Gently Sinking (9 page)

‘So,’ Gently said.

She swizzled the drink.

‘Yes, he wanted to rub it in,’ she said. ‘Because Tommy had slept with me. Because Freddy tried to thump him for it. Because it was Tommy who thumped Freddy. He hated Tommy.’

She drank the drink standing at the bar then came back to the settee. She took a cigarette from the cigarette-box. Gently lit it for her. Her fingers were trembling. She sat down again, legs slanted, took some drags at the cigarette. Gently had stuck his pipe in his mouth but he was sucking on it empty.

‘I had plenty of reason,’ Mrs Grey said. ‘Don’t think I’m a nympho, something of that sort. It just isn’t me, doing that. Once upon a time I wouldn’t have dreamed of it. But then I thought Freddy loved me. He did love me, I’m sure of that. Once he loved me. Perhaps I should have had a child, only he didn’t want it, so I didn’t.’

‘How long have you been married?’ Gently asked.

‘Oh, four years, nearly five. I met him soon after he’d gone in with Tommy. He was different in those days, honestly different. I wanted a job. I was a typist, liked to call myself a secretary. I was sent to Tommy. He took me on. So I met Freddy. He did love me.’

‘You knew what their business was?’

‘Yes. Sugar. If it was anything different, I didn’t know it. Shipping sugar was what we dealt with in the office, and return cargoes, mostly machinery. Return cargoes were the big headache. The sugar side ran itself. We had twelve-month contracts with Hamish McClure to carry a fixed tonnage out of Kingston.’

‘Did you know your husband associated with black women?’

Her mouth twisted. ‘Not at first.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘At first he loved me. We did everything together. For a time.’

‘Then?’

‘Then we didn’t. I had to go home for some weeks to nurse my mother. It got so he wasn’t at home in the evenings when I phoned, said he was out chasing business. Some business.’

‘Other women?’

‘He was going around with Tommy and Ozzie. I always knew Tommy had black friends, he was in business with some of them at Brickfields. He had a woman, I don’t know her name, but she was beautiful. Plenty of that went on, you bet. Freddy was certainly getting his share. And after Mother died, everything changed. I saw less and less of Freddy in the evenings. And he didn’t want me, you know? It was after that. He stopped loving me.’

She ungummed the cigarette from her lips, ran her tongue over them, drew more smoke.

‘Did you row him?’ Gently asked.

‘Of course. I was hurt. Bitterly hurt.’

‘It did no good.’

‘None at all. It was suddenly too late. He’d gone away.’

‘You tried other things?’

She smiled tremulously. ‘Yes, but they weren’t any good either. It’s no use, just no use. When they stop loving they stop. You can be Helen and the Queen of Sheba, it doesn’t matter. They’re through.’

‘But something particular happened,’ Gently said. ‘It wasn’t just neglect that drove you to Blackburn.’

The cigarette stuck again. A piece tore from it when she tugged it from her lip.

‘One day I saw him with her,’ she said.

‘Who?’

‘A black woman. I don’t know.’

‘Where was this?’

‘She was in the car with him. Driving down Regent Street, bold as brass.’

‘You saw her face?’

‘No. Not properly. She was nicely dressed, had a lacy hat. The cat’s whisker. Freddy was grinning. Looked like he was on top of the world.’

‘That didn’t prove anything,’ Gently said. ‘She may have been a client, or a client’s wife.’

‘Yes, that’s what I told myself,’ Mrs Grey said. ‘Only I asked him about it. And he lied.’

‘You asked him outright?’

‘I’m not daft. I asked him if he’d made a trip that day. He said no, he hadn’t left the office, they’d had some trouble with bills of lading. So then I knew. And something came over me. Maybe it was then I stopped loving him. It’s the way you said, neglect couldn’t do it, not even that woman. It was the lie.’

‘Can you date that day?’ Gently asked.

‘Yes. The twenty-second of April.’

‘But you didn’t recognize the woman?’

She shook her head. ‘I don’t know any black people, anyway.’

‘You’d seen the woman who was friendly with Blackburn.’

Mrs Grey paused, watching her cigarette-butt.

‘I thought of her,’ she said. ‘She was very lovely. Somehow I didn’t think of her as just sleeping around.’

‘But was it she with your husband?’

‘I can’t be certain. You know how it is with people in cars. Unless you know them well you haven’t a chance. I can only swear to the car and Freddy.’

Gently sucked emptiness through his pipe.

‘Tell me the rest of it,’ he said.

She got rid of her butt in a crystal ashtray.

