Over My Dead Body (Detective William Warwick #4)(68)

‘I think that’s enough for tonight,’ said William.

‘No, Daddy!’ screamed Artemisia and Peter in unison. ‘More!’

‘All right, just a couple of pages,’ said William, with an exaggerated sigh. ‘The other three policemen quickly surrounded the van while PC Plod opened the passenger door and took out the cardboard box. He opened it to find it was full of oyster shells, and when he prised one open, he found a pearl in it. Plod knew that pearls were normally found at the bottom of the ocean and not in cardboard boxes.’

The phone in the corridor began to ring. William put down the book and said, ‘Can you take that, Beth, Mr Plod is about to arrest the real criminal?’ He looked back at the children and continued, ‘He immediately arrested Mr Nettles and told two of the constables to escort him back to the local police station, along with the evidence. “What shall I say when Inspector Watchit asks me what you’re up to?” asked one of the constables. “Tell him I will be paying a visit to the manor house and arresting the real culprit,” said Plod. “And he may be surprised who …”’ William was about to continue when Beth poked her head around the door.

‘It’s James on the phone,’ she said.

‘James?’

‘James Buchanan, he’s calling from New York.’

‘Mum will carry on reading,’ said William, ‘while I take the call.’

‘But then you won’t discover who Mr Plod arrests,’ said Artemisia.

‘I feel sure Mum will tell me later,’ William replied, as he climbed off the bed, left the room and exchanged a book for a telephone. ‘What a pleasant surprise,’ he said, before James had been given the chance to speak.

‘You may not feel so, when I tell you the reason I’m calling,’ said James, ‘because I need to seek your advice on an embarrassing situation.’

‘I’m at your disposal,’ said William calmly.

‘I’ve recently discovered that my closest friend at Choate got someone else to sit his entrance exam papers for Harvard.’

‘Proof?’ said William.

‘He asked me first, and I refused. However, when the names of the successful candidates were announced, to my surprise my friend was among the top half a dozen on the list.’

‘In which case, someone else must have failed, someone who everyone else in your class would have expected to be offered a place.’

‘You’re right, and I can even tell you his name. He’s a scholarship boy from a one-parent family, who’s always short of money.’

‘And you want to know,’ said William, ‘whether you should pass on your suspicions to a higher authority.’

‘Yes. I was curious to find out what you would do, if you faced the same dilemma.’

William remained silent for so long that James eventually said, ‘Are you still there, sir?’

‘Yes, I am,’ said William. ‘I confess that I faced almost the same problem when I was at school. I caught a friend, not my best friend, stealing from the school tuck shop once too often.’

‘Did you report him to your headmaster?’

‘Yes, I finally did,’ said William, ‘but not a day goes by when I wonder if I should have turned a blind eye.’

‘But why,’ asked James, ‘when you were obviously doing the right thing?’

‘He was moved to another school the following term, and was expelled a year later for taking drugs.’

‘Were there any repercussions for you?’

‘It didn’t exactly endear me to my classmates, who labelled me a sneak and a traitor, and not always behind my back.’

‘Sticks and stones,’ said James.

‘It happened again more recently,’ said William thoughtfully, ‘when I had to investigate a fellow officer, who I’d been at police college with. We had reason to believe he was accepting backhanders from a local drug baron on his patch. In his case stones were involved.’

‘Were you able to come up with enough evidence to arrest the subject?’

‘More than enough. He’s now serving a long prison sentence, which once again hasn’t endeared me to my colleagues, but if you’re still thinking about doing this job, you can’t make one rule for your friends and another for those you don’t know or, worse, don’t like.’

‘I’ll make an appointment to see my headmaster first thing in the morning,’ said James, ‘and tell him my misgivings.’

‘Misgivings aren’t proof,’ William reminded him, ‘but it will certainly test his moral compass, especially in this case.’

‘Why especially in this case?’ enquired James.

‘The future of two boys is involved, and their whole lives will be affected by your headmaster’s decision. However, do let me know how it turns out.’

‘I will, sir, but for now I’ll let you get back to Mr Plod, because Beth tells me he was about to arrest the real criminal.’

‘Yes, and that also has a surprise ending. But one more question before you go, James: should I assume you’ve also been offered a place at Harvard?’

‘Yes, sir. I won the John Quincy Adams open scholarship.’

‘Now there’s a man who wouldn’t have turned a blind eye.’