The Price of Butcher's Meat

1

“Peter! Salvere iubeo! Willkommen! Bienvenu! In any language, I am glad to see you!”

Franny Roote was sitting in his wheelchair on the threshold of his cottage, so for a moment as Pascoe swiveled his legs to get out of the car, they were face-to-face and eye to eye.

From many a mouth, such a greeting would have seemed ove-reffusive, even synthetic. But the glow of pleasure on the young man’s face was beyond fabrication.

Wasn’t it?

Pascoe said, “Good to see you, Fran.”

He meant it, but with reservations.

He’d been genuinely concerned to lose touch with Roote, and his relief at discovering he was alive and relatively well was equally genuine. But to see that slight figure sitting there in a wheelchair sent a pang through his heart at the memory of how he had got there. And then there were the circumstances of their meeting.

He’d listened to Wield’s account of his interview with the man and read his witness statement, and with some relief had found nothing to suggest that Roote was anything more than a peripheral witness in the case.

But now that he laid eyes on him again, for some reason there popped into his mind the famous response of the great Bill Shankly when asked if in his opinion a player who was not interfering with play could be judged offside.

If a player’s not interfering with play, he ought to be!

Around a crime-and Pascoe’s encounters with Franny always seemed to take place around a crime-somehow it was hard to believe he wasn’t interfering with play.

He got out of the car and they shook hands, each bringing the free hand to intensify the greeting, both apparently reluctant to break the contact.

Finally Roote said, “I thought we’d sit outside and enjoy the air, if that’s all right?”

There was a rustic table with a bench set against the cottage wall. On the table stood a coffeepot, two mugs, and a cake on a plate.

He was expecting me, thought Pascoe. Interesting.

“Maisie’s Madeira, I presume,” he said.

“I’m impressed. Sergeant Wield, of course? If I read him right, no detail of my simple life here will have gone unrecorded or unreported.”

“That’s Wieldy,” agreed Pascoe. “Anything he misses won’t be missed.”

“I see you still love a paradox,” said Roote.

“In the abstract. But in reality, they can be a problem. For example, the paradox of why you, having made so much more progress than seemed likely, and knowing how concerned I was to keep track of this progress, should apparently have vanished off the face of the earth. And on top of that, why you finally should have settled down within a short car ride of where I live and never made contact.”

Roote poured the coffee and cut the cake.

Then he said, “Maybe I wanted to walk into your office one day under my own steam and say, ‘Hi! Here I am! Good as new!’ And lift the guilt from your shoulders.”

“Guilt? You think I feel guilty?”

“Sorry. Wrong word. Responsibility? Something like that. Whatever it is you feel whenever you see me. I wanted to take that away. And having got that scenario in my mind, I couldn’t settle for less. Sorry. It was silly. Egotistical, even.”

“Seems pretty unegotistical to me,” said Pascoe. “Even Mr. Dalziel was impressed.”

“Dear Andy! What a joy it was to see him again. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I rolled into the pub that day. Do you know, I was so pleased to see his face, at first I didn’t notice he was wearing a dressing gown and slippers-sorry-one slipper!”

Pascoe murmured, “He’ll be flattered to know he had that effect on you.”

“He’s one of the great originals, isn’t he? But part of my pleasure, a large part, was knowing that chance had done what I myself should have done months earlier. To see him was at one remove to see you, and whatever I said, I knew it could not be long before that remove was removed.”

Pascoe took a large bite out of his slice of the cake because he had no idea how to respond to this intensity. Was there a homosexual element in it? There were so many ambiguous areas in Roote’s personality that it wouldn’t be surprising…

“Peter, just for the record, I don’t fancy you,” said Roote. “Not touchy-feely fancy, so no need to worry lest I might leap from firm handshakes to slobbery kisses.”

Pascoe swallowed a large bolus of Madeira and washed it down with coffee. He should have remembered that talking with Roote could be like having your mind scanned.

“I never imagined…well, maybe I did wonder…look, I’m sorry, but to be honest, when you first started writing those letters to me, I thought you were taking the piss!”

Roote grinned.

“Maybe I was, a little. But that’s what friends do to each other, isn’t it? Listen, I think it’s your job that gets in the way. Imagine we’d just met, on a campus, say, at a gallery, in a theater, anywhere. You might have found me a touch eccentric, but amusingly so. And I might have found you a touch buttoned up, but intriguingly so. And if we met again a couple of times, I reckon we’d have drifted into being friends, which is how friendship happens, isn’t it?”

“But…?”

“But we met in circumstances which demanded you saw me as a suspect. And when the vagaries of English law saw me sent down, that initial relationship was frozen, apparently beyond all hope of dissolution. Myself, I soon realized that I needed to move on from any feelings of resentment and blame. But when I met you again, I saw that it was going to be much harder for you to move on from suspicion and distrust.”

