Chapter Five
The plane taxied to a standstill, and Matthews jumped out, tearing off his helmet as he ran towards the party grouped around the body.
"Is he ..?" the pilot asked, but the question was a hopeless one. Pallister would have died as soon as he hit the ground.
Jack turned to him. "Why wasn't he wearing the harness?"
"But he was!" Matthews exclaimed. "At least, he was when we did the roll. He loved it, gave me a massive thumbs up, so I thought we'd throw in a loop too. I don't understand. He can't have undone it, that would be lunacy."
Phryne had started to run towards the plane even as the first words were out of Matthews' mouth. Climbing up to the look into the forward cockpit where Pallister had been sitting, she picked up the webbing harness and examined it.
"Inspector!" she called. Jack came to join her. "Look," she said quietly. "The webbing's been sliced through, then stitched back very roughly here. It would have looked normal, but have been much weakened." Their eyes met.
"Assuming Pallister was the target, someone knew he was going up in this plane today, and had access to it beforehand to sabotage the harness," concluded Jack. He jumped down to the ground and walked back to join Matthews.
"Matthews, I need to know the names of everyone here who could possibly have known you were taking Pallister up in that plane today. And while you're at it, I'd institute a check on every single harness in every single plane, in case the sabotage we've just discovered was perpetrated on them all. Whoever did this may not have known which plane would be used."
Matthews nodded. "I'll come up with a list, and go and check the rest of the fleet now, myself."
He turned to go, but Jack put a hand on his arm. "I'm sorry, Matthews, but you need to wait until one of my men can accompany you."
The airman looked at him, confused, then light dawned. And anger.
"Robinson, you can't honestly think I did this."
Jack shrugged. "It doesn't matter what I think. The fact is, you could have done, so we have to assume there's a possibility you did, until we are able to prove otherwise. So, I'd be grateful if you'd wait here until – ah, here they come now." As he spoke, the police car drove across the airfield towards them, and as soon as it stopped, two men leaped out.
One of them was Senior Constable Collins, so Jack called him over and instructed him to accompany Matthews to the Moth, to examine the sabotage of the harness, and then to the hangar to check the rest of the fleet.
"Then report back to me immediately, Collins – what you find will affect our list of suspects."
Collins nodded, and followed Matthews back to the Moth.
Jack returned to the group of VIPs still congregated around the body, and asked them politely if they would mind moving back a little to let his man record it. As they did so, he braced himself to question the Chief Commissioner. Given that the last time he'd performed such an exercise, the gentleman in question had been a) his former father in-law and b) guilty as sin, his apprehension was understandable. William Cooper, however, was a very different proposition, and himself suggested that he provide Jack with a list of the previous day's guests.
"After all," he remarked bitterly, "once Matthews had offered to take Pallister up, the wretched man was boasting to everyone who would listen."
Clearly, the rules about Speaking Ill of the Dead could be suspended occasionally.