‘I don’t know I’m so very proud of that,’ she said. ‘Tommy was nice, but I wasn’t in love with him. He knew what was going on all right. Maybe he thought I’d be an easy lay, and he was right. I just didn’t care.’

‘He took the initiative?’ Gently asked.

Her shoulders hunched. ‘Do men ever do that? Unless a woman shows a flicker of green it never occurs to a man to try. So I gave him the flicker. Not very serious. Probably I only wanted sympathy. Then when he kissed me as though he liked me I felt warm and grateful and it went on from there.’

‘Where did you meet?’

‘Here mostly. Tommy often called round here anyway. He liked being a bachelor, didn’t like being lonely. Neighbours were used to seeing his car here. Once or twice we went out on the town, but I was mortally afraid in case we ran into Freddy. Tommy would laugh, tell me not to worry, he was pretty certain we were safe from Freddy.’

‘Did you fish a bit then?’

She nodded. ‘But men have a beastly code, of course. Or else he genuinely didn’t know who the woman was, just maybe knew where Freddy went to meet her.’

‘What about his own woman?’

‘Oh, he didn’t deny her. Just grinned and said she wasn’t jealous.’

‘Did you ever meet her when you were with him?’

‘No. Not to my knowledge, anyway.’

Gently sucked. ‘Let me put it together. Blackburn met you when your husband was absent. Blackburn knew when your husband was absent, knew where he was, though perhaps not who with. He knew you wouldn’t meet him if you went down West. And while Blackburn was with you, of course, he wasn’t with his black woman. Did you ever add that lot together?’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I thought of most things. And I’m pretty sure Tommy would have done too, if Freddy had been messing about with his girl. Tommy was fond of her, I could sense that. He wasn’t just getting a kick out of her being black. Whoever Freddy’s woman was he was certain it wasn’t her, or he’d have thumped Freddy a lot sooner.’

‘She could have deceived Blackburn. It’s not unknown.’

‘No.’ Mrs Grey frowned. ‘I never actually met her.’

‘He wasn’t so fond of her that he didn’t play with you.’

‘That’s how men are. I still think he was fond of her.’

‘It could have been her.’

‘All right,’ Mrs Grey said. ‘It could have been. Just at the time I didn’t think it likely. But women are bitches and men are swine, so it could have been her, and I wish her the joy of him.’ Her eyes thrust at Gently’s. ‘Who is she?’

Gently shrugged. ‘We haven’t talked to her yet.’

‘But you know who she is?’

‘We know.’

‘I’d like to talk to her, too,’ Mrs Grey said.

She stared for a long while at the coffee-table, her unusual eyes big.

‘You think she did it, don’t you?’ she said slowly. ‘That’s why you want her tied in with Freddy. He hated Tommy. If she was stuck on Freddy she might just have done it to please him. And she tipped him off. He knew she was going to do it. That’s why he took me out on Tuesday. He’s in it with her, an accessory. His alibi doesn’t mean a thing.’

‘You’re going ahead too fast,’ Gently said. ‘We haven’t talked to the girl yet.’

‘Oh God,’ Mrs Grey said. ‘My husband’s a murderer. Freddy. He let her kill him.’

‘Did she look like a murderer to you?’

Her dazed eyes turned to him.

‘None of this is proved,’ Gently said. ‘Character counts for something, you know.’

‘My husband’s character!’

‘Hers.’

‘An immigrant. You don’t know what they’ll do.’

‘That wasn’t the way you talked at first.’

‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘It fits. It fits. Freddy is cruel. And he’s clever. I knew he’d get even with Tommy somehow. He hated him before this business with me, that only put the tin hat on it.’

‘What was his other grievance?’

‘Money,’ she said. ‘Always that. Tommy had it. Freddy wanted it. Said Tommy never paid him enough.’

‘Does Blackburn’s death benefit your husband?’

‘My God,’ she said. ‘Don’t you know? If one of them dies, it goes to the other. Freddy owns the business now.’

She lit another cigarette and sat hunched over it, her crossed arms against her stomach.

‘That’s how it was,’ she said dully. ‘I know. Freddy. That’s how it was.’

‘Where did Osgood come into it?’ Gently asked. ‘Was he included in the reversion arrangement?’

‘Oh, Ozzie.’ She tossed her head. ‘He’s not really a partner, you know.’

‘What do you know about him?’

‘You can forget him. Ozzie’s all right. Just simple. He wouldn’t plan anything deep, rotten. It isn’t in him. Either way.’

‘He’s implicated in the immigration offences.’

‘He’d hardly know he was doing wrong.’

