Gently Sinking

by Alan Hunter

  ‘And your sister?’

  ‘She came later, after we’d started up here.’

  ‘How do you get on with her?’

  Pink hands opened. ‘Man, you know about families,’ Sunshine said. ‘We’s fond of each other, that’s sure, but she goes her way, I go mine.’

  ‘Are Mrs Sunshine and she friends?’

  Sunshine’s eyes wrinkled. He looked at his wife.

  ‘We’s pretty good friends, sir,’ Sarah said. ‘That gentleman says true, we do swap dresses.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Tallent said. ‘I like to be noticed.’

  He lit a cigarette and blew stealthy smoke.

  Gently leaned massively on the table, hands limp, eyes at a distance.

  ‘How long had your sister been friendly with Blackburn?’

  Sunshine thought, then said, ‘Most of a year.’

  ‘There were others before that?’

  ‘Surely, man.’

  ‘Serious?’

  Sunshine rocked his shoulders. ‘She’s not the marrying sort, you understand? Sadie, she’s one bitch of a woman. Wasn’t never a man yet who lasted with Sadie. One day she’ll find him, not right now.’

  ‘Blackburn wasn’t that man?’

  ‘No, sir. Not Tommy.’

  ‘Yet they’d lasted nearly a year.’

  Sunshine’s mouth twisted. ‘I’d say that was over.’

  ‘How . . . over?’

  ‘Just that way. She was through, man. Tommy was out. They not speaking to each other any more.’

  ‘When did that happen?’

  ‘Oh . . . just lately.’

  ‘Since the sinking?’

  Sunshine rolled his eyes.

  Sarah Sunshine said, ‘I think she just tired of him.’ She kept her eyes on the table. ‘Maybe that ship sinking was just an excuse. She had enough of Tommy anyway.’

  Tallent laughed. ‘It gets better,’ he said. ‘Soon now we’ll hear of a quarrel, threats.’

  ‘We don’t know of no quarrel, man,’ Sunshine said. ‘You don’t go making up things that ain’t so.’

  ‘Down, boy,’ Tallent said. His eyes glittered. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘The picture’s coming. This nympho black girl. Unstable. Next we find she owned a knife.’

  Sarah Sunshine’s hand flew to her mouth.

  ‘So she did own a knife,’ Tallent said, getting up.

  ‘Oh gosh, I didn’t say so!’ Sarah Sunshine said. ‘I sure didn’t say she had a knife.’

  ‘Did she have a knife?’ Gently asked.

  ‘Man, this is crazy,’ Sunshine said.

  ‘Did she?’

  ‘I’m saying—’

  Tallent leaned over the table. ‘You better answer him, boy,’ he said. ‘You better.’

  ‘I never did see her with one!’ Sunshine said. ‘That’s all I know – I can’t say more.’

  ‘You didn’t see it,’ Tallent said. ‘But you knew she had it – come on, come on. She had a knife.’

  ‘I just—’

  Tallent’s fist doubled. Sarah Sunshine screamed. Sunshine’s hands lifted to his face. Gently’s finger touched Tallent’s fist, pushed it away, pushed Tallent away. He beckoned towards the man who sat by the juke-box.

  ‘You’ve something to tell me, Mr Taylor?’ he said.

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Taylor mumbled. ‘That was my knife. Sadie had my knife. She took it off me.’

  He shambled to the table with dragging feet, eyes fearful of Tallent. He was sweating. He didn’t sit down, stood uneasily, arms dangling.

  ‘My knife,’ he said. ‘She took it, sir. I was horsing about. She took it.’

  Gently looked at Sarah Sunshine. Sarah Sunshine looked at the table.

  ‘You saw this?’ Gently asked her.

  Sarah Sunshine nodded. ‘I saw it. One evening.’

  ‘Just what happened?’

  ‘Maybe Aaron was drunk. He didn’t like Sadie going home with Tommy. Aaron pulled a knife.’

  ‘Threatening Blackburn?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’ She went on nodding.

  ‘I sure wasn’t drunk,’ Taylor said huskily. ‘I wasn’t going to hurt that man, sir. I just had enough of these goings-on. I don’t hold with white men and black girls.’

  ‘You cheeky git,’ Tallent said.

  ‘So what were your intentions?’ Gently said.

  ‘I just show him the knife,’ Taylor said. ‘I swear by the Lord I wasn’t going to hurt him.’

  ‘And Miss Sunshine took it – and kept it.’

  ‘Yes, sir. She put it in her bag.’

  ‘On Tuesday,’ Tallent said. ‘Say it was on Tuesday.’

