"Dexter, Colin - Inspector Morse 11 - Morse's Greatest Mystery and Other Stories (b)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dexter Colin)

Stephens felt pleased that the Governor had asked him, and not Jackson, to see McLeery off the premises, and all in allthe morning had gone pretty well. But something stopped him from making his way directly to the canteen for a belated cup of coffee. He wanted to take just one last look at Evans.

It was like a programme he'd seen on TV about a woman who could never really convince herself that she'd locked the front door when she'd gone to bed: often she'd got up twelve, fifteen, sometimes twenty times to check the bolts.

He re-entered D Wing, made his way along to Evans's cell, and opened the peep-hole once more. Oh, no! CHRIST, NO!

There, sprawled back in Evans's chair was a man (for a semi second Stephens thought it must be Evans), a grey regulation blanket slipping from his shoulders, the front of his closely cropped, irregularly tufted hair awash with fierce red blood which had dripped already through the small black beard, and was even now spreading horribly over the white clerical collar and down into the black clerical front.

Stephens shouted wildly for Jackson: and the words appeared to penetrate the curtain of blood that veiled McLeery's ears, for the minister's hand felt feebly for a handkerchief from his pocket, and held it to his bleeding head, the blood seeping slowly through the white linen. He gave a long low moan, and tried to speak. But his voice trailed away, and by the time Jackson had arrived and despatched Stephens to ring the police and the ambulance, the handkerchief was a sticky, squelchy wodge of cloth.

McLeery slowly raised himself, his face twisted tightly with pain.

"Dinna worry about the ambulance, man! I'm a' right I'm a' right...

Get the police! I know ... I know where he .. ." He closed his eyes and another drip of blood splashed like a huge red raindrop on the wooden floor. His hand felt along the table, found the German question paper, and grasped it tightly in his bloodstained hand.

"Get the Governor! I know ... I know where Evans .. ."

Almost immediately sirens were sounding, prison officers barked orders, puzzled prisoners pushed their way along the corridors, doors were banged and bolted, and phones were ringing everywhere. And within a minute McLeery, with Jackson and Stephens supporting him on either side, his face now streaked and caked with drying blood, was greeted in the prison yard by the Governor, perplexed and grim.

"We must get you to hospital immediately. I just don't ' "Ye've called the police?"

"Yes, yes. They're on their way. But ' "I'm a' right. I'm a' right.

Look! Look here!" Awkwardly he opened the German question paper and thrust it before the Governor's face.

"It's there! D'ye see what I mean?"

The Governor looked down and realized what McLeery was trying to tell him. A photocopied sheet had been carefully and cleverly superimposed over the last (originally blank) page of the question paper.

"Ye see what they've done, Governor. Ye see .. ." His voice trailed off again, as the Governor, dredging the layers of long neglected learning, willed himself to translate the German text before him: Sic sol len dem schon verabredeten Plan genau folgen. Der wichtige Zeitpunkt ist drei Minuten vor Ende des Examens .. . "You must follow the plan already somethinged. The vital point in time is three minutes before the end of the examination but something something something something .. . Don't hithim too hard remember, he's a minister! And don't overdo the Scots accent when ..."

A fast-approaching siren wailed to its crescendo, the great doors of the prison yard were pushed back, and a white police car squealed to a jerky halt beside them.

Detective Superintendent Carter swung himself out of the passenger seat and saluted the Governor.

"What the hell's happening, sir?" And, turning to McLeery: "Christ!

Who's hit him?"

But McLeery cut across whatever explanation the Governor might have given.

"Elsfield Way, officer! I know where Evans .. ." He was breathing heavily, and leaned for support against the side of the car, where the imprint of his hand was left in tarnished crimson.

In bewilderment Carter looked to the Governor for guidance.

"What ?"

"Take him with you, if you think he'll be all right. He's the only one who seems to know what's happening."