Off the Record by Dolores Gordon-Smith

it turned out – that we would be called in. After you telephoned I looked up my notes. The coroner brought in a verdict of suicide on Charles Otterbourne, I know, but in the first instance it looked as if Otterbourne had been murdered by Professor Carrington.’
    ‘The Professor hanged himself while he was under arrest, didn’t he?’
    Rackham nodded. ‘That’s right. Gibson, the officer in charge of the case, had to endure a reprimand from the coroner which, I think, was probably deserved. After all, Professor Carrington was clearly unstable and shouldn’t have been left alone. His son said as much, and so did his doctor. I did wonder, though, if the Professor’s suicide made the coroner’s verdict a bit more sympathetic than it might have been.’
    ‘You mean Professor Carrington could have murdered Otterbourne after all?’
    ‘It’s a possibility, isn’t it? However, the coroner heard the evidence and, although there didn’t seem any real reason to doubt his verdict, it all seemed a bit neat.’
    ‘It’s got a closed-off quality about it, hasn’t it?’ agreed Jack. He stretched his legs out on the footstool with relief.
    ‘How’s your leg?’ asked Rackham, seeing his mouth contract briefly. Jack had had a slight limp for as long as Rackham had known him, a souvenir of the war, but he had recently broken his leg badly and, although the bone had healed, the limp had worsened.
    ‘Not bad,’ Jack said dismissively.
    ‘Come off it,’ said Rackham, seeing the lines of strain on his friend’s dark, rather gypsy-like face. ‘It looks like it’s giving you the pip.’
    Jack smiled broadly. ‘All right, Mister Detective-Inspector, sir, you’ve got me bang to rights. I’m being a brave little soldier. I hope you’re suitably impressed. My wretched leg hurts like sin and I’ve been on my feet for ages. I did a bit of digging in Fleet Street before I came to see you. Stanhope gave me the background to the case.’
    ‘Stanhope of The Messenger ?’
    ‘That’s the lad. Stanhope was disappointed with the Stoke Horam case. He was all geared up to shock us with sensational revelations, when it more or less petered out.’
    ‘I wouldn’t say it had petered out, Jack,’ countered Rackham. ‘The papers were full of it for weeks. With the not-so-saintly Mr Otterbourne on the one hand and a genuine mad scientist on the other, the press had a field day. Ernest Stanhope doesn’t know when he’s well off.’
    ‘He meant as a crime,’ said Jack. ‘Like you, he thought the verdict on Charles Otterbourne was very sympathetic to Professor Carrington. His money’s on the Professor for murder. However, that’s not what’s eating my pal, Hector Ferguson. He didn’t want to come right out and say it, but he’s worried, granted how pleased Dunbar is, that his stepfather might be the real villain of the piece.’
    Rackham’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Dunbar murdered Charles Otterbourne, you mean?’
    ‘That’s about the size of it.’
    ‘Can you rely on Ferguson? It sounds as if he may have it in for his stepfather.’
    ‘He admitted he didn’t like him,’ said Jack with a shrug. ‘He said he was a ruthless beggar. I had the impression Ferguson was trying to be objective. He’s a very thoughtful Scot. You know the type, Bill. He’ll worry away at a thing for ages before he comes to a conclusion, but when he has worked something out, you can be sure he’s got a rock-solid line of argument to back him up. He’s not someone to make an accusation lightly and, to be fair to him, he hasn’t done that.’
    ‘And Andrew Dunbar is happy with the way things have worked out.’ Bill took a cigarette from the box. ‘That’s interesting, but I can’t see it adds up. Dunbar was hoping Charles Otterbourne was going to buy his firm. Therefore it’s to Dunbar’s advantage that Otterbourne was alive to put the deal through. So on that count, Dunbar’s out of it, yes?’
    ‘Absolutely,’ agreed Jack.
    ‘Now, as