Gently Sinking

by Alan Hunter

  ‘Yet he had them.’

  She moved her shoulders.

  ‘One,’ Gently said. ‘Especially one.’

  Miss Sunshine sighed, closed her eyes a moment.

  ‘Me,’ she said. ‘Let’s stop the fencing. I guess Freddy and I were kidding each other when we thought it wouldn’t come out. He was scared of Tommy. So was I. Tommy would have banged me if he’d known. So we kept it very, very quiet, maybe two or three meetings a month.’

  ‘Of which 22 April was one.’

  ‘Yes, 22 April.’

  ‘You were going where?’

  She hesitated briefly.

  ‘A flat . . . Freddy had the use of one in Hampstead.’

  ‘Thank you, Miss Sunshine,’ Gently said. ‘I scarcely expected you would be so frank. Now we’ll get more up to date. Where were you on Tuesday evening?’

  Miss Sunshine reached a sharkskin bag from the floor.

  ‘Okay with you if I smoke?’ she smiled.

  She peeled off the white gloves carefully then fetched out a cigarette with a gilt tip. The cigarette was scented. Miss Sunshine puffed several times without inhaling. Then she flicked it with her long thumb, said:

  ‘Tuesday evening I was home sick.’

  ‘Home sick,’ Gently said.

  ‘Sure,’ she said. ‘I had a tummy upset. Something I ate. It turned me up. I spent the evening in bed.’

  ‘Reading,’ Gently said.

  ‘Yes, reading,’ she said. ‘I dare say Sarah told you about it. She gave me a look now and then. You must have asked her about me.’

  ‘I asked her,’ Gently said. ‘She was nervous.’

  ‘Oh, she’d be nervous,’ Miss Sunshine said. ‘She’s highly strung, that woman is, she gets on the shake for the least thing. Policemen would frighten her.’

  ‘She was frightened,’ Gently said.

  ‘Sure, she’d be frightened,’ Miss Sunshine said. ‘You just ignore it.’

  Gently said nothing.

  ‘That woman is a case,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  She drew two quick puffs.

  ‘Where I wasn’t,’ she said, ‘was with Tommy.’

  ‘Blackburn was in Chiswick,’ Gently said.

  ‘So I wasn’t there.’

  ‘After he’d been in Brickfields,’ Gently said.

  ‘I didn’t see him in Brickfields,’ Miss Sunshine said. ‘I didn’t see him any time on Tuesday. We were finished. I didn’t want to see him. I hadn’t set eyes on him for a week.’

  ‘Brickfields to Chiswick,’ Gently said. ‘The road runs through Acton.’

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Miss Sunshine said.

  Gently shrugged, fingered his pipe.

  ‘Look, I wasn’t with Tommy,’ Miss Sunshine said. ‘Where else I was doesn’t matter. I could be half a dozen places, it doesn’t signify a bit. You say I was, you have to prove it, but I wasn’t, and you can’t. You just take my word I was home sick, that’ll be best all round.’

  ‘Suddenly, we’re not so frank,’ Gently said.

  ‘I wasn’t with Tommy,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘Your fingerprints are in his flat,’ Gently said.

  Miss Sunshine flicked her cigarette, said nothing.

  ‘Blackburn had a woman with him,’ Gently said. ‘Your prints and scent are in the flat. We think the woman had an accomplice. Aaron Taylor was watching the flat.’

  ‘Aaron Taylor!’

  ‘He was outside. He saw Blackburn go in.’

  ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘He admits it.’

  Miss Sunshine’s cigarette fluttered.

  ‘How long was he watching?’

  Gently polished his pipe.

  ‘Taylor’s only one suspect,’ he said. ‘He was there, had opportunity. But that applies to some other people.’

  ‘How long—?’ Miss Sunshine said. She stopped.

  ‘Your brother, for one,’ Gently said. ‘He had good reason for hating Blackburn, and his alibi is doubtful. He has a car. He could have driven over. He was missing at times during the evening.’

  ‘Aaron didn’t kill Tommy,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘Grey couldn’t have killed him,’ Gently said. ‘Grey knew what was coming. He fixed up an alibi. Grey had warning from the murderer.’

  Miss Sunshine said nothing.

  ‘Then there’s Osgood,’ Gently said. ‘Perhaps his alibi is most suggestive. In fact, he doesn’t really have an alibi. He was just home. Not even sick.’

