The Satan Bug. Alistair MacLean

Cliveden and Weybridge?”

      “Cliveden and Weybridge!” Hardanger stared at me and Martin backed him up with another stare. “Are you serious, Cavell?”

      “With someone running around with the Satan Bug in his pants pockets I don’t think it’s the time for being facetious, Hardanger. Nobody—nobody—is in the clear.” He gave me a long hard look but I ignored it and went on, “About those two sets of unidentified prints——”

      “We’ll print every man in Mordon till we get them,” Hardanger said grimly.

      “You don’t have to. Almost certainly they belong to a couple of men called Bryson and Chipperfield. I know them both.”

      “Explain yourself.”

      “They’re the two men in charge of running Alfringham Farm—the place that supplies all the animals for the experiments carried out here. They’re usually up here with a fresh supply of animals every week or so—the turnover in livestock is pretty heavy. They were here yesterday. I checked on the register book. Making a delivery to the animal room in number one laboratory.”

      “You say you know them. What are they like?”

      “Young. Steady, hard-working, very reliable. Live in adjacent cottages on the farm. Married to a couple of very nice girls. They have a kid apiece, a boy and a girl about six years old. Not the type, any of them, to get mixed up in anything wrong.”

      “You guarantee them?”

      “You heard what I said about St. Peter. I guarantee nothing and nobody. They’ll have to be checked. I’ll go if you like. After all, I have the advantage of knowing them.”

      “You will?” Hardanger let me have his close look again. “Like to take Inspector Martin with you?”

      “All one to me,” I assured him. It wasn’t, but I’d manners.

      “Then in that case it’s not necessary,” Hardanger said. There were times, I thought, when Hardanger could be downright unpleasant. “Report back anything you find. I’ll lay on a car for you.”

      “I already have one. Car-hire firm.”

      He frowned. “That was unnecessary. Plenty of police and army cars available. You know that.”

      “I’m a private citizen now. I prefer private transport.”