Chapter Seventeen

On the following afternoon they stood waiting anxiously in a first floor room in the police station at Aberystwyth.

‘This seems a very weak excuse to get him to come up from Tremabon,’ objected Willie Rees.

‘Only way I could do it,’ answered Pacey, going to the window and looking out anxiously.

The problem had been to get David Ellis-Morgan to the station without raising any embarrassing questions in the quite likely event of Pacey’s hunch fizzling out. Eventually, the superintendent had hit on the idea of asking him to sign a completely unnecessary statement to the effect that he was present and helped at the examination of the bones as they were removed from the mine. As Gerald and his father were also involved, Pacey had been obliged to extend the farce to them as well. He had called in at Carmel House that morning, after making sure that the sons were out, collected the father’s signature and arranged for the two younger doctors to call in at the police station in the afternoon, having already fixed up for Edna Collins to be there.

‘He should have been here by now – I said half past two.’ muttered Pacey, looking for the twentieth time at his watch.

Willie Rees went to the window and looked down into the station yard.

‘Here he is now. At least, here’s a red Austin-Healey. That’s sure to be his!’

‘Aye, that’ll be David – his brother has got a green Rover, as far as I remember.’ Pacey hurried to the door. ‘I’ll see if that girl is lined up for her job.’

He looked out into the corridor. Sitting on a chair outside the room next to theirs was the hostess from Cardiff. She had a uniformed policewoman sitting alongside her for effect and held a woman’s magazine ready to camouflage her face. Pacey was glad to see that she was dressed less conspicuously than the last time he saw her.

‘That’s fine, Miss Collins. Just try to look as if you weren’t there! All I want you to do is to have a crafty look at the man as I bring him along to that room, and again when he leaves. We’ll only be a couple of minutes. Listen to his voice as well, if you can.’

He went down the stairs to the charge room where he found David Ellis-Morgan inquiring for him.

‘Sorry to drag you up here just for this, Doctor, but we’re getting all the documents together in this case and we wanted yours and your brother’s statements for continuity. It won’t take a minute.’

David seemed to be quite incurious. He followed the detective up the stairs and along the corridor where the two women sat. As they passed Edna Collins, Pacey carefully engineered things so that she would have a chance to hear the doctor speak.

‘Will your brother be coming along as well?’

‘Yes, he said he would. He’s got a call on the outskirts of the town, so it’ll be quite easy for him to pop in.’

Pacey opened the office door and they went in. Pacey read over the simple statement to him, and David signed it, the whole process taking only a couple of minutes.

Again, on the way out, Pacey started a conversation in the corridor.

‘This sort of thing should be right up your street, sir. I heard that you were a pathologist at one time.’

‘Yes, but all hospital work; none of this blood-and- thunder forensic stuff. We “straight” pathologists leave all that to the more cranky members of the profession.’

They passed down the stairs and Pacey saw him off on the steps of the police station.

‘Mind if I leave my car in your yard for a couple of minutes?’ asked David. ‘I want to nip across the road and buy some collars and things.’

He strode off down the street, and Pacey almost ran back up the stairs to hear what Edna Collins had to say.

Willie had taken her into the office by the time he got up there.

‘Well, what do you think?’ he asked, breathing heavily after dashing up the two flights.

The blonde looked blankly at him.

‘Sorry, dear – I never saw him before in my life!’

Some minutes later, when the woman had left to catch her train back to Cardiff, Pacey sat dejectedly with Rees in the upstairs office.

‘Looks as if we’re all washed up, Willie,’ he said. ‘The old man is sure to give this to the Yard now. I can’t say I blame him. And they’re welcome to it.’

‘What about the other girls on the list? And all the other areas that we haven’t covered?’

‘You know as well as I do that there’s nothing in those. That Bristol girl turned up two years ago – they forgot to notify the Bureau. The others are hardly worth the trouble of chasing. And, as for starting on the North Country and London, well that’s just impossible. Let the Yard do it, and the best of luck to ’em!’

Rees picked up the bogus statement from the desk.

‘I may as well tear this up, then?’

Pacey shook his head wearily. ‘Better hang on to it until the other brother shows up. It’ll look more genuine if we can show him that one when he’s signing his own.’

Willie leered sadistically at his colleague. ‘I should have taken that dollar bet with you, shouldn’t I? What about my idea that it might be this other brother – he’s a doctor and knows as much about Tremabon as the first one?’

Pacey scowled at him. ‘Oh, shut up, will you? Don’t kick a man when he’s down. I suppose I’ll have to pull myself together and go down to Cardigan now to confess to “Dick” Barton.’

There was a rapid knocking on the door.

‘Perhaps this is the other brother,’ suggested Rees.

‘Sounds a bit anxious, just to sign a statement. Come in!’ yelled Pacey.

The door opened and the startled face of Edna Collins appeared.

Pacey jumped to his feet. ‘What’s the trouble? I thought you were in a hurry to catch your train?’

She came into the room, her heavily powdered face even paler than usual.

‘I’ve seen him – the man in the club – the one you’re looking for!’

‘What the devil d’you mean! You said just now that it wasn’t him?’

‘No, no – not the one that came in here … another chap! I was just going down the street when a car pulled up and a man got out. He bumped into me and apologized – then I saw who it was!’

‘Did he say anything?’

‘I … I don’t know. I think he started to speak – I know he recognized me. I could see it in his face – but I just ran!’

‘Why did you want to run?’ snapped Pacey.

