13. Major Witherington

A Chapter by Peter Rogerson

So who is the man called Glimpton?

“Just a moment, what madness is going on in here?” demanded the newcomer in a harsh voice, his eyes glinting with an almost wild fury, “in the old days I would have had that boy thrashed for looking at me like that!”. He added with demonic expression on his face, and he added, “it’s just as well it’s not the olden days I suppose.”

Jerry looked at Angela with suddenly raised eyebrows and noted the mixture of fear and anger on her face, and then at Jonny who had taken a step back ind almost tripped over his brother.

Jerry knew he had to take command of a situation that could deteriorate rapidly

“So you’re Mr Glimpton, are you? The Major’s new favourite? The one who’s going to squash the life out of the stupid little cells of ne’er do wells who are plotting against the safety of our fair realm like Guy Fawkes couldn’t, and wipe the scum off the face of the Earth? Or are you Mr Sebastian White with a very different agenda, or so I’m told?”

“You… you’re all as mad as very mad hatters,” snarled the other, ”I’ve never been in such a madhouse as this before in all my life! Wait till I report back to the Major! You’ll be manure by the time he’s finished with you!”

“Are you expecting Angela here to believe that you didn’t come into this house and as good as tried to kill her, leaving her bleeding on the floor for dead, bleeding on the floor?” demanded Jerry, and he turned to Jack, the son who had the best chance of knowing what he meant if he sounded cryptic. “Go and call Florence and tell her its urgent, Jack,” he asked.

“Yes, dad,” muttered the boy, stepping out of sight, “though this isn’t the same man, though he looks a lot like him” he added before disappearing completely,, “the beard’s all wrong,” he added, “it should be more pointy.”

“Just a moment, Jack,” urged Jerry, and he took a step towards the man who may have been called Glimpton or possibly even White or maybe even both. “It’s time for you to make things as clear as you can before Jack gets the police,” he said, “and for starters, you arrived as Mr Glimpton but I’ve seen evidence that puts you as Mr White, a teacher in a primary school in the market town of Brumpton. So who are you and why does my lady friend here, Angela, believe you’re the brute who assaulted her? And why does my lad Jonny here think the same?”

Glimpton relaxed and sat on an armchair, leaving everyone else standing up.

“I suppose I’d better confess,” he said, “though I warn you, Newby, what I’ve got to say must not go outside this room. Swear me that, and I’ll make my explanation.”

“I’ll say this,” grated Jerry, “if I believe every word that you say then I’ll be careful who I share it with. But at the moment you are best choice when it comes to the fiend who attacked Miss Smithson here, and who left my son Jonny in a heap on the ground. in the wood. If I discover that you are the guilty party then I don’t hold out hope for you having a very long life!”

“If it’s a test of strength between you and me I reckon I’d get the better of you,” said Glimpton with a smile, “but hear me out first. The boy said it right when he said I look like the man you accuse me of being, and I guess looking at him and his brother when they were standing together I can see why because not only are they brothers but they are twin brothers. Twins have a way of thinking that marks them as different from any other set of brothers, and identical twins most certainly do, and in spades!.

“And I know that because I have a twin brother, one who lives here in Midcomfort. Like me, he was going to be a teacher but unlike me he couldn’t make the grade, so to speak. So he works at trying to overthrow everything about society that he thinks can be improved, and in his eyes that’s most of it. Not like me at all. I believe in live and let live and solving problems peacefully.””

Jerry shook his head. “So how does assaulting people in my home fit in with the sort of peaceful guy you claim to be?”

“Don’t you get it, Newby? Yhe Major led me to believe you were bright as a shiny button! The one who entered this house and poked around wasn’t me, it was my brother!”

“He might have said exactly the same,” murmured Jerry, “I know quite a lot about twins because I’m the father of a pair, and what I’m quite sure of is they’re very similar indeed. Identical twins have identical genes which I would assume leads to identical attitudes and identical behaviour.”

Glimpton smirked. “Then you haven’t looked into the science of identical twins as thoroughly as I have.” he said. “Whereas my brother is in a group that call themselves gloopies, if you can believe that, and I’m an agent working directly under the instructions of Major Cedric Witheringtpn with orders to nip groups like the gloopy lot in the bud before they can do any mischief. And that is what I intend to do even though it might mean harming my own twin brother’s little schemes.”

The debate, which didn’t seem to be going anywhere, might have carried on and become increasingly meaningful but for the sound of a car door being slammed outside followed by Jack’s excited voice.

“He’s in the front room,” he said, “and he reckons he’s in charge! Dad’s furious with him because he hurt my twin brother the other day. And he hurt Dad’s girlfriend too!”