Free The First Rule Of Survival by Paul Mendelson

door rise. Parked more or less in the middle of the double width space is a small white Toyota with fading paintwork. Don checks that the numberplates match those in the traffic report.
    ‘Please open the boot of your car.’
    Ledham walks around his car, finds the correct key and opens the boot. It is lined with newspaper. De Vries lifts the paper and looks underneath. The blue carpet is faded, but otherwise clean.
    ‘Why the papers?’
    Ledham clucks. ‘I went to the garden centre. The man who carried my plants laid it in there. They always do that.’
    De Vries nods, opens the passenger side door and peers in. The back seat is clean apart from a scattering of dead leaves.
    ‘All right,’ he says. ‘We’ll come back inside again now.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘I haven’t finished my questions, Mr Ledham. You said you didn’t want to talk outside. We can talk here if you prefer?’
    ‘No,’ Ledham replies. ‘We’ll go back to the lounge.’ He locks the car, exits the garage and operates the electric door to close it. He re-opens the front door and walks in ahead of them, places his keys back in the saucer, and re-takes his seat as before.
    De Vries sits down on the sofa, next to Don. There is silence, until Ledham twists around and faces them.
    ‘What now? I’ve answered all your questions. You’ve seen my car. You know full well I have nothing to do with your inquiry.’
    ‘Why do I know that?’
    Ledham lowers his voice. ‘If you have read my file, you would have seen that my . . . proclivities used,’ he emphasizes the word, ‘
used
. . . to lie elsewhere.’
    ‘Where?’ de Vries asks blankly.
    ‘Girls, Colonel. I have always admired young girls. No doubt like half the male population of the country.’
    ‘But they don’t kidnap them and hold them against their will.’
    Ledham narrows his eyes. ‘You would be surprised at the will of the young. Some of them know exactly what they want, and society feels very challenged by that, I can tell you.’
    ‘You have a computer?’ de Vries asks.
    ‘No.’
    ‘No computer?’
    ‘That’s what I said.’
    ‘Mind if we take a look around your house, Mr Ledham?’
    ‘Yes, I do. I have certain rights of privacy. If you want to search my house, produce a warrant with good cause, otherwise no.’
    ‘Fair enough. If you’d prefer we arrest you and take you into town for twenty-four hours, we can do it that way.’
    ‘Arrest me? On what charge?’
    De Vries leans into Ledham’s face. ‘Because you’ve lied, Mr Ledham. Some of what you’ve told me is true, and some of it isn’t. When you tell me what I want to know, maybe we’ll leave you in the peace you so obviously desire. Until then, here in your home or in my cellblock, I’m right in your face.’
    Vaughn looks at Ledham’s pale hands, liver-spotted and quivering. Ledham sees him watching, meshes them.
    ‘About what, exactly, do you think I’m lying?’
    Vaughn snorts. ‘You want my party trick? It’s not very impressive when I am so good at sniffing out a big fat lie, and you are such a total godawful amateur liar.’
    Ledham recoils in his seat, colour in his bland cheeks. De Vries takes up his stance facing Ledham, his back to the window.
    ‘When you drove to Greyton last Tuesday, where did you stop?’
    ‘I told you – the mini-mall and MacNeil’s. And at your road-block. I told you.’
    Vaughn studies him. ‘What did you buy at the mini-mall?’
    ‘Snacks.’
    ‘What snacks?’
    ‘I don’t remember that.’
    ‘A drink, sandwiches maybe?’
    ‘Yes, I suppose so.’
    ‘A hot pie?’
    ‘Yes, a hot pie. A pepper steak pie . . .’ He trails off. ‘No – at MacNeil’s.’ Ledham stops suddenly, realizes his mistake even before de Vries spells it out.
    ‘You see, Mr Ledham, when you stopped near Tallons, it was for another reason, wasn’t it?’ de Vries stares him down. ‘Where did you go in Somerset West? You stopped somewhere near Tallons, but why?’
    He sees Ledham quiver,