Killer in the Shade Read Free Page A

velvet, was a collection of nearly a dozen knives and daggers, ranging from thin-bladed stilettos to a large curved kris. There was one space unfilled. It was in the center of the collection.
    â€˜Would you say that is where the weapon came from, Doctor?’ Drury asked without turning his head to look at the man he addressed.
    â€˜It would seem so.’
    â€˜Yet the cabinet’s locked.’
    Cadman said nothing. Drury looked at him, and the doctor again experienced that feeling of not being trusted by the detective.
    â€˜You saw no one leave, did you?’ Drury asked.
    â€˜No one.’
    â€˜Nor anyone hurrying along the road as you turned the corner?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Strange,’ said Drury. ‘Damned strange. Wouldn’t you agree, Doctor?’
    â€˜I’m not a detective,’ Cadman said, and disliked the sound of the defensive note in his own voice.
    Drury gave him that sardonic smile he was coming to know.
    â€˜That’s right, Doctor, you’re not.’
    â€˜In that case, perhaps you don’t need me any more.’
    Drury nodded. ‘Not at the moment, Dr Cadman, and thank you for your assistance. I shall want a formal statement from you later. In the meantime, salvage what you can of the night. Nothing else you’ve thought of?’
    The question came as Cadman was on the point of turning back to the hall and leaving. He jerked to a halt as though struck a physical blow.
    What made the superintendent ask that question? Had he seen the girl in the front garden?
    He recovered quickly and turned to say, ‘Only that I’ve been expecting your — what are they called? — technical crew. You know, fingerprint men and suchlike. They haven’t turned up.’
    â€˜They’ll be along, Doctor. Usually I prefer to have a look round first without too many people in the way. Besides, I hate getting graphite on my fingers.’
    Dr Cadman nodded again and left. He walked at an even pace to his car and did not look to right or left while leaving the front garden. He felt guilty at keeping from Drury the fact that he had recognized his nephew’s fiancée at a most improbable hour darting like a phantom from bush to bush in the front garden of a house where only a short while before a man had been stabbed to death.
    As he drove along Croft Avenue his mind was troubled for a number of sharply conflicting reasons.
    Behind him in Holly Lawn he left a puzzled Frank Drury scowling at the broad back of Bill Hazard as the big inspector fingered his way through the contents of an open wardrobe.
    â€˜I just asked him if he’d thought of anything else, and he jerked to a stop as though I’d shot him,’ Drury said, a man puzzled by something he had witnessed that he could not explain. ‘What the hell do you make of that, Bill?’
    â€˜He may have thought of something that had nothing to do with this killing, but your words reminded him,’ saidHazard, continuing with his search.
    â€˜No, he turned to say he’d expected to see what he called our technical crew arrive. I saw his face. It was a put-off. He’d thought of something and was covering up. I can’t think why.’
    There was the sound of a car pulling in to the kerb in the street and the double slam of car doors.
    Bill Hazard looked over his shoulder.
    â€˜Here they are. I’d better get an ambulance moving in this direction.’
    â€˜Yes, do that,’ Drury nodded, ‘and then look up Dr John Cadman in the directory and take a note of his number.’

Chapter 2
    Dr John Cadman was finishing his favourite breakfast of bacon, egg, and tomato at a few minutes to eight. He made it a rule not to allow late-night calls to interfere with his daily routine and enjoyed as a consequence the reputation of a G.P. who did not rush his surgery hours.
    His wife, still a pretty woman after twenty years of marriage to a husband who had broken nights,