Free The Hanging Tree by Geraldine Evans Page A

accepted
that there would be a fair few balls-ups during the changeover period. And
there were.'
    Rafferty nodded again. He remembered some of them.
    'Not, from my understanding that things are any better today; the CPS is
still largely staffed by inexperienced, not so bright graduates. The clever
ones mostly go into private Chambers. Can't blame them, I suppose, it's much
better paid.
    'The CPS still tends to get either the idealistic ones like Ms Osbourne,
or the ones who couldn't get accepted in Chambers. Admittedly, this was a
completely new service with many jobs to fill, and they perhaps couldn't afford
to be too particular if they wanted to get the show on the road.' He directed a
sour grin at Rafferty. 'Much like the police force in the seventies, when they
accepted anyone who could walk and talk.'
    Rafferty flushed. He had joined in the seventies and he wondered whether
Stubbs was having a dig at him. However, as Stubbs showed no inclination to
dwell on the subject, he decided he wasn't.
    'Anyway, they managed to make me the fall guy. I'd made too many waves
over too many years, made it obvious too often how I felt about my superiors. I
was five years off retirement, I was expendable. Not Ms Osbourne, though. She's
gone from strength to strength. I often wondered if she'd been warming old
Stimpson's arthritic bones. She's Chief Crown Prosecutor on your manor, now,'
he told Rafferty. 'Who'd have thought she'd rise so high from such beginnings?'
    Rafferty stared. 'You mean your Ms Osbourne and Elizabeth Probyn are one
and the same?' My God, he thought, just managing to bite back the sardonic
grin, she must have put her back into the job of keeping that quiet.
    Stubbs nodded. 'I've kept tabs on her. Masochistic, I know, but..'
    Rafferty said nothing, but he found himself wondering again who else
Stubbs had kept tabs on from that time? The name of Maurice Smith came to mind.
    'Changed her name when she got married, though she stuck to the Ms bit.'
Stubbs gave them another sour grin. 'You ask her about the Smith case and watch
her squirm.'
    Stubbs stood at
his doorway and watched them walk away as though he wanted to be sure they
left. Rafferty glanced at Llewellyn as they turned the corner to where they had
parked the car. 'You realise we'll have to check his movements, ex-copper or no
ex-copper?'
    Llewellyn nodded.
    'God knows he had motive enough. He had the means to find out Smith's
address. If we discover he also had the opportunity...' Rafferty didn't
finished the sentence. Llewellyn knew as well as he how difficult it would be
to get evidence against an experienced ex-copper. If Stubbs had killed Smith
he'd have been well able to cover his tracks. He'd made no attempt to hide his
bitterness. He'd seemed almost to flaunt it, challenging them to make a case
against him.
    'What about the other officers on the case? Thompson, for instance?'
    'They'll have to be checked out, too.'
    The prospect of investigating fellow officers was a depressing one for
both of them and silence fell until they had reached the Elmhurst road and
Rafferty stopped at a red light.
    'Let's disregard the police suspects for the moment,' he said. 'What if
Smith was killed by one of the victims or their parents? It might have taken
them this long to track him down, especially as he not only changed his name
but also moved twice since he left Burleigh. Hiring an investigator costs
money, and, for an ordinary person finding Smith would be like looking for a
needle in a haystack.' But not for a policeman, he thought again.
    'True,' said Llewellyn. 'But I feel even his victims and their families
would surely need some other spur to act after all this time. Heightened
emotions don't stay heightened indefinitely; like the passions of love, the
passions of hate have a course to run. The first flickers, the growing heat,
the all-engulfing flames, the dying embers, and finally cold ashes.'
    Astonished by his sergeant's sudden and poetical verbosity,