“So you thought, Hey, I can change this guy!” said Pascoe, trying to lighten things up. “Was that because of some evangelical imperative, or simply as an entertaining intellectual exercise?”

“Bit of both,” said Roote. “Then I began to realize this was really important to me. Without getting anywhere near slobbery-kiss territory, I found I really did like you, and it’s a shit feeling when you know someone you really like regards you as the pits.”

“You’re saying what you did for Rosie you did to make me like you?” said Pascoe.

“No,” said Roote. “I did it because that’s what friends do. And hey! Let’s not make too big a thing of this. I didn’t know that part of the deal was a madman with a shotgun who hated my guts!”

“But when you found out, you still put Rosie first,” said Pascoe. “She talks about you, you know.”

“Does she? I’d rather she forgot me. That’s another reason I didn’t want to roll in on you. Bad enough having you look at me with those big guilty eyes. No reason to load that stuff on a kid.”

They sat and drank their cooling coffee in silence for a few minutes.

Pascoe thought, Please God, don’t let me find that Franny Roote has anything to do with this case. Don’t face me with that choice!

Which he knew wouldn’t be a choice.

He set down his mug and said, “Tell me about your wanderings and how you came to settle in Sandytown. I got an outline from Wieldy, but I always prefer original sources.”

“You and I both,” said Roote.

He started talking. The style was anecdotal, the tone light and amusing. It was, thought Pascoe, like listening to a young gent of an earlier age just back from doing the Grand Tour. Where the reason for his journey was touched upon, it came over as hardly weightier than a visit to various spas to take the waters.

Pascoe finally interrupted.

“So in the end, there was nothing that gave any hope?”

He hadn’t meant to be quite so blunt, but that was how it came out.

Roote’s eyes widened in a parody of shock.

“Do you think you might be spending too much time with dear Andy, Peter? I should watch that. In answer to your question, hope never dies, though sometimes it changes. I have the consolation of philosophy, of course.”

“This Third Thought stuff? Andy told me you tried it on him.”

“Did he indeed? Perhaps the seed has found a crack in even that stony ground. Yes, that was something else I approached not altogether seriously but which has since proved stronger than I imagined. Like my friendship with you. Whoops, sorry, I don’t want to embarrass you again. Getting back to hope, Peter, there was something which I’m reluctant to share with anyone, yet you of all people deserve to share it. Not hope exactly, but hope of hope. I hardly dare think about it, let alone talk about it.”

He paused as if marshaling his words, then resumed.

“In terms of care and consideration, the Avalon Clinic at Davos was by far the most comfortable institution I visited. I don’t mean just physically, but psychologically. I felt at home there, but of course I didn’t want to feel at home in a clinic, so eventually I moved on, always searching. One man’s name kept cropping up-a Dr. Hermann Meitler. I found him in a small research establishment near Dresden. His official area of expertise was sports injuries, would you believe? If you recall, the old Democratic Republic had a rather dubious reputation for their attitude to performance-enhancing treatments. In terms of medals, they were always looking for the philosopher’s stone which would turn everything to gold. And they didn’t let consideration of things like casualties along the way hinder their research.”

“Sure this guy was called Meitler, not Mengele?” said Pascoe with distaste.

“Behind his back, possibly,” laughed Roote. “He was certainly a man who regarded humans as problems to be solved rather than individuals to be cared for. The demolition of the Berlin wall and the invasion of Western standards of accountability had deprived him of his endless supply of experimental material. Once he got the idea that in me he’d found someone ready to go the extra mile, and willing to pay for the privilege, we got on famously.”

“But he didn’t do the miracle,” said Pascoe.

“No,” said Roote. “And yes. He treated me in ways that would certainly have got him struck off in the UK. I didn’t mind. And I was right not to mind. For eventually he made me feel again, Peter. I’d always kept up the electrical toning routines even though I couldn’t feel a damn thing. I was determined that if the miracle ever did happen, I wasn’t going to fall over because my muscles had completely atrophied. Then one day, I felt a tingle. A comic word, tingle, isn’t it? Certainly made me laugh with joy. I felt a tingle where I had felt nothing since I got shot.”

“But that’s marvelous!” exclaimed Pascoe. “So what happened?”

“Nothing happened. I spoke with Meitler. He made it clear there was a choice involved. Not be killed or cured. That I’d have gone for, no hesitation. No. It was between the possibility of cure and the equal possibility of being left as a thinking vegetable. That gave me pause. Was I ready to take that risk?”

“And you weren’t?”

“I needed time to think before I took it. I went away, and spent the next six months making up my mind and changing it. Eventually I returned to the Davos Avalon where my previous stay had suggested I might find a solution to my problems. When I got back there, I discovered my old mentor, Dr. Alvin Kling, had done a six-month exchange with Lester Feldenhammer of the Sandytown Avalon. Happily, Lester and I soon found we were on the same wavelength and I struck up an even closer relationship with him than I’d had with Alvin.”

