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Book Murder at the Regal Hotel continued:
"Davy", I said.
"Is that actually your name , the one on your birth certificate, or is it just what people call you?"
"It's my real name. Do you want to see my birth certificate?"
"No. It's so easily checked there would be no point in saying otherwise. That's one of the things you will learn as a detective. What things can be easily checked and how to check them." She looked straight into my eyes, "So your mother christened you Davy? Do you know your Shakespeare?"
I couldn't resist it. "No I'm not," I said, "I'm Davy Gam"
She sighed, "If you work for me you'll have to control your sense of humour. At least, that kind of humour. Did you know Shakespeare mentioned someone called Davy Gam? In a very moving situation?"
"Oh, yes. I know that. Henry the Fifth. He was one of the people killed at Agincourt. But Shakespeare got it wrong."
She raised her eyebrows, "Oh! What do you mean?"
"He called him Davy Gam, Esquire. But in fact Davy Gam was only a nickname. For Dafydd ap Llewelyn. But he wasn't just Esquire. He and a few others had protected the king during the battle so the king knighted them, there on the spot. Davy Gam was killed later in the battle but the king would have known that he was a knight, not an Esquire."
"How did you find that out?" she asked.
"On the internet," I said, "And I read a book about the battle."
"Very impressive," she said, and she gave me the job there and then.
I've worked with Sian now for four or five years. In this job I do the legwork and she supplies the brains and intuition. Not that I'm stupid. If she thought that she wouldn't employ me. But my skills are in persistence and not forgetting details. I'm also good at planning and thinking ahead. Her skills are in deduction and imagination.
It turned out that Cardiff lost. I didn't want to join my pals, Pete Jamieson and Brian Butcher, wallowing in a self-pitying drink, so I went back to the office. It was a good thing that I did because Jane had phoned and left a message. I called her.
"Oh, thanks for calling, Davy. I've got the transcript of the interview and Holmes has told me some of the other evidence."
"Did he tell you what Frenchie said to the sergeant, er . . Williams, before he died?"
"Yes, and it really is serious. Can I come over?"
By the time she got to the office I had brewed some strong coffee. She gulped at it gratefully. "You remember Greg said the officer leant over the victim and asked him who had shot him? Well, according to the officer, what Frenchie said was 'Greg.'."
I swore. "So that's why Sherlock was so certain. That's terrible! A deathbed statement like that carries a lot of weight in a court." I drank my hot coffee while I thought about it. "If that's really what he said. The only way you could undermine that would be to convince a jury that Williams got it wrong. That he didn't say 'Greg', he said something else and Williams misheard him. That'll be hard to prove in court. Williams only needs to stick to it and the court will believe him. A good cross-examination would be essential."
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