In return for certain facts Herbie wanted his story accepted, but Gently wanted the facts before he agreed to consider the story. At last Herbie consented to give an outline of those facts, and Gently, with Pagram, had a huddle with the Assistant Commissioner. It then remained to get Herbie’s statement and to set the wheels in motion. Within twenty-four hours, perhaps, they would know if the coup had been successful.

In his office, now cleared of Herbies, Gently drank coffee and filled his pipe. He would have given a lot to have known what they had finally done with Jimmy Fisher. He had been put on the case almost as soon as he had been promoted: the whole of his superintending seemed to have been linked with that epic inquiry. And was this how it was going to go on now that he had reached administrative rank? Until the day of his retirement, was he to be crucified on routine?

Puffing rings across his varnished desk, he began to realize what had happened to him. It was no longer the simple augmentation of rank which he had always seemed able to take in his stride. It was different, this; it was the crossing of a Rubicon. It had slammed a door on nearly three decades of his career. Before, in some sort, he had been a rebel, at least a stubborn and unmovable individualist. He had kicked against the Establishment that hampered and disagreed with him; he had seen himself as standing a little apart from it.

And that had continued from stage to stage, with never any need for a revision of attitude. From Detective Constable to Chief Inspector he had remained the rebel within the gates. But now — almost treacherously — the case had altered; the rebel had been embodied as part of the Establishment. Without him for the moment having perceived what was done, he’d been jockeyed up to the line, his rebel teeth had been extracted. Unbelievably, he was one of them: he was on the other side of the fence.

Unbelievably! He stirred his feet in an access of irritation. As yet he couldn’t accept this sleight-of-hand which had been worked on him. He was in a state of flux, neither one thing nor the other, and just at the moment he couldn’t believe that he would ever settle again.