“So you asked for his advice?”

“No,” said Roote. “Shortly after I met him, I read in the papers that Dr. Meitler was dead. He’d been under investigation by the German medical authorities for some time. It seems that finally the police were getting involved. One night Meitler’s laboratory went up in flames. His body was found in the ashes. Accident, suicide, it was impossible to tell. All his research records were destroyed, among them, I assume, mine.”

Fleetingly the thought that death seemed to follow Franny Roote around drifted across Pascoe’s mind, but there was no room for it to lodge there alongside this hint of a possibility of further recovery.

“That must have been a terrible shock, Franny!” he exclaimed.

“I think I’m beyond shock now, Peter,” said Roote.

“But this tingle, is it still there?” demanded Pascoe.

“Ah, the tingle! Is it the real tingle of renewal or just the delusory tingle of hope? Peter, perhaps I shouldn’t have spoken to you. Third Thought has taught me to deal with hope, but now I fear I’ve set all its chimeras loose to trouble you.”

“I just don’t see how you can feel this tingle and not do anything about it!”

“Let myself be poked and prodded and X-rayed and analyzed again? I would need to think long and hard about that. What if they told me nothing has changed? Good-bye hope. Or what if they confirmed there has been a change? Wouldn’t I once again be faced with some form of the choice Meitler spelt out to me?”

“At least you could talk to this Dr. Feldenhammer. Or isn’t this his field?”

“In fact, Lester specialized in neurology before turning to psychiatry. He would be the perfect man to consult. Indeed, as I hesitate to decide my future, Lester is one of the best of my reasons for remaining here in Sandytown.”

“Just one of the reasons?”

Roote smiled and said, “Oh yes, there were many others. Lester told me about Tom Parker and his plans for the town. He was confident that my Third Thought ideas would be greeted enthusiastically by Tom, and he was certainly happy to let me have the chance to air them in the clinic to those who wanted to hear. In addition, I found after my long sojourn abroad, I was homesick for England, and especially for Yorkshire, where so much significant in my life has happened. So when he returned to Sandytown at the end of his six months, I came with him.”

It all sounded perfectly logical, but when did any information vouchsafed by this young man not appear so?

The thought felt like a disloyalty, but until the brutal killings of Lady Denham and Ollie Hollis had been resolved, Pascoe knew he had to follow every line of inquiry.

He said, “Franny, this is more than just a social call, you understand that?”

“Of course. I’d be worried if it weren’t. This is a dreadful business. Anything I can do to get it out of the way, you’ve only to ask.”

“Okay. Now you first met Lady Denham when you came to Sandytown at the start of this year, right?”

As trick questions go, it was hardly the trickiest. Indeed, there was no reason Roote should have met the woman during the trip to Switzerland mentioned in Heywood’s e-mails, nor, if he had, why he should want to conceal it, but the faint smile that touched the young man’s lips suggested he appreciated the prevarication.

“No, I met her first at the Davos Avalon toward the end of last year,” he said. “She was on a skiing holiday with her nephew and niece and she made a courtesy call on Lester Feldenhammer.”

“Courtesy?”

Roote laughed out loud.

“Peter, you are so good! Here less than twenty-four hours and you’ve already winkled out that dear old Daphne had serious designs upon Lester. Yes, I’d guess her choice of locale for her holiday-probably the main reason for taking it at all-was her desire to keep tabs on her chosen one. Conversely, I would speculate that one of Lester’s reasons for organizing the exchange was to put him out of Daph’s reach for a while.”

“You know this for a fact?”

“No. Lester has never confided anything about his private life,” said Roote. “I used the word speculate advisedly, just as I used the word courtesy to describe Lady D’s call. Her ultimate purpose may have been predatory, but on the couple of occasions I saw her, she was accompanied by her niece, Esther, so unless what she had in mind was a troika, I would be wrong to imply on that occasion a deeper motive.”

“Franny,” sighed Pascoe, “you’re not at some academic conference. Just tell it as you’d tell it to…Mr. Dalziel, say.”

Roote laughed again and said, “Okay. Daph was a woman of strong appetites, none of which was diluted by age. She loved wealth, status, and sex, not necessarily in that order. Hollis gave her wealth, and a bit of status. He’d bought Sandytown Hall and the Lordship of the Hundreds. Denham gave her a title and she maneuvered the poor devil so that she squeezed what profit she could out of him. And Feldenhammer is wealthy enough both from his earnings and money he’s inherited from his family connections-he’s one of the Milwaukee dairy-product Feldenhammers-blessed are the cheese makers for they shall be stinking rich-you’ll have heard of them?”

