Late of This Parish Read online

  Yet Doc Ison had said that suicide was a characteristic of the psychopathic personality. ‘Unable to cope with being thwarted, suicide rather than capitulation. Failure to develop a sense of moral responsibility, capable of extreme violence ... If he was a true psychopath, that is, and didn’t simply have a severe personality disorder, which is more likely, though it’s impossible for me to say, never having seen him.’

  A bell rang somewhere in the distance and as Mayo left, a troop of small boys streamed out towards the playing fields with a young master in charge. He saw Laura Willard – Laura Illingworth – in the distance but he didn’t stop. He’d said everything now that needed to be said. These people whose personal lives he had so intimately known were already passing into the limbo of investigations marked ‘Closed’. Already other cases were beginning to crowd in and push the details of this one to the back of his mind.

  He glanced at his watch. Time before he went home to pick up some of that special bird seed and fresh fruit for Bert, who was proving to be a picky eater. As well as being an obstinate cuss. Mayo was trying to teach him to talk but so far his efforts had been met with nothing but derision. Never mind, he’d grown used to looking for the flash of bright colour in the corner and hearing the screech that passed for welcome when he opened the door.

  He found himself smiling as he walked to where his car was parked and drove away under the magnificent line of chestnuts, leaving Wyvering without going back into Parson’s Place, driving past the castle ruins and down the hill for the last time, going back the way he’d first come.