Read Online Gently Down the Stream by Alan Hunter - Free Book Online Page A

would expect!’
    ‘It struck me that the other view was the cynical one … but we’d be all day arguing about it!’
    He felt in his baggy pocket and pulled out a small package, which he laid on the table. Hansom rocked back out of a fit of ennui to examine it. But Gently left it wrapped up in front of him.
    ‘Well … we’d better check off that motorbike ride of yours, I suppose. Why aren’t you at Cambridge, by the way?’
    ‘I was sick. Mother wanted me at home.’
    ‘You look all right now. When did you come home?’
    ‘Last Saturday week … she sent the car for me.’
    ‘Did you see your father?’
    ‘No. I didn’t get here till tea-time.’
    ‘Right you are … now tell me about the ride.’
    Paul Lammas straddled his feet on the deep-piled carpet and launched into his account without hesitation. He had spent the day lying in the hammock in the garden. After tea he had felt restless and had got out his motorcycle. At first he had thought of going to the coast, but it was getting a bit crowded at this time of theyear, so instead he struck inland. He gave rough details of his route. He had set out at about seven and got back at about a quarter to ten. He had been as far as Cheapham, which was thirty miles away.
    Gently jotted down some figures.
    ‘It gives you an overall average speed of about twenty-two miles an hour … did you stop for a drink, or were you just taking it easy?’
    ‘I was riding for pleasure, not trying to break my neck. You know what the side roads are like.’
    ‘But you didn’t stop for a drink or anything like that?’
    ‘No, I didn’t stop for a drink. I am not in the habit of drinking at public houses.’
    Gently clicked his tongue. ‘And you a poet, too! But you remembered your route well.’
    ‘I happen to know the roads around here.’
    ‘Then you’ll be able to go through it again … on this Ordnance Survey.’
    He pulled open the package which had so much intrigued Hansom. It contained a brand-new one-inch OS map of the district.
    ‘Here we are … where we’re sitting … and there’s Cheapham over on the other side. Now you can show us properly, Mr Lammas.’
    The young man came up to the table slowly but quite confidently. He picked up Gently’s pencil as though to demonstrate his complete unconcern. If there was a slight hesitation at this fork or that, it was no more than might be expected of one retracing the precise route of a casual evening run.
    ‘There you are – as near as I remember.’
    ‘Thank you, Mr Lammas … it must have been a pleasant little ride.’
    ‘I pride myself on knowing the quieter parts of Northshire.’
    ‘I see you took the Tackston road … I’ve an idea I went fishing there many years ago. Did you see any anglers as you crossed the bridge on Friday?’
    ‘There were two or three. I stopped on the bridge to watch them.’
    ‘Were they having good sport?’
    ‘I suppose so. I wasn’t there long.’
    Gently sighed and brought something else out of his pocket.
    ‘Here,’ he said, ‘why don’t you read your papers? They started demolishing that bridge a week ago … the Tackston road has been closed since Monday.’
    Paul Lammas flushed violently and dropped the pencil from his fingers.
    ‘You’re trying to trap me – that’s what you’re doing! Mother warned me what you would do—!’
    ‘Mrs Lammas warned you?’ Gently’s eyebrows rose. ‘Have you been discussing what story you should tell us?’
    ‘It isn’t a story!’
    His voice rose to a scream.
    ‘I can’t remember exactly – why should I remember? I wasn’t thinking what I was doing just riding along with my mind a blank!’
    ‘Then why did you pretend to remember?’
    ‘To satisfy you! That’s all – that’s why! I knew you wouldn’t be satisfied if I said I didn’t remember. It’sbeyond your comprehension to understand that one may be doing a banal thing like riding a motorcycle, with one’s mind miles away. So I had a guess at it. I