Pascoe shook his head.

“Never mind. Point is, Daph liked it round here ’cos she was the local great lady. She enjoys status, and another thing about Lester is, he has an international reputation, so she could envisage a future traveling to conferences in exotic places, and if her English title didn’t get the natives kowtowing, her celebrity husband would.”

“She sounds a bit…calculating,” said Pascoe.

“None more so. But let’s not forget the sex. She was, I’d say, an enthusiast. She had to have the hots for any guy she went after, meaning that money and status weren’t enough, they had to be able to do the job.”

“Does this mean she was promiscuous?”

“I thought we were talking à la Dalziel! You mean, was she putting it about? Who knows? But she’d have made sure she did it so discreetly, no one noticed. As I say, she was hugely jealous of her status.”

This fit in with what Esther Denham had told him. She and Roote might not share much else, but they shared a sharp eye.

Thinking of Esther brought her brother into his mind and he said, “So, no toy-boys? I hear her nephew liked to flash the family jewels on her private beach…”

“My, Peter, how do you discover such details? Yes, it’s true, and I’m sure Daphne was not averse to admiring the display. But as for touching, as well as the risk of looking ridiculous if it got out, that would have meant giving up the power she had over him. That was the unifying element of her three passions-wealth, status, sex-they all gave her power. In the end, slaves revolt, worms turn, lapdogs foul the silken laps they rest on. Look for someone who’d had enough and you’ll find your killer!”

That was as far as Roote was willing to go, despite Pascoe’s invitation to him to suggest possibilities. But he was happy to give thumbnail sketches of all the locals. What struck Pascoe was the general absence of malice, indeed the many hints of affection, in his comments. He sounded at ease with himself and his life, almost happy. Perhaps he was in love, thought Pascoe, who had learned never to ignore the conventional. Remembering Dalziel’s suggestion that Franny might have his eyes on Clara Brereton, he listened carefully for any underlying note of special interest when he talked of her, but detected none. In fact, his most open admiration was reserved for Charley Heywood, whom he could only have met a couple of times.

“A bright girl, sharp eyes and a sharp mind; give her a few more years and I wouldn’t mind lying on her couch myself,” he concluded.

Pascoe laughed and said, “She rates you pretty highly too. Up there with Ted Denham and Sidney Parker in the list of Sandytown’s top attractions.”

“Well well,” said Roote thoughtfully. “Poor lady, she were better love a dream.”

This fell more sadly on Pascoe’s ears than anything he’d heard the young man say.

He glanced at his watch and said brightly, “Time to go, I’m afraid.”

“You’ll come again?” asked Roote.

“Of course. Now I’ve found you, I’ll keep real close tabs on you. One thing, Franny. Is it true you’re thinking of mounting an appeal against your conviction? Or were you just winding the Super up?”

“Would it surprise you if I were serious, Peter?” he asked.

Pascoe shook his head.

“I’m long past being surprised by you, Franny.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, shall I? Let’s say it depends on how I feel when I wake up in the morning. Sometimes it seems a great idea, sometimes it seems pointless. Bit like waking up, I suppose. Don’t worry. Whatever I do, I’ll try to keep you out of it. And whatever I tell you will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

Then he gave his birds-out-of-the-trees charming smile and added, “But not necessarily in that order. Good-bye, Peter.”

They shook hands.

As Pascoe got back in his car, Roote called, “One thing I wondered about. Of course you and clever Sergeant Wield have probably got it sorted already, but why was the hog roast timetable delayed? Might be worth a look. Take care, Peter.”

Pascoe drove away down the rutted lane.

On the road, he got out of the car to close the rickety gate. As he did so, his eyes quartered the surrounds. No problem once you started looking. In one of the cracks in the old sandstone gatepost, a sensor glinted, and high in the holly bush, painted the same shiny dark green as the leaves, a tiny CCTV camera looked down on him.

He smiled at it and waved.

Franny liked to know who was coming up his drive. Why not? A man in a wheelchair must feel very vulnerable. Particularly a man with enemies.

And one thing was certain.

Being in a wheelchair wasn’t going to stop Franny Roote from making enemies!

He got back in the car and glanced at the clock. It was an hour and a half since he’d told Wield, “It’s no use. I’ve got to see Franny, get it out of the way.”

What it was, he wasn’t quite sure. Relief, responsibility, guilt, gratitude, doubt, suspicion, they were all there. Now added to them was hope.

His mobile rang as he was pulling away. Being a law-abiding citizen he steered into the side and switched off the engine before he picked up the phone.

It was Wield.

“Pete,” he said, “you need to get back here. There’s been another incident.”

Law-abiding citizenship forgotten, he switched on, started up, and sent the car screaming along the narrow road as he said into the mobile, “Fill me in, Wieldy.”