Free Killer in the Shade by Piers Marlowe

doom. ‘The fuzz will climb through their own skulls when they find the prints of another dead man on it.’
    The soft laughter that followed the words made Rollo feel sick. Not for himself. For Carol.
    He had failed her.

Chapter 5
    Bill Hazard shared an uneasy glance between the two visitors sitting in Frank Drury’s office at Scotland Yard. Drury was in the canteen, imbibing tea and working on some notes. He had left his assistant to make the running, though at the moment Hazard was more inclined to crawl.
    He had listened through Tom Moore’s story of how he had been knocked down in the warehouse in Little Venice, but had come to and managed to escape by dropping from a window into the canal. He had swum to a houseboat, where he had been helped aboard, allowed to dry out, and given hot tea and toast by a woman who more than half suspected him of being drunk.
    He had phoned Dick Temple, who had got on to Mellie Smallwood. The meeting at the Yard had been set up in a hurry and Hazard had done his job ofmonitoring the news for his chief.
    â€˜You’ve stuck your neck out, Tom,’ he said gloomily.
    â€˜Just don’t let Drury chop through it, Bill. That’s all I ask. We weren’t meddling. We were trying to find a client who hasn’t officially been reported missing. Okay?’
    â€˜I’ll see.’ Hazard looked at the girl, who stared back at him as though he was transparent. He wanted to tell her she shouldn’t wear mauve bell-bottom slacks because they did the wrong thing for hips hidden by a purple jersey coat. And he wasn’t much taken by the chrome chain she wore, which joined a piece of twisted wrought-iron gate ornament, or so it seemed, just where the purple joined the mauve. ‘But no promises,’ he added, rising.
    As he entered the canteen Frank Drury looked up from the foolscap sheet of writing in front of him.
    â€˜Well?’ he asked.
    â€˜You’d better take over.’
    â€˜Tell me why, Bill, and make it short.’
    Hazard sat down without bothering tocollect a cup of tea and told Drury what he had learned.
    â€˜All right, now I know, Bill,’ Drury said. ‘But not why I should talk to Moore — or the girl.’
    â€˜Here’s the reason. While Moore was on the house-boat he saw that old warehouse start to smoke. Then the flames rose from it. When he pulled out the fire brigade wasn’t winning a tough contest.’
    â€˜So?’
    â€˜So he thinks Hackley’s remains could be under that hot pile of crumbling brick.’
    Frank Drury filled his lungs with stale air flavoured with long dead cigarette smoke, rose, and picked up his foolscap sheet of writing.
    â€˜I’ll see him, Bill, but I’m getting choked with the damned complications opened up by bloody busybodies. If I’m not satisfied I’m warning Dick Temple to lay off. Does he know that?’
    â€˜He knows. It’s why he’s here and why he brought the girl.’
    â€˜That could be a clever way to makeit look good. Don’t forget he knows the ropes, so he’ll use them to keep from falling flat on his face. Come on, then.’ As Bill Hazard rose to follow him Drury waved him back. ‘Stay and have a cup of char. We can compare notes later. Besides, I don’t want you letting Tom off the hook. This is no time for the old pals’ act.’
    Seven minutes later, minus his foolscap sheet, Drury walked into his own office and sat down facing the pair expecting him.
    â€˜Bill’s put me in the picture. Now, first. You’re sure it was Peel you followed?’
    â€˜It looked like him.’
    â€˜The world’s full of people who look like other folk.’ Drury wasn’t giving an inch.
    â€˜All right, so we followed someone who looked like Peel, the uncle of a client. If you want to start checking,’ Moore said, ‘you know where Vince Pallard can be found.’
    â€˜That’s the