  ‘No, sir. All this happen two, three months back.’

  ‘Shit,’ Tallent said. He booted a chair-leg.

  ‘Can you describe that knife?’ Gently asked.

  ‘Yes, sir. That’s a poor old trashy sort of knife, got a no-good blade and a stripy handle.’

  ‘Just like our knife,’ Tallent said.

  ‘We’ll need you to identify it,’ Gently said. ‘We’ll also need to know where you were on Tuesday evening, and you’d best think carefully before you answer.’

  Taylor began shivering. ‘I didn’t kill him,’ he said. ‘I ain’t that sort of person. Everyone’ll tell you.’

  ‘You just pulled a knife on him,’ Tallent said. ‘And we find it stuck in him. Some coincidence.’

  ‘But I never did it!’ Taylor whimpered. ‘Lord, gosh, I hate that man, that’s true. He take Sadie away, make her scorn me, I hope he finish up under a bus. But I don’t go an’ take a knife to him, not ’cept trying to scare him away. I ain’t that sort. You just ask folk. I don’t never give no trouble.’

  ‘Man, that’s the truth,’ Sunshine said. ‘Aaron don’t make trouble.’

  ‘Except once with a knife,’ Tallent said. ‘And once with a knife is too often.’

  Sarah Sunshine said, ‘Aaron was here in the club Tuesday evening.’

  ‘Another friend,’ Tallent said. ‘Being here’s no alibi for the likes of you.’

  ‘Were you here?’ Gently asked Taylor.

  ‘Yes, sir, most of the evening I was here.’

  ‘You saw Blackburn?’

  ‘Sure I saw him—’

  ‘Tell me about seeing Blackburn.’

  Taylor’s pale tongue went over thick lips. ‘He came in here, had some drinks. Sarah was fixing him a meal. He just sits eating, watching the band.’

  ‘Alone?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Did Miss Sunshine speak to him?’

  ‘I didn’t see Sadie time I’m there.’

  ‘Did he speak to anyone?’

  ‘No, sir, nobody. ’Cepting Sarah when she was by.’

  Gently glanced at Sarah Sunshine.

  ‘It surely is true, sir,’ she said. ‘Tommy came in like Aaron says, and I fixed him a meal. He didn’t talk much.’

  ‘You didn’t speak to him?’ Gently said to Taylor.

  ‘No, sir. Why should I speak to that man? I sit over there, long way off. I never did have much to do with him.’

  ‘You were alone?’

  ‘Sure I was alone.’

  ‘I can picture it,’ Tallent said. ‘This boy sitting alone. Mulling over what Blackburn’s done to him, across in the corner, figuring to himself.’

  ‘I ain’t figuring nothing,’ Taylor said. ‘Cain’t I just sit there, sir, if I want to? Cain’t I just be listening to the music and drinking my rum, like the other folks?’

  ‘Sure, why not?’ Tallent said. ‘Who knows how a bloke like you figures? One moment they’re grinning, stomping out the rhythm, the next cutting loose with hatchets, knives.’

  ‘We ain’t no different,’ Taylor said.

  ‘Don’t try kidding me, sonny,’ Tallent said. ‘I may not know how your kind ticks but I know how to make him tick nice.’

  ‘It just wasn’t that way, sir,’ Taylor said.

  ‘Yeah,’ Tallent said. ‘Like I said, I can picture it.’

  �
��Who else was here?’ Gently asked. ‘Anyone you knew with a grudge against Blackburn?’

  ‘No, sir,’ Taylor said. ‘There’s a whole lot of folks, but I don’t know they got a particular grudge.’

  ‘But Blackburn wasn’t popular with them any more?’

  ‘No, sir, he wasn’t popular.’

  ‘Did they show him he wasn’t?’

  ‘I guess they did, sir. They sure didn’t talk to him, act sociable.’

  ‘But they weren’t aggressive? Didn’t threaten him?’

  ‘No, sir. Nobody didn’t threaten.’

  ‘Nobody followed him when he left?’

  Taylor licked his lips. ‘I cain’t say, sir.’

  ‘Why is that?’

  Taylor was trembling again. ‘I guess I came out of here ’bout nine, sir. That man was still sitting there, having a word with Sarah. I don’t know what time he left.’

  ‘Isn’t that beautiful?’ Tallent said.

  ‘So where did you go then?’ Gently asked.

  ‘I didn’t go no place,’ Taylor said. ‘Sir, I just didn’t kill that man, I didn’t.’

  ‘All right,’ Gently said. ‘But you must have gone somewhere. Say between leaving here and 11 p.m.’

