The Reckoning by Rennie Airth Page B

boat – and saw the figure of a man wearing a cap, standing here behind the bench, and something lying on the ground in front of it. That must have been Singleton’s body, but he didn’t recognize it as such. It was just a shape to him.’
    â€˜What about the man behind the bench? Could he describe him?’
    â€˜Hardly.’ Morgan grimaced. ‘He only glanced that way. All he could say was that the fellow was wearing a coat and a cloth cap. It was starting to get dark.’
    â€˜And nobody saw him afterwards?’ Billy received the news with a frown.
    â€˜Not that we know, as yet. Like I say, there weren’t many people around. But we’ll be making an appeal through the newspapers and the radio for anyone who was on the towpath that evening to get in touch with us. Something may come of it. The people who found the body were a couple called Blake.They were walking back into town and they told us they hadn’t met anyone coming in the opposite direction, so it looks as though the killer made his escape into Oxford. The couple stopped by the bench long enough to make sure Singleton was dead, then legged it as fast as they could down to the bridge and across Port Meadow to Jericho, where they knocked on the first door they came to and rang the police. It was another fifteen minutes before the first uniformed officer got here.’
    â€˜Plenty of time for the shooter to get away.’
    â€˜I would say so.’ Morgan shrugged. He bent to pick up a stick from the ground. ‘This Singleton was a schoolmaster, by the way; a history teacher. He and his wife came to live here a couple of years ago after he retired. From all we’ve been able to learn, he didn’t have any enemies; in fact, quite the reverse. Everyone we’ve spoken to seems to have liked him. As soon as I heard about the shooting I thought of that advisory that you fellows sent out last week. It sounded like the same chap to me, and nothing I’ve learned since has changed my opinion.’
    He tossed the stick into the river and watched as it was swept away by the current.
    â€˜And, to tell the truth, I’m praying I’m right. Otherwise I’ll be up duck creek with no paddle to speak of.’
    â€˜I’m sorry, Mrs Singleton. I know how difficult this must be for you. Just a few minutes and then we’ll be done.’
    Morgan paused. He’d been doing all the questioning up till now, and under his gentle probing the dead man’s widow, a woman in her sixties with white hair and eyes the colour of cornflowers, had told them all she could, little though it was. There was no hidden undercurrent to her late husband’s life, no secret that could explain what had occurred. He had been in good spirits when he had left the house to take their dog for its afternoon walk, and her first intimation that all was not wellhad come when the animal had returned alone and she had heard it scratching at the door.
    â€˜She came to the mortuary last night to identify the body,’ Morgan had told Billy on the way over. ‘She used to be a nurse, so it wasn’t the first corpse she’d seen. But you could tell it hit her hard. From what we’ve learned, they were a close couple.’
    The two detectives had driven up from Port Meadow to the Banbury Road, a wide thoroughfare lined with handsome villas, and then turned off it into a narrower street, which had led, after several turns, to the small semi-detached house where the dead man and his wife lived. Before knocking on the door they had sat in the car for a few minutes deciding on their strategy.
    â€˜I’m here to collect information,’ Billy had told his colleague. ‘Yard case or not, this is still your inquiry and, considering the way these shootings are spread around the country, I can’t see us being able to do more than coordinate the investigations. But I do have a couple of questions to put to Mrs