Rage - Smith Wilbur (читать книги онлайн без сокращений .TXT) 📗
The policeman was lean as ever, but he had lost most of his hair and what remained was ice white. There were dark pouches beneath his eyes and after his welcoming smile his mouth settled back into a thin nervous line. He looked like a man who worried a lot, worked too hard and slept badly at night. He must be past retirement age, Shasa thought.
'How's the family - your wife?" Shasa asked. He had met her only once or twice and could not remember her name or what she looked like.
'We were divorced five years ago." 'I'm sorry,' Shasa said, and Louis shrugged.
'It was bad at the time.". Then he leaned forward. 'Your family you have three boys and a girl. That's right?" 'Ah! You have been doing a police number on me,' Shasa smiled, but Louis did not respond. His expression remained serious as he went on.
'Your eldest son - his name is Sean. That's right, isn't it?" Shasa nodded, he was no longer smiling either, and he was seized by a sudden presentiment.
'You want to speak to me about Sean?" he asked softly.
Louis stood up abruptly and crossed to the window. He was looking down into the street as he answered.
'This is off the record, Shasa. Not the way we usually do things, but there are extraordinary factors here. Our past association, your present rank --' He turned back from the window. 'In the usual circumstances this would probably not have been brought to my notice at all, at least not at this stage of the investigation." The word 'investigation' startled Shasa, and he wanted Louis to give him the bad news and get it over with but he controlled his agitation and impatience and waited quietly.
'For some time now we have been troubled by a series of housebreakings in the better-class suburbs - you have surely read about them. The press are calling the thief the "Cape Raffles"." 'Of course,' Shasa nodded. 'Some of my friends, good friends, have been the victims - the Simpsons, the Westons. Mark Weston lost his collection of gold coins." 'And Mrs Simpson lost her emeralds,' Louis Nel agreed. 'Some of those emeralds, the earrings, were recovered when we raided a fence in District Six. We were acting on a tip-off and we recovered an enormous quantity of stolen articles. We arrested the fence - he's a coloured chap who was running an electrical business in the front of his premises and receiving stolen goods through the back door. We have had him locked up for two weeks now, and he is beginning to cooperate. He gave us a list or names, and on it was one lovable little rogue named Rufus Constantine, ever heard of him?" Shasa shook his head. 'How does this link up with my son?" 'I'm coming to that. This Constantine was apparently the one who passed the emeralds and some of the other booty. We picked him up and brought him in forquestioning. He is a tough little monkey, but we found a way to open him up and make him sing to us. Unfortunately the tune wasn't very pretty." 'Sean?" Shasa asked, and Louis nodded.
'I'm afraid so. Looks as though he was the leader of an organized gang." 'It doesn't make sense. Not Sean." 'Your son has built up quite a reputation." 'He was a little wild at one time,' Shasa admitted, 'but he is settling down to his articles now, working hard. And why would he want to get involved in something like that? I mean, he doesn't need the money." 'Articled clerks are not paid a great fortune." 'I give him an allowance,' Shasa shook his head again. 'No, I don't believe it. What would he know about house-breaking?" 'Oh, no - he doesn't do it himself. He sets up the job and Rufus and his henchman do the dirty work." 'Sets it up - what do you mean by that?" 'As a son of yours he is welcome in any home in the city, that is right, isn't it?" 'I suppose so." Shasa was cautious.
'According to little Rufus, your son studies each prospective victim's home, decides on what valuables there are and pinpoints where they are kept - strong rooms, hidden drawers, wall safes and that sort of thing. Then he begins an affair with one of the family, the mother or a daughter, and uses his opportunities to let his accomplice into the home while he is entertaining the lady of his choice upstairs." Shasa stared at him wordlessly.
'By all accounts it works very well, and in more than one case the theft was not even reported to us - the ladies involved were more concerned with their reputations and their husband's wrath than with the loss of their jewellery." 'Marge Weston?" Shasa asked. 'She was one of the ladies?" 'According to our information - yes, she was." Shasa whispered, 'The little bastard." He was appalled, and totally convinced. It all fitted too neatly not to be true. Marge and Sean, his son and one of his mistresses, it was just not to be tolerated. 'This time he has gone too far." 'Yes,' Louis agreed. 'Too far by a mile. Even as a first offender, he will probably get five or six years." All Shasa's attention snapped back to him. The shock to Shasa's pride and sense of propriety was such that he had not even begun to consider the legal implications, but now his righteous rage was snuffed out at the suggestion of his eldest son standing in the dock and being sentenced to long-term imprisonment.
'Have you prepared a docket yet?" he asked. 'Is there a warrant out?" 'Not yet." Louis was speaking as carefully. 'We were only given this information a few hours ago." He crossed to his desk and picked up the blue interrogation folder.
'What can I do?" Shasa asked quietly. 'Is there anything we can do 'I've done all I can,' Louis answered. 'I've done too much alread, I could never justify holding up this information, nor could I justii informing you of an investigation in progress. I've already stretche my neck way out, Shasa. We go back a long way, and I'll never forget the work you did on White Sword - that's the only reason took the chance --' he paused to take a deep breath, and Shas sensing there was more to come, remained silent. 'There is nothin else I can do. Nothing else anyone can do at this level." " ' He place peculiar emphasis on the last three words, and then he added seem ir/gly incongruously, 'I'm retiring next month, there'll be someore else in this office after that." 'How long do I have?" Shasa asked, and he did not have to elabor.
ate. They understood each other.
'I can sit on this file for another few hours, until five o'clock today, and then the investigation will have to go ahead." Shasa stood up. 'You are a good friend." 'I'll walk you down,' Louis said, and they were alone in the lift before they spoke again. It had taken Shasa that long to master his perturbation.
'I hadn't thought about White Sword for years,' he changed the subject easily. 'Not until today. All that seems so far away and long ago, even though it was my own g and father.
r 'I've never forgotten it,' Louis Nel said softly. 'The man was a murderer. If he had succeeded, if you hadn't prevented it, all of us in land would be a lot worse off than we are today." th!sI wonder what happened to White Sword - who he was and where he is now? Perhaps he is long dead, perhaps--' 'I don't think so - there is something that makes me doubt it. A few years ago I wanted to go over the White Sword file--' The lift stopped at the ground floor and Louis broke off. He remained silent as they crossed the lobby and went out into the sunlight. On the front steps of the headquarters building, they faced each other.
'Yes?" Shasa asked. 'The file, the White Sword file?" 'There is no file,' Louis said softly.
'I don't understand." 'No file,' Louis repeated. 'Not in police records or the Justice Department or the central records. Officially, White Sword never existed." Shasa stared at him. 'There must be a file - I mean, we worked on it, you and I. It was this thick --' Shasa held his thumb and forefinger apart. 'It can't have dsappeared!" 'You can take my word for it. It has." Louis held out his hand.
