Free Sight Unseen by Robert Goddard

turned out, Umber had more time to prepare his excuses than he thought. When he reached the Ivy House, he was handed a note from Sharp. Have gone to Devizes. Back later. As messages went, it was less than illuminating.
    * * *
    Wiltshire Constabulary Headquarters was in Devizes. That fact, once quarried from Umber's memory, lodged stubbornly at the fore of his thoughts as he awaited Sharp's return. Eventually, he quit the hotel in search of dinner. On his way back from the restaurant he wandered into the Green Dragon, a quiet, smoky pub, where he sat by the fire with a pint and did his level best not to imagine what conspiracy theories Nevinson might concoct if he knew of Sharp's unannounced journey. This exercise in mental discipline was itself partly designed to prevent his dwelling on Nevinson's absurd notion that Sally had been murdered. Down that road, Umber feared, lay his own brand of madness.
    At some point he remembered, to his irritation, a question he had meant to put to Nevinson. What had he wanted to show Jeremy Hall at the Adam and Eve stones that day in July 1981? It was a magnifying glass Umber had seen flash in the sunlight. He knew that because he had noticed it clutched in Nevinson's hand as they stood together at the roadside. But what had he been using the glass for? What had he been looking at? Marks on one of the stones that he believed were Martian runes, in all likelihood, but--
    'There you are, Umber.' George Sharp loomed suddenly into view. 'This is the third pub I've tried. Want a half in there?'
    Taken aback as much by Sharp's unwonted jollity as his unheralded arrival, Umber mumbled his thanks and struggled to order his thoughts while Sharp bought the drinks. The pub was far from busy, however. Sharp was back within a couple of minutes.
    'I've missed the Wadworth's up in Derbyshire,' he announced, taking a deep swallow of 6X as he sat down. 'But it must be nectar for you after that gnat's piss you've had to make do with in Prague.'
    'Was it the beer that took you to Devizes, George? The brewery's there, isn't it?'
    'Very funny. I actually went to meet an old pal of mine. Johnny Rawlings. Just about the last serving police officer I still know. He's winding down to retirement with a desk job at Headquarters. He's the only one there I can be sure will do his best to help rather than hinder and will keep quiet into the bargain. I wanted to bend his ear about the Radd case. But we'll get back to what he told me later. What did you glean from Percy Nevinson?'
    'What I gleaned was that his choice of fruit cake to sop up his tea was all too appropriate. He's convinced Tamsin was taken by government agents to frighten him into silence about his theory explaining the Martian origins of Avebury.'
    'Still stuck in that groove, is he?'
    'Never likely to emerge from it, as far as I can see.'
    'So, like I said, a nutter.'
    'Fully paid-up.'
    'Unless
    'Are you going to suggest it's all camouflage, George? A plan to have us think him a nutter when he's really... what, exactly? A co-conspirator of Tamsin's abductors?'
    'You obviously don't think that's what he is.'
    'No. I don't.'
    'Then we'll agree to put him on the back burner for the time being. Not off the stove altogether, mind. I mean to keep my eye on him. Now, as for Johnny Rawlings --'
    'Why didn't you tell me you were going to see him?'
    'Oh, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. You were busy with the Man from Mars. I thought I ought to keep busy myself. Besides, I've been planning to drop in on Johnny. It was just a question of timing. I contacted him before I went to Prague, as a matter of fact. Asked a favour of him. Reckoned it wasn't too soon to check if he'd been able to swing it for me. When I phoned, he was up for an after-work pint, so I drove straight over.'
    'What was the favour?'
    'Two favours, really. One, the low-down on Radd's confession. Was it solicited? Was there a deal?'
    'You said there couldn't have been.'
    'Well, it seems I was