Authors: Bill James
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Cule: | âDid you know the deceased, Gervaise Manciple Tasker?' |
Feston: | âNot really know. Had met, as I realized later.' |
Cule: | âLater being?' |
Feston: | âAfter his death.' |
Cule: | âHow did you meet him?' |
Feston: | âHe visited Happy Gardening Solutions at Lesser Davit.' |
Cule: | âYou were present at Happy Gardening Solutions and saw him there?' |
Feston: | âMy place of work.' |
Cule: | âMany people must visit Happy Gardening Solutions.' |
Feston: | âMany, indeed, seeking solutions to their gardening problems, which is why the firm is called what it is, obviously.' |
Cule: | âBut you remember Gervaise Manciple Tasker?' |
Feston: | âOf course, I didn't know at the time his name was Gervaise Manciple Tasker.' |
Cule: | âHow did you discover that?' |
Feston: | âThe media.' |
Cule: | âIn what sense?' |
Feston: | âI read in the papers and saw on TV News that a man had been found dead. There were pictures of him taken before this terrible event â the children's playground, all of it.' |
Cule: | âAnd you recognized him?' |
Feston: | âRight.' |
Cule: | âThat would seem to indicate he'd made quite an impression on you â given that you would see great numbers of customers there.' |
Feston: | âI've a memory for faces. Oh, yes. It's quite an asset because people met at a certain part of our time here below may float back in later, and it helps if we can place them, as it were. You will, I'm sure, have read the novels of Anthony Powell â spelt P O W E L L but pronounced Pole â where characters drift in and out of one another's lives over twelve volumes. Think of his one-time girlfriend, Jean Templer, turning up all those years later married to a South American colonel. That's why I'm so interested in his books â called A Dance to the Music of Time. Mr Pellotte too, of course.' |
Cule: | âGervaise Manciple Tasker won't be dancing back into your life.' |
Feston: | âThere will be losses, gaps.' |
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Cule: | âEven though you have this exceptional memory for faces, was Tasker's visit special in some way, so that you recalled it on seeing his pictures?' |
Feston: | âMr Adrian Pellotte, chairman of Happy Gardening Solutions, is very keen to build a good, warm, personal contact with customers. Above all, personal. Staff, including myself, willingly follow that practice. In this day and age when so much buying and selling is done remotely â by phone, for instance â the personal aspect in our kind of business becomes even more important. There is a kind of brotherhood formed by a shared interest in things of the soil.' |
Cule: | âSoul?' |
Feston: | âSoil. But soul as well.' |
Cule: | âWhat is your role at Happy Gardening Solutions?' |
Feston: | âI am Mr Pellotte's driver.' |
Cule: | âBut do you also have a role specific to Happy Gardening Solutions?' |
Feston: | âI try to busy myself, when we're not in the car.' |
Cule: | âIn what ways?' |
Feston: | âGeneral. As it comes. I like to think of myself as an all-rounder, in the best sense of that term.' |
Cule: | âWhich is the best?' |
Feston: | âNot a dilettante, knowing tiny bits about a lot. Able to turn my hand to many a task.' |
Cule: | âWhat drew your notice to Gervaise Manciple Tasker?' |
Feston: | âHe seemed to be wandering about, a little lost.' |
Cule: | âYou asked him what he was interested in, did you?' |
Feston: | âI think he wanted to look at sheds. He seemed to have an inclination towards sheds. People do get inclinations. It might be sheds, it might be flagstones, or bird baths.' |
Cule: | âAnd, given his inclination, did you take him to see the sheds? Which kind of shed did he seem inclined towards â for instance, a gazebo-type shed, or just a shed for keeping garden tools in?' |
Feston: | âThere is, indeed, a wide choice of sheds, varying very considerably in price, as you'd expect. Some people inclined towards sheds are subconsciously looking for a bolt-hole, a private nest, a den, four walls and a roof, though in miniature when viewed against more substantial property.' |
Cule: | âDid he buy a shed?' |
Feston: | âNo, not that day.' |
