RATING: GOOD
SPOILERS!!!
The police think that they have Pike cornered when a doctor reports that one of his patients fell into some kind of pit. Sinclair, Madden, Billy and a lot of policemen keep watch from the forest, and they get to see a man in the pit.
This part is alternated with the chapters focused on Pike. This weekend he plans to kill the Merricks, but first he goes to retrieve his motorbike from Winifred Troy’s garden shed. It is then that he sees the letter from Mr Biggs, the solicitor’s assistant, in which he told him that Mrs Troy didn’t need his services any longer, and he should leave. Mr Biggs explained that he would return to make sure he was gone. So when the man turns up, Pike is prepared, and when Biggs notices the motorbike and Pike’s looks, he knows he is going to die.
The police wait all day long before attacking. We know that the Merricks are Pike’s aim, and all day long Harriet Merrick has been feeling uneasy, especially as her son’s plans to travel to Cornwall are touch and go when their car won’t start. William has called the mechanic, but he is busy, so he tries to fix the problem himself.
At night the police creep closer to their objective, and then the shots start coming from the pit. When the police grab the guy, Madden realise that this is not Pike. It is someone who was using this site for smuggling weapons. As the police stand there, they see someone riding a bike, and the man tells him nervously that everybody in the manor house are dead. Madden and the others rush there, and they find that there are only two bodies: that of old Mrs Merrick and her former housekeeper. William and his family left for Cornwall, and weren’t in the house when Pike attacked. Later they discover Pike’s dugout which was in another part of the forest.
Next, the police discover that Winifred Troy’s body, and the pathologist thinks that she died of asphyxiation. The solicitor’s assistant is missing, and it seems that Pike murdered him too. Billy and Madden go to the village to ask about the man who Ms Troy hired, but her cleaner says she never saw him. Then Billy sees something that stops him short. It is in a shop, and what attracts Billy’s attention is a painting of the Fletchers’ cottage. It is here where the connection is. Madden discovers the painting is a work of Hermione Aylward, a local painter who specialises in family portraits. The investigation leads Madden to discover that Pike is Mrs Aylward’s driver, and the woman made portraits of the Fletchers and the Merricks.
Pike knows that it will a matter of time that the police come snooping. So he decides to steal the car and leave. His things are already in the boot when he gets a glimpse of a police uniform. So he realises that he is late, but he would rather die than stand in court to be judged. What he thinks he needs is a distraction, so he sets fire to the garage, and the flames spread to the house and the car. Billy rescues the maid from the house, and Madden helps Mrs Aylward. Later when Billy, who has some burns, is taken to hospital, Madden discovers the charred figure inside the car.
The case is closed with Pike’s death. However, Madden and Sinclair still need to show Pike’s photograph and find eyewitnesses to support the evidence of the man’s evidence. Madden goes to Highfield, and he and Stackpole go to talk to Mary Birney, the girl who had said that she hand seen Pike when Madden showed her a photograph. Now with the information he has, Mary remembers him as the driver of Mrs Aylward, and Mary remembers that he came into the shop, and Dr Blackwell was there as well. At some point the man was looking intently at something. Then Madden realises something, and he tells Stackpole. Helen told him that she and Lucy Fletcher looked very similar, both slim, fair-haired and tall, and now Madden thinks that Pike was obsessed not only with Lucy but with Helen, and that is why he returned to Highfield when Madden and Stackpole were attacked by the man.
Madden tells Stackpole to keep that information to himself. Madden goes to see Helen, but she has an emergency to see to, so she tells him to wait for him in the house. Madden continues asking around, and then she and Stackpole drop by the constable’s house, and the constable’s wife seems unhappy about her husband’s continuous absence. She tells him that Dr Blackwell is coming in a bit to see their daughter who has measles.
Madden walks to Helen’s house, and then when he gets inside, he is surprised to find Pike safe and sound. He is holding the rifle with the bayonet and before Madden can do anything, Pike stabs him and Madden falls. Then the door opens and Helen comes, saying that she has heard that the dead man in the charred car wasn’t Pike. Poor Helen stops sharp when she sees Pike, and then he attacks her and drags her to the room. Helen tries to resist, but he is too strong. Then when she feels her strength sag, Pike loosens his grip, and Helen sees Stackpole hitting Pike. Then bleeding and weak, Madden appears and he grabs the bayonet, and he tells Pike that he is arrested, and then the man presses his body against the bayonet and dies.
In the last chapter Sinclair is visiting Madden, who is in hospital recovering. He is sleeping, so he talks to Helen, who has hardly moved from his side. Sinclair says that he has been looking into Pike’s past. Pike’s father hanged for killing his mother, and Sinclair went to the village to find out more. The constable who was first called to the scene told him that Pike’s mother was a woman of ill-repute, and the marriage was not happy. Her husband beat her, and when she was killed, Pike was found in her bed naked. What the constable always thought was that Pike’s father couldn’t have been the murderer, but when the police took over, nobody took any notice of his opinion. Apparently, Pike’s father was not in the house when his wife was killed. So this means that Pike’s mother corrupted him, taking him to bed, and then he killed her. Interestingly, the woman was fair-haired and was killed with a razor blade.
When Sinclair tells Helen that Madden is an excellent policeman, she tells him that he will have to find someone else soon. She intends to marry him, and they will buy a farm, which is what Madden told her he had wanted to do after the war. The epilogue shows Helen and Madden, recently married, travelling through France and visiting the graves where Helen’s brother and Madden’s comrades-in-arms lie. John has now faced his demons and fears.
I really loved the book. A great mystery!
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