  ‘Ozzie,’ Miss Sunshine said. ‘Why should he kill Tommy?’

  ‘He had his reasons,’ Gently said. ‘Or perhaps he was given reasons.’

  ‘You don’t know Ozzie,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘I may end up understanding him,’ Gently said.

  Miss Sunshine drew smoke.

  ‘Coming back to Aaron,’ Gently said. ‘He’s the one man who was certainly there. He was checking on you. He thought you’d be there. He didn’t know you were home sick.’

  ‘That man is a crazy man,’ Miss Sunshine said. ‘I don’t want to hear about him.’

  ‘He loves you,’ Gently said. ‘He thought you’d made it up with Blackburn. He could have killed Blackburn if that were true.’

  ‘But that wasn’t true,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘There are the prints, the scent,’ Gently said. ‘Suppose for a moment he did see you go in there, up to the flat. Then later, Blackburn.’

  ‘He didn’t see that!’

  ‘He was there.’

  ‘If he says he saw me it’s a lie.’

  ‘For the moment, let’s follow him up the stairs.’

  Miss Sunshine closed her eyes and moaned.

  ‘He enters the flat,’ Gently said. ‘He can smell your scent in the dark. He can hear you moving in the bedroom. There’s a faint light from the kitchen windows. As he nears the bedroom your scent grows stronger. He sees the glimmer of Blackburn’s naked back. He stabs. The knife goes home. He knows from the feel of the blow he’s done it. Then he panics. Perhaps you’re screaming. He forgets to take his knife.

  Miss Sunshine shuddered.

  ‘So that’s it,’ she said. ‘The knife. It has to be Aaron because of the knife.’

  ‘It’s a factor,’ Gently said.

  He blew through his pipe.

  ‘How did you know about the knife?’ he said.

  * * *

  Miss Sunshine’s hazel eyes caught with his. For a space she couldn’t get them free.

  Then she pulled away with a breathless little chuckle and reached forward to stub her cigarette.

  ‘Sarah rang me last night,’ she said. ‘I guess that’s how I know about the knife.’

  ‘Sarah rang you,’ Gently said. ‘I see. So Sarah knew where to ring.’

  ‘Oh yes, she knew,’ Miss Sunshine said. ‘I thought I’d best keep in touch with someone.’

  ‘When did she ring you, Miss Sunshine?’

  ‘I didn’t precisely check,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  Gently blew through his pipe again.

  ‘So you knew about the knife,’ he said. ‘No doubt you’ve given it a little thought. How that particular knife finished up in Blackburn.’

  ‘I didn’t stick it there,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘But you did have possession of it,’ Gently said.

  ‘Not on Tuesday I didn’t,’ Miss Sunshine said. ‘Nor for a good long while before that.’

  ‘So who did have it?’

  She shook her head.

  ‘I was meaning to give it back to Aaron,’ she said. ‘But somehow I didn’t get round to that, me having to hold that boy at arm’s length.’

  ‘Then where was the knife?’

  ‘It laid around,’ she said. ‘I guess I left it around in my room.’

  ‘Your bedroom?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And it vanished from there?’

  Miss Sunshine wrinkled her smooth brow.

  ‘Wait,’ she said. ‘I guess it w
ent into the bar. Yes, that’s the last place I remember seeing it. Sharkey borrowed it to open a package, then it was left on a shelf in the bar.’

  ‘Where, of course, a hundred people might have taken it.’

  She moved her shoulders.

  ‘Guess that’s so.’

  ‘Whereas only you three had access to the bedroom.’

  Miss Sunshine slowly stroked her thigh.

  ‘I wonder what else Sarah told you,’ Gently said. ‘That call must have run up quite a bill.’

  ‘She told me you scared her,’ Miss Sunshine said. ‘She told me you could make her say anything you wanted.’

  ‘She didn’t tell me about you and Grey,’ Gently said. ‘Nobody told me anything about that.’

  ‘Because she didn’t know,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘Oh, I think she would know,’ Gently said. ‘Don’t you?’

  Miss Sunshine jerked her head.

  ‘She knew about other men,’ Gently said. ‘After Tommy. After the row. You weren’t usually secretive about these matters. I think Sarah would know about Grey.’

  ‘Grey was different,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘That’s what I’m beginning to feel,’ Gently said.

