The Saint Valentine's Day Murders by Ruth Dudley Edwards

night.’
    ‘You’ll do no such thing, Robert. She specifically told me to say that she was delighted to be able to help and you’re not to ring her up unless you want her. All this is bad enough without you falling into a state of abjection because you showed the weakness of a normal human being.’ He turned to Rachel, who was emanating approval of this robust approach. ‘How long are you staying?’
    ‘Till Sunday.’
    ‘And your plans, Robert?’
    ‘I’ll stay away from the office until Monday. Apart from anything else, I’ve got to go to four funerals, if they don’t clash.’
    ‘They won’t,’ said Milton, tossing across a piece of paper. ‘Chaps from the local forces have been liaising with the families to make sure they’ll at least have the consolation of as big a turn-out as possible. If you look at that list you’ll see that you can make all of them between Thursday morning and Saturday afternoon.’
    ‘You’re getting through the post-mortems pretty fast, then.’ The choking note in Amiss’s voice caused Milton and Rachel to look at each other in alarm. They were thankful at the interruption caused by Pike’s arrival with bottle and glasses. As he poured the wine Amiss said, ‘Not for me, thanks. I made enough of a fool of myself last night.’
    ‘Robert,’ said Milton evenly. ‘I came here because I thought you might be able to help me. I did not expect that you were going to indulge yourself by acting like a cross between chief mourner and self-flagellator. I have on my hands two widowers, one widow and a pair of bereaved parents. Additionally, I have to contend with co-ordinating the work of three separate police forces, dealing with a popular press that has gone delirious with excitement and incidentally trying to find the reptile responsible for this mayhem. I understand your distress, but I need you to rise above it and give me the kind of support you gave me when we first met. I want information – not remorse.’ As their eyes met, Rachel looked on and wondered whether this tactic would prove to be kill or cure.
    Amiss’s eyes dropped first. He leaned back in his armchair, stretched out his legs, pushed his hands through his hair and looked at Milton again. ‘It’s Charlie,’ he said finally. ‘I can’t get him out of my head.’
    ‘I know you were fond of him. But no one else thought of him either – even those who had worked with him for a damn sight longer than you. It was the most natural thing in the world to think this whole nightmare was confined to PD. Think of how you’d be feeling if you hadn’t made the connection in the first place. Or made it and been too self-doubting to risk making a fool of yourself. You must realize that ninety-nine people out of a hundred would have thought the idea too far-fetched and would have let the whole thing go.’
    Pike, who was standing by with two plates of sandwiches, intervened unexpectedly. ‘That’s right, sir. That Information Officer. He thought you were daft at first. Would usually have taken a lot more convincing, but said you seemed to know what you were talking about.’
    ‘Middle-class confidence,’ said Rachel.
    Amiss smiled wanly and stubbed out his tenth cigarette of the morning. ‘I’m grateful to all of you and I’ll try to be positive.’ He reached forward, helped himself to a glass of wine and raised it in the direction of Milton. ‘To another successful collaboration.’
    ‘That’s the spirit,’ said Milton approvingly, as they all drank the toast. ‘I’m only on this case because of you. It took long enough to persuade the local forces that the Yard had to direct this, and my superiors only put me on it because they were impressed by what you had done and I admitted to being a friend of yours. My Chief Superintendent has helped by being out of action with a broken leg.’
    ‘What have you established so far?’
    ‘The preliminary pathology reports indicate that all four victims died of a