Free Tom Brown's Body by Gladys Mitchell Page A

latter were ignored, although tactfully, by the Superintendent. The former received consideration.
    'Your bicycle, you say, sir? What makes you think it had been tampered with?'
    'As soon as I heard of the crime, I set to work to search my premises.'
    'Exactly with what object, may I ask, sir?'
    'With no particular object. Simply as a precautionary measure.'
    'What precautions did you need to take, sir?'
    'Come, come, Superintendent. I merely wanted to make certain, I suppose, that my House could present a clean slate.'
    'Had you any reason to suppose it would not have been able to do so, sir?'
    'No, no, of course not! But there it is. One's natural anxieties as a schoolmaster are not easily grasped by the public.'
    'I see, sir. You searched your premises and discovered that someone had tampered with your bicycle. I need hardly remind you, sir, that this piece of evidence may be of the utmost importance. Mr Kay heard a bicycle going past his cottage at a time when no bicycle, so far as we can find out, had any reason to be doing so. What led you to suppose that your machine had been used, sir?'
    'Well,' said Mr Loveday judicially, 'I think – perhaps I had better confine myself to that verb – I think that my tyres were in perfect order when last I used the bicycle, but there is no doubt that the back tyre has now sustained a severe puncture. My knife-and-boot boy – an expert in his way – has diagnosed the rent in the outer cover as having been caused by a large nail.'
    'Indeed, sir? May I ask how long it is since you yourself used the machine?'
    'Oh, I could hardly say. In 1945, perhaps.'
    The Superintendent shook his head.
    'Unless you've more evidence than that to offer me, sir, I'm afraid I could scarcely regard it as certain that your bicycle had been used.'
    'I applaud your caution, Superintendent. My additional evidence is that my knife-and-boot boy swears that the machine was not where he left it; also, I myself can declare to having seen three sets of tyre marks on the dust of the floor in the shed where the bicycle is stored, proving that it had, at any rate, been moved.'
    'Interesting, sir, and I don't say not valuable. But perhaps I could speak to the servant in question later on, and also have a look at the machine.'
    'Of course,' said Mr Loveday. 'Still, one cannot quite believe that the miscreant who killed poor Conway would have required to cycle to the School gate and back. It is not a very great distance.'
    The Superintendent agreed, and recalled Mr Kay.
    'Look here,' Mr Kay began angrily.
    'There is just one point, sir,' said the Superintendent smoothly. 'It seems you heard this bicycle going past your windows at, roughly, nine-fifteen. Now, sir, when did you hear that bicycle coming back?'
    'Not at all. Besides, you are assuming that it was going away from School when I heard it. I simply heard it pass, that's all. For all I know, it might have been going towards the School.'
    'I take it that you remained in your cottage from then on, sir?'
    'Certainly,' said Mr Kay, showing no hesitation and looking the Superintendent firmly in the eye.
    'You are quite sure, sir?'
    'Of course I'm sure! What do you take me for? – a cat on the tiles?'
    The Superintendent, who, so far, had left all note-taking to the sergeant, now discomfited the witness by taking out his own notebook from some secret pocket and recording this answer in longhand.
    'I should wish you to read that over, sir,' he said impressively, 'and sign it, if you will be so good.' He offered the notebook to the Schoolmaster. Mr Kay made no attempt to take it.
    'I shan't sign anything whatsoever,' he said flatly, 'except in the presence of a solicitor. You can't make me do so, and I protest at being asked.'
    'Very good, sir. Perhaps you would just give me your opinion, then, by word of mouth, that I have written down your words as you would wish them to be used in evidence.'
    'If you are charging me, you had better do so in a proper manner,' said Mr