Final Act Read online

  ‘So you took it from him.’

  ‘I didn’t have to. Ernie was so proud of it and the brilliant condition that it was in that he put it into my hands for me to examine it. Invited me to feel how naturally it sat there. He obviously didn’t regard me as any sort of threat, you see.’

  ‘No. He didn’t know about your illness, I suppose.’

  ‘He hadn’t a clue about it, no. I remember thinking at that moment how convenient that was for me. It was almost as if someone had sent me there to do this. I pretended to examine the pistol admiringly, then slipped off the safety catch and shot him through the temple. It didn’t seem to make a great deal of noise – nothing like as much as I’d expected.’

  ‘And there was no one in the car park at the time.’

  ‘It appears not, no. I was very lucky, wasn’t I? But then, when you haven’t long to live, that sort of luck doesn’t matter much one way or the other.’

  At a nod from Lambert, Hook stood up and delivered the formal words of arrest, on suspicion of the murders of Samuel Terence Jackson and Ernest Clark.

  Sir Bradley Morton listened with careful interest and said, ‘What happens now?’

  ‘We take you into the station. You will be formally charged and asked to sign a statement in due course. After that, I am not quite certain what will happen.’

  It was perfectly true. He had never arrested a man in circumstances even remotely similar to these. The law would take its inevitable course, presumably. But this proud, dignified, strangely certain man would not live long enough to endure a murder trial.

  They took him down through the hotel reception area, where most of his fellow actors had assembled prior to departure. The old knight enjoyed his last small, dramatic scene. ‘You’re all off the hook now, in more ways than one. The police have their man and two mouths which could have been very harmful to you have been shut for ever. Dennis Potter gave me the idea, you know. We Forest of Dean boys know what’s important, you see!’

  And then he was gone, out between his captors and into the open air, leaving behind a suitably astonished range of faces at his final dramatic exit.