  ‘I sure was home,’ Taylor said. ‘You ask, sir. I was home. By 11 p.m.’

  ‘By 11 p.m.?’

  ‘Yes, sure, sir.’

  ‘It’s like robbing blind men,’ Tallent said. ‘We don’t care where you were at 11, dickhead. What were you doing in between?’

  Taylor’s knees wobbled. ‘I just wasn’t no place. I went for a walk. No place at all.’

  ‘He’s lovely,’ Tallent said.

  Taylor grabbed a chair-back. He held on. His eyes were staring.

  ‘You’d better sit down,’ Gently said.

  Taylor half-sat, half-fell into the chair. His face was an ugly colour, sweat shone on the forehead and cheekbones. His breathing was quick. He sat in a sprawl, hands hanging, knees wide. His black eyes were pointing at Gently but they were empty, lids dragged.

  ‘Now,’ Gently said. ‘Take your time. If you didn’t kill him you needn’t be afraid. We’ll certainly find out who did kill him. We’ll perhaps find out quicker if you can help us.’

  ‘That sure is the truth,’ Sunshine said. ‘Don’t you get in no panic, Aaron.’

  ‘You relax, man,’ Sarah Sunshine said. ‘You go loose.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Tallent said. ‘With the tongue.’

  Taylor’s breathing came slower. One of his big hands stirred.

  ‘When you left here,’ Gently said, ‘you went for a walk. Where did you go?’

  ‘I didn’t go no place,’ Taylor said thickly.

  ‘You just walked.’

  ‘Just walked.’

  ‘You often do that?’

  Taylor nodded. ‘I ain’t got many friends any more. Things ain’t been so good with me, I don’t keep up, go around.’

  ‘So you walked for two hours?’

  ‘Yeh, walked. I didn’t kill him.’

  ‘He was on your mind.’

  ‘I’m thinking about him. I cain’t stand what he was doing.’

  ‘Didn’t you know Miss Sunshine had broken with him?’

  Taylor’s hands lifted, clenched.

  ‘Yeah, I hear that, hear them talk about it.’

  ‘But you had to be sure?’

  Taylor shuddered.

  ‘Let’s see,’ Gently said. ‘Brickfields Station must be just over the back here. Chiswick would be two or three stops down the line. Say a twenty-minute journey. If Blackburn left later than you, you could’ve been in Calonne Road before him. Behind one of those big plane trees. Watching Blackburn drive in.’

  Taylor’s hands spread, gripped.

  ‘Were you watching?’ Gently said.

  ‘I didn’t, didn’t,’ Taylor whispered.

  ‘But you were watching?’ Gently said.

  ‘Oh Lord,’ Taylor said. ‘Lord.’

  ‘Was he watching,’ Tallent said. ‘He saw that creep drive up with Sadie, saw them going up to the flat. He goes in, sees Sadie’s bag, gets his knife out of the bag, goes in the bedroom, knifes Blackburn, threatens Sadie, gets to hell. Right man, right motive, right place, right time.’

  ‘No!’ Taylor cried. ‘It ain’t like that.’

  ‘You tell it different, boy,’ Tallent said.

  ‘Sadie ain’t with him!’

  ‘So why’s he dead?’

  ‘Oh Lord, oh Lord,’ Taylor said.

  Gently said, ‘But you saw Blackburn arrive?’

  ‘Yes, sir, yes, sir,’ Taylor said.

  ‘Alone?’

  ‘Yes, yes, sir.’

  ‘He went in alone?’

  ‘Oh yes, sir, alone. Ain’t nobody else.’

  ‘What happened then?’

  ‘There ain’t nothing happened. I don’t stay ’round. I come away.’

  ‘You didn’t wait at all?’

  ‘No, sir, no, sir.’

  Tallent clicked his tongue. ‘You got to prove it, boy,’ he said.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ON HIS NOTE-PAD Stout had scribbled times that filled in Blackburn’s programme to the time of his death. He’d arrived at the Coconut Grove soon after 6 and left again around 9 p.m. Taylor saw him drive up to the flat a short while before 9.30, which checked with the time given by the tenant Baker. ETD was 10 p.m. Journey-times, a bath, a change presumably filled the gap between 4 and 6 p.m.; Blackburn apparently had changed suits after leaving the office and the PM report noticed fresh talcum.

  An unhurried programme, a leisurely meal, an early return to a pre-arranged assignation: nothing disturbing the smooth tenor till the knife lodged in Blackburn’s back. Had the murder also been as smooth, a piece of cold-blooded planning?