  ‘We just had to keep it quiet,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘Yes, but so quiet,’ Gently said.

  Miss Sunshine said nothing.

  ‘Do you love him?’ Gently said.

  Miss Sunshine picked a thread in her skirt.

  ‘Did you love Tommy?’

  ‘Tommy was fun.’

  ‘But Grey was more fun?’

  She worried the thread.

  ‘So if you loved Grey,’ Gently said. ‘Why did you bother carrying on with Tommy? That’s what I find so mysterious. You dropped Tommy soon enough when it suited.’

  ‘Oh you man,’ Miss Sunshine groaned.

  ‘Unless Grey wanted it that way,’ Gently said.

  Miss Sunshine stared at him, her chin low, her mouth drawn in small.

  ‘Perhaps there’s another way it makes sense,’ Gently said. ‘But let’s work with what we’ve got. You have this secret liaison with Grey, who has several reasons to want Blackburn dead. When Blackburn does die, Grey has an alibi. Somebody warned him when it would happen. Somebody wanted to keep him in the clear. Who would that somebody be?’

  ‘Not me,’ Miss Sunshine said. ‘Not me.’

  ‘Then tell me who,’ Gently said.

  ‘I didn’t see that man to talk to,’ Miss Sunshine said. ‘Not any time since the row.’

  ‘But after the row,’ Gently said, ‘you’d be free to speak to him. You weren’t afraid of Tommy then.’

  ‘I’m just saying,’ she said, ‘I didn’t speak to him, didn’t see him. I just didn’t.’

  ‘Yet you love him,’ Gently said.

  Miss Sunshine gave him another stare.

  ‘And you’d be grieving about Sonny,’ Gently said. ‘You’d be wanting love and consolation.’

  ‘I didn’t see him.’

  ‘Why?’ Gently said.

  Miss Sunshine closed her eyes tight.

  ‘Maybe,’ she said. ‘Some reason.’

  Gently nodded.

  ‘Yes,’ he said.

  Gently filled and lit his pipe.

  Miss Sunshine sat smoothing a white glove. Her cheeks were hot. Her straight back was angled forward from the hips. She had quietly refolded her legs with scarcely a ripple from her skirt. Her head was tilted, her eyes on the glove. Her breathing was soft but a little fast.

  Gently fanned smoke.

  ‘On Wednesday,’ he said.

  Miss Sunshine let the glove lie.

  ‘You decided you didn’t want to see us,’ Gently said. ‘You left for Manchester. When?’

  ‘About noon, I guess,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘About noon,’ Gently said. ‘You skipped lunch.’

  ‘Well, I had that on the train,’ Miss Sunshine said. ‘I thought perhaps I’d best get moving.’

  ‘And this was on impulse,’ Gently said. ‘You maybe didn’t even let the Quintoses know?’

  ‘Sure, I rang them,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘Before noon?’

  ‘Somewhere then.’

  ‘You rang them, you left,’ Gently said. ‘Why?’

  Miss Sunshine’s eyes jumped to his.

  ‘I mean, in your shining innocence,’ Gently said, ‘how did you know Blackburn was dead?’

  Miss Sunshine sat with her mouth a little open.

  ‘Perhaps you get a quick paper delivery,’ Gently said. ‘There was a paragraph in a noon edition. We’ll check what time it goes on sale. In case your impulse didn’t jump the gun.’

  ‘I – I did see that paper,’ Miss Sunshine said. ‘Some man brought it in to show us.’

  ‘Later, you’ll think of his name,’ Gently said. ‘We won’t rush it.’

  Miss Sunshine hugged her thighs and said nothing.

  Gently puffed.

  ‘So you’re on the train,’ he said. ‘Impulsively running off to Manchester. Having rung the Quintoses. Who, of course, were delighted to take you in at short notice.’

  ‘They’re . . . family friends,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘That’s the impression I’m getting,’ Gently said. ‘And they’d have interests and sympathies in common. Like a recent loss of close relatives.’

  ‘Perhaps they lost someone,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘Someone,’ Gently said, tapping the list.

  ‘Those aren’t close relatives,’ Miss Sunshine said hastily. ‘They’re Albert’s mother’s people. They never lived close.’

  ‘Still, they were Quintoses,’ Gently said. ‘And you might think that quantity made up for quality. And who knows if there wasn’t a close one – just one. Perhaps Albert can tell us.’