‘Had he a grievance?’

‘Too dumb.’

‘He seems to be hiding something,’ Gently said.

Mrs Grey kneaded her arms, breathed smoke through little nostrils.

‘Forget him,’ she said. ‘He isn’t in the picture. You just scare him, that’s all. Ozzie’s a stupid. I like him. There’s nothing vicious about Ozzie. If Ozzie ever stuck a knife in someone he’d give himself up to the next policeman.’

‘Could he have known if your husband had planned anything?’

Scornfully she shook her head.

‘Or the identity of the other woman?’

Mrs Grey breathed smoke.

‘He could have known that,’ she admitted. ‘He went around with Freddy and Tommy. They met their black friends in Brickfields. Yes, I didn’t think of Ozzie.’

‘Then perhaps he knows more,’ Gently said. ‘He has an alibi for Tuesday too.’

She thought about that, shook her head again.

‘If he’d known, he would have warned Tommy,’ she said. ‘No. There’s only one man in this. You may not prove it, but I know. I remember the way he showed me that paper. Freddy. He did it, let it be done.’

‘What exactly happened when he found you with Blackburn?’

‘We were in bed.’

She closed her eyes.

‘He came back early. Christ knows why. Perhaps his woman had the curse.’

‘Then?’

‘He yanked Tommy out of bed. He’d put all the lights on when he came in. He swore at Tommy, punching him about. Tommy was dazed at first. He was naked.’

‘But he overcame your husband?’

‘Tommy was a boxer, I don’t think Freddy really hurt him. Tommy kept moving, swaying about, taking the gyp out of Freddy’s punches. Then he sort of jolted him on the side of the jaw and Freddy went down like a sack of potatoes.’

‘He Henry Coopered him,’ Gently said.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘He hit him like that. And Freddy dropped like Cassius Clay and didn’t come round for five minutes. I was scared. We got our clothes on. There was blood dribbling from Freddy’s mouth. Tommy put him on the bed and undid his collar. When he came round, he looked like the devil.’

‘Did Blackburn clear out then?’

She shook her head. ‘He knew he’d have to talk some sense into Freddy. The way Freddy was when he came round he’d probably have gone for me, perhaps killed me. Tommy said all right, so he was laying me, why should that worry Freddy? Freddy was getting his somewhere else, he hadn’t touched me for months. Freddy said that didn’t excuse anything, I was still his wife whether he had me or not. Tommy told him I was human all the same. Freddy said that was his business, not Tommy’s. And they went on talking around like that, you know, saying things that didn’t mean anything, on and on. Then we moved down here and sat around, getting drunk. In the end we were drunk. Tommy spent the night on this settee. In the morning he was gone. Freddy had a hangover, wasn’t talking.’

‘Were any names dropped during this session?’

She drew smoke a couple of times.

‘Freddy sneered about Tommy’s black girlfriend, but I don’t remember any names.’

‘How was your husband’s woman referred to?’

‘I don’t think she was, except indirectly. I’m sure now Tommy didn’t know who she was, he talked as though Freddy were just playing the girls.’

‘You got no impression they might be sharing the same woman.’

‘No. Freddy’s too clever to let anything drop. Even when he’s angry, you don’t get past him. He’s got a cold compartment somewhere inside. And that was about that where we were concerned. We’ve made no pretence with each other ever since. Tommy opted out. I wasn’t in love with him. Freddy and I were just waiting for the break-up. This is obviously it.’ She breathed smoke harshly. ‘In fact, I’m on my way to my lawyer’s.’

‘I see,’ Gently said.

Her shoulders lifted.

‘You’ll be seeing Freddy, of course,’ she said.

‘I’ll be seeing him.’

Her strange eyes found Gently’s. ‘Tell him I know,’ she said. ‘Just that.’

T
ALLENT WAS ABSENT
on his statement-taking when Gently returned to HQ, but the Yard man found Makin sitting at Tallent’s desk with a foolscap list in front of him.

‘Take a look, sir,’ he said to Gently. ‘This came in a moment ago.’

Gently took the sheet. It was from the Immigration Department. It listed the illegals believed by Kingston to have sailed on the
Naxos Island’s
last voyage. They were twenty-two. Alongside six of them Immigration had noted relatives living in the UK. Five lived out of London in Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. One lived in London. It was Sunshine. He’d lost a brother, Sonny, aged eighteen.

‘I’d say that tied things up a bit, sir,’ Makin said. ‘It was his sister’s dabs in the flat all right. And her having the knife, too, that was jam. I reckon her and her brother fixed it between them.’