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

Lewis immediately rang Morse to congratulate him on the happy outcome of the case.

"There's just one thing, sir. I'd kept that scrappy bit of paper with the serial numbers on it, and these are brand-new notes all right but they're not the same ones!"

"Really?" Morse sounded supremely unconcerned.

"You're not worried about it?"


"Good Lord, no! You just get that money back to ginger knob at the George, and tell her to settle for a jumbo-cheque next time! Oh, and one other thing, Lewis. I'm on leave. So no interruptions from anybody understand?"

"Yes, sir. And, er .. . Happy Christmas, sir!"

"And to you, old friend!" replied Morse quietly.

The bank manager rang just before lunch that same day.

"It's about the four hundred pounds you withdrew yesterday, Inspector.

I did promise to ring about any further bank charges ' "I explained to the girl," protested Morse.

"I needed the money quickly."

"Oh, it's perfectly all right. But you did say you'd call in this morning to transfer ' "Tomorrow! I'm up a ladder with a paint brush at the moment."

Morse put down the receiver and again sank back in the armchair with the crossword. But his mind was far away, and some of the words he himself had spoken kept echoing around his brain: something about one's better self.. . And he smiled, for he knew that this would be a Christmas he might enjoy almost as much as the children up at Littlemore, perhaps. He had solved so many mysteries in his life. Was he now, he wondered, beginning to glimpse the solution to the greatest mystery of them all?

Dramatis Personae The Secretary of the Examinations Board The Governor of HM Prison, Oxford James Evans, a prisoner Mr. Jackson, a prison officer Mr. Stephens, a prison officer The Reverend S. McLeery, an invigilator Detective Superintendent Carter Detective Chief Inspector Bell The unexamined life is not worth living.

(Plato) It was in early March when the Secretary of the Examinations Board received the call from Oxford Prison.

"It's a slightly unusual request, Governor, but I don't see why we shouldn't try to help. Just the one fellow, you say?"

"That's it. Chap called Evans. Started night classes in Olevel German last September. Says he's dead keen to get some sort of academic qualification."

"Is he any good?"

"He was the only one in the class, so you can say he's had individual tuition all the time, really. Would have cost him a packet if he'd been outside."

"We-ell, let's give him a chance, shall we?"

"That's jolly kind of you. What exactly's the procedure now?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. I'll be sending you all the forms and stuff. What's his name, you say? Evans?"

"James Roderick Evans." It sounded rather grand.

"Just one thing, Governor. He's not a violent sort of fellow, is he? I don't want to know his criminal record or anything like that, but ' "No. There's no record of violence. Quite a pleasant sort of chap, they tell me. Bit of a card, really. One of the stars at the Christmas concert. Imitations, you know the sort of thing: Mike Yarwood stuff. No, he's just a congenital kleptomaniac, that's all." The Governor was tempted to add something else, but he thought better of it. He'd look after that particular side of things himself.

"Presumably," said the Secretary, 'you can arrange a room where ' "No problem. He's in a cell on his own. If you've no objections, he can sit the exam in there."