Chapter eight.

“Hello Ted,” said Billy.  “I’ve just come across to say sorry for being grumpy yesterday.  I can still call you Ted can’t I?”

 Well, I was lost for words.  I mean, not half an hour ago I was on the verge of storming across the road to have it out with Billy and his family, and now here he was asking if he could still call me Ted.  Looking at him I could see nothing but hope and it was then that I realised what a fool I’d been.  Just looking at his open face told me it couldn’t have Billy.  He was as innocent and good as I’d always thought.  I don’t mind telling you I felt ashamed of myself then and I still do to this day.

 “You alright Mr. Brown?  You don’t look too good.”

 “Ted.  Call me Ted.  Yes I’m fine.  At least I will be.  Come in.  We’ll have some squash and biscuits.”

 Billy’s face lit up.  I could tell he was pleased I didn’t bear a grudge for his sulleness the day before.  He made straight for the parlour while I got the drinks.

 “Mrs. Pugh was round.  I saw her,” said Billy as soon as I got back to him.  “She’s always blaming me for things I’ve not done she is.”

 Of course this made me feel even worse.  I suppose I ought to have come clean there and then and told him what I had been thinking.  After all, there shouldn’t be secrets between friends, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

 Billy took a long pull at his drink and picked up a biscuit.  His eyes roved the room over the top of the glass.  They came to rest where we’d left the jewellery box the other day.

 “You moved your treasures then Ted?” he asked.

 “Not exactly Billy.  I think I’ve been burgled.”

 He sat up bolt upright but I didn’t pay him much more attention for a while.  You see, the combination of guilt at thinking Billy had been responsible for stealing my things and the relief I felt when I realised it wasn’t him, had stopped me asking the obvious question.  If it wasn’t Billy who took the box, then who was it?  And then I knew.  This time I really knew.

 “Ted, Ted?  You alright?” asked Billy.  He looked pretty worried.  I suppose I had been miles away with a funny look on my face.  That and the fact that I’d recently been crying probably made me look rather strange.

 “Yes Billy.  I’m fine.  In fact I feel a lot better.  Now tell me.  The other day when you and Hugh came round.  What did he say when he left?  If I remember rightly, I was making drinks and when I got back he’d gone.”

 Billy looked a bit confused.  I think the conversation was going a bit fast for him.  But he closed his eyes and thought.

 “He didn’t say anything.  I went up to the loo and when I came down he’d gone, then you came in with our drinks.  Why?”

 Poor Billy, sat there being grilled and probably with a hundred questions of his own.  After all, it’s not everyday your friend gets robbed.  I could tell he was dying to ask but before he could get another word in I was up out of my chair and taking his glass off him.

 “No offence Billy.  But I need half an hour on my own to think.  Don’t think I’m cross with you for yesterday.  It’s always a pleasure to see you.  If you promise to come back in an hour I’ll tell you all about it,” I said all this while I was walking to the kitchen, glasses in one hand, a plate of biscuits in the other.

 “I’ll be off then Ted,” he said with a confused look on his face.  He probably thought I was going batty.  “You sure you’re not mad at me for taking off yesterday?”

 “No Billy.  I couldn’t have been more pleased to see you this afternoon.” 

And that was the truth.  There’s no telling what silly things I might have done if he’d not turned up on my doorstep like that. 

“Just give me an hour.  Perhaps when you come back we’ll go for a walk and I’ll tell you what’s on my mind.”

 Billy seemed happy with this and he was off through the door with a smile on his face.

So, what did I need to think over?  I’d had a flash of inspiration but this time I wanted to make sure I wasn’t jumping to the wrong conclusion again.

 What facts did I know?  There were no broken windows or forced doors, so no-one had broken into my house.  I’m very particular about locking up when I go out and even when I’m in the house I keep the doors locked.  You don’t want people just wandering in off the street.  I know I would have noticed if I’d not locked the door because when I came home I wouldn’t have had to unlock the door.  That meant no-one had just tried my door by chance and snuck in.  That left the windows.  Those I had shut half way through last week.  We were having a sunny spell but it was the tail end of September and my old bones start to feel the cold even then.  Even so.  I thought I’d better check.  I walked around the few rooms of my small house and sure enough, every window was fasted shut.  So, no-one climbed in through the window.  

 This only left one possibility.  It had to be someone I’d let in the house myself.  The only two people were Billy and Hugh.  Now I knew it wasn’t Billy.  I knew at last that he wasn’t capable of that kind of thing.  Besides that, even though I was starting to feel the cold, Bill’s only young.  Tight jeans and a T-shirt doesn’t leave you anywhere to hide a box that’s roughly the size of a brick.  

 I went through it again and again.  The only logical explanation was that Hugh had taken the box when I was in the kitchen and Billy was upstairs.  Hugh Pugh.

 The problem was; what was I going to do about it?