  They went through Sadie Sunshine’s room. Sharkey Sunshine raised no objection. It was a small cubicle formed by the partitioning-off of an auxiliary room attached to the hall. It was brightly decorated in shocking pink with crimson cut-outs pasted on the walls, had turquoise curtains, a turquoise carpet and black furniture lined with gold. Silver-backed brushes lay on the dressing-table. A shelf of paperbacks included a Jean Genet. In a crowded wardrobe were several scanty dresses that glittered with sequins in silver and gold. On a bedside cabinet stood a framed half-length photograph of a young coloured woman in a low-cut gown, a woman with slanted eyes, an exquisite jawline and a mischievous, mocking smile. The room had a perfume. Beside the silver-backed brushes stood a green cut-glass bottle labelled Après moi . . .

  ‘After her,’ Tallent muttered, staring at it. ‘Blackburn copped the deluge all right. Playing with black women, the creep. Nobody does that and gets away with it.’

  ‘She was pretty all right, though,’ Stout said. ‘I reckon Blackburn had good taste.’

  ‘You aren’t born, sonny,’ Tallent said.

  ‘I don’t know, sir,’ Stout said. ‘She looks nice.’

  Tallent scowled at him, at the photograph.

  ‘I don’t know how you figure it, sir,’ he said to Gently. ‘But she had the knife, no getting round that. And she’s the one who left town.’

  ‘She had it once,’ Gently said. ‘She may not still have had it on Tuesday.’

  ‘So Taylor had it,’ Tallent said. ‘She gave it back to him. One or both it has to be.’

  Gently shrugged. ‘Suppose she had broken with Blackburn.’

  Tallent shook his head. ‘I don’t go for that. I’d say it was Sunshine trying to whitewash her, get the heat off his sister. But say it’s true, she could still have made a feint to get at Blackburn, kidding him their deal was on again. Maybe setting it up with Taylor.’

  ‘Would that be necessary?’

  Tallent looked at Gently.

  ‘Taylor could have done it anywhere,’ Gently said. ‘Outside the club, outside the flat. It would have been easier, more anonymous.

  ‘So,’ Tallent said, ‘eliminate Taylor. Say his being around was coincidence. That lea
ves the girl, which is how I read it. Unless Taylor did bust in like I said out there.’

  ‘Not that,’ Gently said. ‘She wouldn’t have run. Or Taylor wouldn’t have let her live.’

  ‘So she’s alive, did run,’ Tallent said. ‘Taylor’s out. Leaving her.’

  ‘And the motive?’

  ‘Christ knows,’ Tallent said. ‘Maybe she did lose someone on the ship. Maybe Blackburn did her wrong. Find her, we’ll find the motive.’

  ‘She just doesn’t look a killer, sir,’ Stout said. ‘She looks . . . well . . . sort of nice-natured.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Tallent said. ‘Only you can’t trust her kind.’

  ‘Well, I know some . . .’ Stout began, then stopped.

  Gently moved to the small window, looked out at the wet grime of the railway wall.

  ‘A couple of things,’ he said. ‘One is that neither Osgood nor Grey were at the club here on Tuesday evening.’

  ‘Does that mean anything, sir?’ Tallent said.

  ‘Probably not,’ Gently said. ‘The other is that Grey was so informative about Aaron Taylor and Miss Sunshine. Of course, it may have been on the level. Grey is slick enough to make a deal. But if he intended to hand us a wrong angle, then he’s done a good job.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Tallent said, scowling at Gently’s back. ‘Only I don’t see how it’s a wrong angle. The facts check.’

  ‘They’d have to,’ Gently said. ‘Otherwise there’d be no point in the attempt.’

  ‘So,’ Tallent said, ‘where’s the catch?’

  Gently shrugged. ‘There may not be one. Simply that while we’re concentrating on the one angle we may be overlooking another.’

  ‘Like some third party killed Blackburn?’

  ‘That’s the suggestion,’ Gently said.

  ‘Like maybe Grey, if his alibi’s faked?’

  ‘Grey may have had motive,’ Gently said.

  Tallent shook his head. ‘I don’t buy it, sir,’ he said. ‘Grey was too cocky. He knew he was safe. And he didn’t know about the knife, about Taylor being at Chiswick, about Sadie Sunshine skipping, none of that. We found that out.’

  ‘So we did,’ Gently said.

  ‘Well, it’s all corroborative, sir,’ Tallent said. ‘And if the dabs here check with the dabs at the flat, sexy Sadie is in it up to her neck.’

  ‘She’ll certainly have explaining to do,’ Gently said.

  ‘Yeah,’ Tallent said, smoothing his hands.