  ‘But I know, I’m telling you,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘Oh, I think we’ll have to ask Albert,’ Gently said.

  ‘Anyway, it isn’t important,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  Gently stared at her and puffed.

  ‘You reached Manchester,’ he said. ‘You crossed to Salford. ‘What time did you arrive at the Quintoses’?’

  ‘About six,’ she said.

  ‘Was Albert at home?’

  ‘Not then,’ she said. ‘He got in later.’

  ‘How much later?’

  ‘About seven, eight. Albert drives a big truck.’

  ‘In fact, he was just back from a trip.’

  Miss Sunshine considered the glove on her knee.

  ‘He was back from Bristol,’ she said. ‘That’s all. He took a load down, fetched one back.’

  ‘Did he talk about the trip?’

  ‘I guess he did.’

  ‘About where he stayed, what he did, in Bristol?’

  ‘That sort of thing,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘How he spent Tuesday evening?’

  Miss Sunshine twitched the glove.

  ‘We can’t seem to place him Tuesday evening,’ Gently said. ‘In fact, we can’t place him Tuesday night either. He booked a bed in Bristol but he didn’t sleep in it. Bristol police are checking for us now.’

  ‘He’d be around in Bristol,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘You’re sure it was Bristol?’ Gently said. ‘Of course we’ll ask him.’

  ‘You don’t need to,’ she said. ‘He was out with a woman. He told me that.’

  ‘In Bristol,’ Gently said.

  ‘Sure, Bristol.’

  ‘Well, we’ll have to be certain,’ Gently said. ‘We’d best talk to Albert.’

  Miss Sunshine looked at Gently, dropped her eyes to the glove.

  ‘Then there’d be a lot of other talk with the Quintoses,’ Gently said. ‘They’d want to know about Blackburn’s death. How you came to be so much involved. If you had an alibi that would stand up.’

  ‘We talked about it,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘About Grey,’ Gently said. ‘You’d tell them about him. How,
when all the fuss had died down, you could be his mistress quite openly.’

  ‘I didn’t talk about Grey,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘Not to these close family friends?’ Gently said. ‘You trusted them, didn’t you?’

  ‘I didn’t talk about him.’

  ‘You surprise me,’ Gently said. ‘I was sure you would.’

  Miss Sunshine snatched at the glove. She’d begun to shiver.

  ‘Did you tell them about the knife?’ Gently said.

  ‘I—’ Miss Sunshine said, ‘I didn’t know about the knife.’

  ‘Later,’ Gently said. ‘After Sarah had rung you?’

  ‘I – I might have done,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘You don’t remember?’ Gently said.

  ‘Yes, yes, I might have done,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  ‘We’ll check with them,’ Gently said. ‘No doubt they’ll remember.’

  ‘Oh God, oh God,’ Miss Sunshine said.

  The white glove slipped to the floor.

  Miss Sunshine began to cry.

  The policewoman by the door shifted her position very slightly.

  ‘Of course, we check everything,’ Gently said.

  ‘I’ve just had enough,’ Miss Sunshine cried. ‘You do what you’re going to do, man. You do it! You just do it.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Gently said. ‘What I intended next was for you to visit Grey.’

  ‘No, oh no!’

  ‘We have him here,’ Gently said.

  ‘I won’t see that man. I won’t!’

  She sobbed passionately, her shoulders heaving, her hands hooked over her face.

  ‘All right,’ Gently said.

  He rose.

  ‘So that’ll do for the present,’ he said. ‘We’ll type a statement for you, Miss Sunshine. You can sign that later.’

  ‘But what happens to me now?’ Miss Sunshine sobbed.

  ‘We’ll find you transport to Brickfields.’

  ‘I don’t want to go there!’ Miss Sunshine sobbed.

  ‘But you will,’ Gently said.

  He took the phone.

  CHAPTER TEN

  ALL THIS WHILE Tallent had been listening with a puzzled stare in his pale eyes.

  Now, when Miss Sunshine was escorted out, he jumped suddenly to his feet.

  ‘Sir, we bloody can’t do this!’ he exclaimed.

  Gently looked at him mildly.

  ‘Why not?’ he said.

  ‘Because, because,’ Tallent babbled, ‘we can charge that bitch – but if we let her out of here, she’ll louse it up for us.’