Rafferty & Llewellyn Boxed Set Books 5-8

Chapter Three-4

GALLAGHER HAD BEEN very informative. Rafferty wondered why. He also thought it interesting that he should also confirm that Barstaple had worked late fairly often. Certainly, he had stayed at the office at least once a week till getting on for seven o’clock. It was a direct contradiction of Ada Collins’ evidence. Of course, she had said she usually cleaned the ground floor, so it was possible she had never encountered him. Still, it was curious, and he made a mental note to look further into it.

Rafferty left Gallagher and Llewellyn in the empty office to await the arrival of Alistair Plumley and returned upstairs. The Scene of Crime team were still busy.

As though drawn by an invisible magnet, Rafferty found himself standing in the doorway of Barstaple’s office. He closed his eyes, forced himself to ignore the still-lingering odours as well as the idle comments of the SOCOs, and let the atmosphere of the place seep into him.

Even now, though the Coroner’s Officer had authorised the removal of Barstaple’s body, Rafferty could feel the man’s presence. He didn’t need to read again the many management-speak communications that were pinned to the general noticeboard – each signed by the dead man – to realise that Barstaple had been a tyrant. The evidence had been there in the dead man’s mean little mouth, the close-set eyes, the imperious thrust of the nose: mean, devious, proud—what a combination. No wonder somebody had killed him.

The shame of it was, that added to these lesser qualities must have been a marked intelligence, as well as sufficient courage to set himself up as a freelance. The pity was he had used these attributes to assist asset-stripping bosses. Surely, he thought, he could have found something more worthy to which to apply his talents?

But then he recalled what Hal Gallagher had said. From that, it sounded as if Barstaple had taken a real pride in his work. It was incomprehensible to Rafferty that anyone could take pride in making other people’s lives miserable. Had it never occurred to the man that one of his victims might just turn nasty?

‘Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord. I will repay,’ he muttered, as the voice of his old Religious Instruction teacher echoed back down the years.

‘Not if someone beats Him to it, it’s not,’ one of the SOCO team commented.

Rafferty nodded, smiled an acknowledgement and turned away. It looked like somebody had done just that.