Edna Collins had lost all her brazen self-assurance now. She looked frightened and suddenly old.

‘When I saw you in Cardiff, I didn’t know what all this was about. I talked to some of the other girls – they told me about the skeleton in the cave, it’s been in the papers – and you are the man investigating the – the murder. So it all fits, doesn’t it? That man who was with Julie – he’s the one you want – that’s why I ran.’

‘Where did he go?’ Pacey said urgently, moving towards the door.

‘Into a shop, I think. I ran back here and looked around, but he was gone. His car was still parked at the kerb though.’

‘What car was it?’

‘A big green one – a Rover, I think. It looked the same as my boss’s; he’s got a Rover.’

Willie Rees’ sparse hair almost stood on end. He gaped at Pacey.

‘Gerald Ellis-Morgan!’

Pacey didn’t wait to discuss it. ‘Stay here. Miss Collins. Come on, Willie! ‘

As he turned the door knob, there was a knock on the panel and the door pushed open against his hand.

‘They told me to come up, Mr Pacey – about the statement.’

Gerald Ellis-Morgan poked his head around the door and, as he saw Edna Collins standing in the room, a sickly smile spread over his face.

‘Come in, Doctor, will you.’

Pacey’s voice was unusually grim. His habitual air of easy bonhomie had evaporated and he closed the door and stood with his back to it as Gerald moved into the room.

The woman stood with her handbag pressed to her chest, watching the new arrival as if she expected him to whip a revolver from his pocket at any second. Rees stood near to the desk, bewilderment at Gerald’s materialization plain on his face.

‘Er … hello, again.’ Gerald spoke sheepishly to the girl, who continued to stare at him as if petrified.

Pacey came to life, his voice cold and heavy.

‘Dr Ellis-Morgan, I gather that you already know this young lady?’

Gerald, his manner suggesting embarrassment rather than guilt, turned to the superintendent. ‘Er … yes, we bumped into each other in the street just now.’

Pacey spoke slowly, as if to emphasize the importance of his words. ‘But did you know her before then?’

Gerald looked from Pacey to Edna and back again.

‘We had met – briefly. A very long time ago.’

The atmosphere in the room was tense. Rees and the barmaid looked like two springs, coiled ready to fly into action.

Pacey walked towards the doctor, who began to look more and more uncomfortable.

‘And just where was it that you met, sir?’

Gerald’s discomfiture began to change into annoyance. ‘Really, Mr Pacey, I don’t know what’s going on here! I came to sign some statement for you. The fact that I happen to have met this lady a long time ago is no business of yours. I can’t imagine why she’s here, but it’s no concern of mine.’

‘I’m afraid it might well be, Doctor,’ Pacey said tonelessly. ‘I must ask you to answer my questions – and I assure you that it may be very much your business. Now, where and when did you first meet this lady?’

Gerald shrugged resignedly. ‘OK. But I hope you’ll keep my answers to yourself – I would take grave exception to my private life being broadcast. I met the lady – I’m afraid I can’t remember her name – in Cardiff.’

‘Where in Cardiff,’ persisted Pacey inexorably.

‘In a club, as it happens.’ Gerald managed to inject a note of condescension into his voice.

‘Would that be the “Porcupine Club”?’ asked the detective.

‘Yes, it was.’

‘And when were you last there?’

Gerald looked genuinely puzzled. ‘God, I don’t know. Ages ago – must have been about nineteen fifty-four or five – when my brother was working in Cardiff.’

‘And did you ever stay with your brother at his flat near the hospital?’

Gerald began to redden and look angry. ‘What the hell is all this about? You seem to have been doing a great deal of snooping. Was this nonsense about a statement a trick to get me up here?’

Pacey sighed, relaxing his mood slightly. ‘No, as it happens, it was not! Now, please, answer my question. Did you ever use your brother’s flat? And, if so, when?’

Gerald dropped into a chair and slapped his hands on his thighs in exasperation.

‘Why should I answer you? This is an intrusion into my private life. All right. So I did go to a rather offbeat club and I did borrow my brother’s flat for the odd weekend. What’s that got to do with you? What is all this?’

‘You did stay there, then. Was your brother always there? And when was the last time you stayed there?’

Gerald got up again and walked up to Pacey until their noses were almost touching.

‘Look, I do – not – know when I stayed there – it was bloody years ago – but I do know that I’m not going to answer any more damn fool questions!’

‘Doctor, you’re going to answer one more, whether you like it or not. Did you know a girl by the name of Julie Gordon?’

There was a silence as palpable as a concrete wall. Gerald’s already indignantly pink face became even more flushed.

‘I was wondering when you were going to get around to that!’ he said, sarcasm and bitterness in his voice. ‘I suppose it’s almost inevitable, really – a respectable country practitioner isn’t allowed to let his hair down occasionally without risking social suicide. I suppose this is something to do with a blackmail attempt. Is it this woman behind it?’

Pacey shook his head and motioned Rees to the door.

‘Inspector, go out and see if you can catch Dr David Ellis-Morgan before he finishes his shopping. His car is in the yard. Ask him to come up here.’

Rees vanished and Pacey advanced to the middle of the room.

‘I’m sorry, Doctor, but I should advise you not to say anything until your brother comes and you arrange to get a solicitor. You see, I’m afraid that I must formally charge you with the murder of Julie Ann Gordon, in November nineteen fifty-five and caution you that anything you say may be taken down and used in evidence.’