he didn't, but during the next few days he got in more and more of a panic, realizing he now had what might appear to be a personal grudge against Philpott. So he decided to keep as far away from previous haunts as possible.

'He told me that after the visit to Mrs Bradburn he'd had another look at Philpott's picture, but even then he couldn't recognize him. It had been dark in the clubhouse, and as soon as Philpott started abusing them, Paul had turned away, refusing to meet his eye.

'So there you are. Chief Inspector. Although you were wrong in your suspicions, there was a grain of truth buried there.'

Webb nodded, glad of the explanation. In view of his innocence, Blake's behaviour at the hospital had continued to puzzle him, and he didn't like to leave loose ends.

'Thank you very much for telling me, sir. So that's that, then. I must say, when this book of yours comes out, I'll be first in line to buy it. As a matter of interest, will you still include the Feathers case?'

'Most certainly I shall; you don't imagine I'd let all that work, not to mention a cracked head, go for nothing?'

'And the relevant Commandment, I suppose, was adultery?'

'Of course; Philpott was married, even if the girl wasn't. He'd been consistently unfaithful, and it finally caught up with him.'

'It'll make interesting reading. In the meantime' – Webb retrieved the paper bag from the grass beside him – 'I wonder if you'd be kind enough to autograph
The Muddied Pool?
I found it fascinating.'

'How kind. I'd be delighted.'

Webb watched as he wrote a short dedication in his neat hand, and signed it with a flourish.

'Thank you. Well, it's been a pleasure to meet you, sir, and I wish your books every success. All the same, it might be safer not to include any unsolved crimes in future.'

'Don't worry, Chief Inspector,' Edwina assured him, 'I shall personally see to that.'