Rhino

Discussion

Rhino

Roger peered into his broccoli soup. He wasn’t sure he’d had broccoli in soup before but guessed that he would like it; the only other starters on the menu were a duck pate and a dandelion salad and he knew he didn’t like duck and, well, dandelion?
“So, young man, why did you need to see me so pressingly? Your telephone message sounded quite desperate.” Roger looked across his steaming soup at his jovial inquisitor with the ruddy cheeks and mane of long grey hair. He didn’t warm to him; the slightly patronising tone, the slightly louche manner. How could a man who was nearly eighty years old assume an assertive air of authority with such ease?
“Well, sir, the truth is that I have a deadline with my story and I was really fascinated by what I read about you in the article that was written all those years ago. It seems that you know more about the Madrid Road incident than anyone else – I mean, you knew the people involved.” Charles Leonard Blakeney looked back with a moment’s hesitation at the tired looking face of Roger Danes. He considered that the slightly overweight young man with the pale skin and gaunt grey eyes was under pressure and, because he thought the young man deserved a reward for his persistence, he was happy to tell him something that might be considered a scoop – no, he wouldn’t be letting anything really important out.
“Well to say I knew them isn’t exactly correct. I met both of the murderers that day, separately – I met them in the Sun Inn – you know, the public house down the road opposite the pond?”
“Yes, I visited it earlier this week when I was researching the story.”
“Oh. Well I was having my usual lunchtime pint – it was a Wednesday, I think. A man came in who I didn’t know – I know people in Barnes you know…I’ve lived here for nearly all my life.”
Roger was quickly feeling bored. He’d read all the reports from the 1986 murder and knew how Charles had met both Brendan McCullum the builder from Uxbridge and Daniel Pringle, unemployed, from Streatham and how, when he’d been walking home after his usual three pints, he’d seen the two men arguing outside number 32 Madrid Road. He’d also read the conflicting stories about what Charles had said he’d heard the two men arguing over. Privately, though, he’d decided that Charles must have known more about Patricia Owens who lived at number 32 and whose dead body was found in her front garden later that afternoon; despite what he’d said to everyone at the time.
“How is the salad, sir?” asked Roger in a bid to get Charles off the bit of his story about his revulsion at the smell of Pringle’s aftershave – the Mirror had made a lot of this at the time; Denim was a young man’s smell, it didn’t make him guilty.
“It’s good. I have to say I am very impressed with this place.” The Bridge Tavern had seemed a sensible place to arrange to meet – it was close to Hammersmith and hence the tube station; Roger didn’t like buses which were the only way to get to Barnes.
“Charles?” Roger ventured – he was getting bored with reverentially calling the well-spoken old soak ‘sir’, “tell me a bit more about your background.”

Roger was only here because his editor had been reminded of the murder by some retired policeman he’d met recently who’d worked on the case at the time and had told him that the police had always suspected Charles of some involvement but had no evidence of any sort. Roger had done all the research he could and had decided that the only thing to do was to meet the old man for lunch and try a couple of things whilst pretending that he was interested in looking into writing an article about notable people of Barnes – he’d correctly assumed that Charles would want to be remembered as a sort of local celebrity (even though he wasn’t one!) who’d helped solve a murder. The truth was that McCullum, who’d died of a heart attack in prison in 2001 and Pringle who on his release had moved abroad in 2003 had always protested their innocence and, given modern DNA techniques and a decent lawyer might well have been found not guilty had not Charles given his damming evidence.