Gently to the Summit Read Free Page A

know.
    ‘That started it. I went to Llanberis directly. In a couple of hours we had Kincaid properly taped. He’d been making inquiries about his wife – that’s the story he tells, anyway – and he’d given his name and some particulars at a boarding-house he’d inquired at. Then he was remembered at the Snowdon Café, where they packed him some sandwiches, and was seen heading up the street towards where the Llanberis track begins. Toround it off he returned at four and took a local hire-car back to Caernarvon. He was dropped at the Bangor Hotel, where he had booked for two nights.’
    Gently asked: ‘Did anyone notice how he was dressed?’
    ‘Oh yes. He was wearing a tweed jacket and slacks.’
    ‘The same as Heslington described?’
    ‘Well … the slacks must have been lovat. But he had on a brown jacket, and I found the clothes at his hotel here.’
    ‘What’s his story?’
    ‘He admits he was there all right. Couldn’t very well deny it, in the face of the evidence. I came up here yesterday as fast as I could, and I had a long talk with him down at Bow Street Station.’
    ‘Where did he say he went?’
    ‘Not up Snowdon, you can bet your life! No, a nice lonely scramble up to the Devil’s Kitchen. I’ve given Llanberis a tinkle to have them check his story. There might have been climbers from Ogwen who can give him the lie.’
    ‘So you’ve no independent testimony to show he actually climbed Snowdon?’
    ‘Wait a minute!’ Evans ventured a wink. ‘You’re getting along too fast. Of course, I made some inquiries at the bottom of the track, and I’ve two witnesses who saw someone like him going up at about half-past ten.’
    ‘Would that fit in?’
    ‘It couldn’t be better for us. Like that he would arrive there around twenty minutes before Heslington.’
    ‘How good is the identification?’
    ‘Well, I admit it might be stronger. They only saw him through their windows, and the houses stand back, like. But then I’ve a separate witness who saw him coming down again. There isn’t much doubt, man. I had to charge him on the facts.’
    ‘Mmn.’ Gently scratched a match. ‘And you showed him the cigarette-case?’
    ‘Of course. And it shook him. He pretended he couldn’t remember it.’
    ‘Is that snapshot anything like him?’
    ‘It might have been him at one time. They’re going to blow it up for me and try a superimposing job.’
    The Assistant Commissioner removed his glasses and gave them a polish with a handkerchief. He beamed from one to the other. ‘So now you see, Gently,’ he said. ‘As long as Kincaid is Kincaid we’ve got a good fighting case; but if he isn’t, then our best evidence is tantamount to irrelevant. It doesn’t matter that we can show he was up that mountain. It doesn’t matter that we can show he was standing on the cairn. We’ve got to show that he had a motive for shoving Fleece over the edge, otherwise his defence can write it off as an accident.’
    Gently reached for the cigarette-case. ‘This is a paradox in itself, of course …
    ‘How do you mean, Gently?’ The Assistant Commissioner shot him a quick look.
    ‘Well … if Kincaid isn’t Kincaid, how did he come by this case? And if Kincaid is Kincaid, where did he get it from?’
    The A.C. swung his glasses for a moment. Then hesaid: ‘Yes … I take your point. The first involves us in a wild coincidence; the second in a wild improbability. It’s difficult to believe that a mere hoaxer could have acquired the case, and even more difficult to believe that Kincaid would still possess it. In the first place he would hardly have taken it with him up Everest. It’s solid silver and weighty. He’d have left it behind.’
    ‘Just so.’ Gently took a sight down his pipe at the trinket. ‘And that leaves the situation rather open, don’t you agree? He left it behind – a likely souvenir for some other member of the party. And they were each and all of them on Snowdon when, or soon