AFTER RETURNING TO the police station, Llewellyn went back out again to speak to the farmer and Rafferty took himself off to the public library. An hour later, he sat back and stared at the front page story on the library's microfiche. What Rita Colman had said hadn't been just the malicious tittle-tattle of an embittered woman, as he had suspected. Two and a half years earlier, Barbara Longman had accused Charles Shore's chemical firm of deliberately discharging chemicals into the River Tiffey. Her accusation hadn't been substantiated and Shore had denied it. But, strangely, he hadn't sued her for slander, libel, defamation or anything else, which Rafferty felt was uncharacteristically forgiving of him.
Rafferty paged forward over issues covering the following months, but there were no f
