Where can I find Mrs Crilling?’ asked Archery.
‘ln Glebe Road, but 1 can’t remember the number.’ Wexford stared at Archery. ‘You’re wasting your time, of course.’
‘Chief Inspector, I don’t want to accuse44 anyone else of murder, l just want to prove that Painter was innocent,’ replied
Archery.
‘But you cannot find innocence without finding guilt somewhere else,’ said Wexford. Sergeant Martin appeared at the door. ‘A white Mini has knocked down a man in the High Street, sir,’ he told Wexford. ‘He’s dying and they want a vicar. Gates remembered that Mr
Archery was here.’ Archery looked at the sergeant. ‘I’ll come now,’ he said. ‘A white Mini? 1 think I’ll come with you,’ said Wexford.
The crowd had gone, but there were still several policemen with the dying man. Archery looked at the Mini, but looked away quickly when he saw the blood on the broken light.
He turned towards the young man and heard himself say, ‘It will be all right’.
The young man tried to speak, but blood was coming from his mouth and Archery couldn’t understand what he was saying. Archery started to say a prayer”.
‘You can stop now, he’s dead,’ said the doctor after a few minutes.
Archery stared at the dead man for another moment, then turned away.
He went to ask Wexford for the name of a hotel, a place to
stay that night. Wexford was talking to the girl in the Mini.
‘This is bad,’ he heard Wexford say. ‘This is very bad, Miss Crilling.’
‘So that’s the girl who found Mrs Primero’s body?’ said Archery to Wexford as they walked over the bridge a few moments later.