Endeavour2012

Chief Superintendent Bright:
[walking through the scene of the crime with DI Thursday] No wallet you say? Robbery then.

DI Fred Thursday:
Possibly, sir.

Chief Superintendent Bright:
In any event, I think it best Sergeant Jakes assume management of the incident room for the duration.

DI Fred Thursday:
DC Morse is my bagman, sir.

Chief Superintendent Bright:
Morse may remain as your driver and aide de camp, but a case such as this requires an office of experience or senior rank to coordinate the inquiry. [sees Morse examining a bicycle next to wall] You're giving primary consideration to this bicycle, I take it? Quite right.

DI Fred Thursday:
Sir.

Chief Superintendent Bright:
I recall a not dissimilar case in Freetown. The usual mammy-palaver. But the killer left his bicycle at the scene. You should be able to trace its owner from the frame number.

DC Endeavour Morse:
Really? In Oxford?

[Bright looks at Morse and Thursday quickly speaks up]

DI Fred Thursday:
What Morse means to say, sir, is that there's probably more cycles hereabouts than anywhere in the country. Bikes get lost, borrowed... stolen. Right?

DC Endeavour Morse:
Yes, sir. But if the registered owner isn't left-handed, then he's probably not our man.

Chief Superintendent Bright:
Left-handed?

DI Fred Thursday:
As you'd have noticed, given the opportunity to examine it yourself, the front and rear brakes cables have been swapped over.

DC Endeavour Morse:
He'll also be an older man, and of limited means, possibly.

DS Peter Jakes:
[almost jokingly] How did you get to that, then?

DC Endeavour Morse:
Well, the bike's ancient. But well maintained. Which points to the thrift, I'd have thought. Taken together with evidence of absentmindedness...

Chief Superintendent Bright:
What evidence?

DC Endeavour Morse:
He sometimes forgets to wear his bicycle clip, sir. There are scraps of material torn from his trousers in the gears. One a cavalry twill, the other's a linen. Both black. He wears a subfusc as a matter of habit.

Chief Superintendent Bright:
[impatient] A don, then? Hm?

DC Endeavour Morse:
Perhaps, sir. But I think, given the limited means, we are looking for a man of the cloth.

DS Peter Jakes:
[almost laughing] A vicar shooting somebody in a lav?

Chief Superintendent Bright:
I hope you'll eliminate known criminals from your inquiries first, Thursday, before troubling any clergymen, what. Really Constable Morse, you should be on the halls.