Cule: | âDid he come back and buy a shed another day?' |
Feston: | âI don't know. I didn't see him again.' |
Cule: | âDid he buy anything at all on the day you did see him?' |
Feston: | âNot while I was with him.' |
Cule: | âDid that seem odd to you?' |
Feston: | âIn which way?' |
Cule: | âDid it make you wonder why he was there at all?' |
Feston: | âPeople do come to sightsee. It's a spot that frees them for a time from their urban surroundings, yet reasonably accessible to London. They can follow those inclinations I mentioned, in a relaxed style. Mr Pellotte is happy to provide the ground for that.' |
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Cule: | âYou talked to him for some while, did you?' |
Feston: | âI wanted to find what he was focused on.' |
Cule: | âAs to happy solutions for his garden?' |
Feston: | âExactly. This seemed very much in line with Mr Pellotte's ideas about the personal.' |
Cule: | âDo you have a security function with Pellotte's firm?' |
Feston: | â“Security” in what sense?' |
Cule: | âIn the sense that this non-purchasing visitor might be some kind of spy.' |
Feston: | â“Spy”?' |
Cule: | âOn reconnaissance.' |
Feston: | âWhat would there be to spy on at Happy Gardening Solutions?' |
Cule: | âYou talked. What about?' |
Feston: | âI've said, I tried to get him focused.' |
Cule: | âOn sheds?' |
Feston: | âOn whatever.' |
Cule: | âDid someone call you down because they thought this customer might not be a customer, but someone loitering, casing the place?' |
Feston: | âCall me down from where?' |
Cule: | âFrom the firm's headquarters upstairs.' |
Feston: | âI try to get around the grounds quite a bit, to see things are OK, and offer that personal contact when needed. Although Mr Pellotte is keen on this, he hasn't always got time to see to it himself. I'm glad to circulate on his behalf.' |
Cule: | âThe offices are above a showroom, aren't they? He'd been looking at big mowers in there. But not buying.' |
Feston: | âWith those big mowers, people often come in two or three times, or even more. They are expensive.' |
Cule: | âWould the people who called you down suspect he was using an apparent interest in the mowers to cover his real interest â the way up to the firm's offices on the first floor, and how that entrance was guarded? Perhaps with the intention of describing these arrangements somewhere, and raising queries about why such exceptional vigilance was needed?' |
Feston: | âOh, you'd be surprised how many people see themselves as like a tank commander when sitting on one of the biggest mowers! Brmmm, brmmm! They're thrilled. Amusing in its way. That doesn't mean they'll rush to buy, though. Their lawn must be extensive enough to justify it.' |
Cule: | âThe people who called you down would probably wonder, wouldn't they, whether this was some journalist, ferreting about for a story about your firm. Or someone from Temperate preparing plans of your headquarters. Either way, they're going to be worried and they'll call security. That's you, isn't it?' |
Feston: | âUnless you've got a manor house and acres, one of the big mowers is an extravagance, a bit of conspicuous consumption â boasting, in fact.' |
Cule: | âYou had him marked as a reporter, I expect. You'd know the shed and/or big mower didn't really matter.' |
Feston: | âWe get all sorts there. That's the thing about gardening â it's classless.' |
Cule: | âYou say you didn't know his identity at this stage. Did you try to get it, and, say, an address?' |
Fenton: | âWe discussed many a topic, I can assure you.' |
Cule: | âDid you get a name and address finally?' |
Fenton: | âHappy Gardening Solutions would like to maintain a link with our customers, by brochures delivered to the house. That kind of practice. It's part of the personal approach established by Mr Pellotte which I believe I spoke about just now. But there would be no forcing of ourselves on people. It can be counterproductive. Think of the hostility to timeshare projects because of hard-sell methods.' |
Cule: | âI was talked into timeshare by some persistent woman in the Seychelles. One of my biggest errors ever, believe me.' |