Gently Sinking (19 page)

‘Over and stand by,’ Gently said.

He hung up.

Sharkey was watching him.

‘I’ll repeat what I was saying to you,’ Gently said. ‘What you say now will be taken down in writing and may be used in evidence. Is that clear?

‘That’s clear, man,’ Sharkey said. ‘You’s mighty fair. Put that down.’

‘Right,’ Gently said. ‘We’ll continue. You told your sister and your wife on Tuesday night.’

Sharkey eased forward, pressing on his knees.

‘I ain’t going to justify it any,’ he said. ‘I had ’bout all I could take from Tommy, and I just went crazed. That’s all I can tell you.’

‘Did something happen on Tuesday?’

Sharkey pulled at his beard.

‘Yeh,’ he said. ‘You can say something happened. I just got a letter Sonny posted before he sailed. When he was alive. It reached me Tuesday. And that was a lie I said about Tommy and the ship. I knew he was responsible, I’d talked to Grey. Then Tuesday evening Tommy was kidding with Sarah like nothing had happened. And I flipped.’

‘Go on,’ Gently said.

‘I followed him home. I knew he’d have a whore there, him leaving early. I parked in the road, let him go up, gave him time to get in a clinch.’

‘You parked where?’

‘Right in the road, man. He didn’t know I was on his tail.’

‘Did you see anyone there who might identify you?’

‘No man, nobody. The road was empty.’

Tallent made a noise.

Sharkey slid him a look.

‘I ain’t saying there wasn’t nobody there,’ he said. ‘But I didn’t notice nobody. I was watching Tommy. I didn’t see any person in that road.’

‘So you waited,’ Gently said. ‘What happened then?’

‘I went in round the back way,’ Sharkey said. ‘Between the houses. There’s some outside steps go up to the kitchen. That’s the way I got in.’

‘Wasn’t the door locked?’

‘Sure,’ Sharkey said. ‘But I got a knife with me, remember?’

‘What about the mortice lock?’

Sharkey hesitated.

‘There ain’t one,’ he said. ‘Or it wasn’t locked.’

‘Go on,’ Gently said.

Sharkey pressed on his knees, seemed to be moulding them together.

‘I went in,’ he said. ‘They was on the bed. I let him have it in the back.’

‘Who was the woman?’

‘I didn’t know her,’ Sharkey said.

‘You saw her?’

‘Yeh, man.’

‘Though it was dark?’

‘It ain’t quite dark,’ Sharkey said. ‘Not quite dark. There’s some sort of light. Maybe it’s the electric fire.’

‘Blackburn’s flat is centrally heated,’ Gently said.

‘There’s light,’ Sharkey said. ‘Maybe it come through the window.’

‘Enough light for you to see this woman was a stranger?’

‘Yeh, man,’ Sharkey said.

‘Go on.’

‘So that’s about all,’ Sharkey said. ‘I went out there fast. I jumped in my car and drove back home. I’m maybe gone about an hour, but ain’t going to be nobody notice that.’

‘You stabbed him and went.’

‘That’s about it.’

‘So your dabs will be on the knife,’ Gently said.

‘Dabs,’ Sharkey said. ‘There ain’t no dabs. I’m wearing my gloves all this time.’

‘I see,’ Gently said. ‘Did Blackburn scream?’

‘No, man. He’s dead straight away.’

‘Why stab him twice, then?’

‘I don’t know why I do it.’

‘But you stabbed him twice.’

‘Maybe,’ Sharkey said.

Tallent scraped his chair, grabbed a cigarette, threw a hard stare at Sharkey.

‘You just don’t know what you do,’ Sharkey said. ‘It’s like a kind of blackout. I’m doing my best to remember.’

‘This woman,’ Gently said.

Sharkey hung to his knees.

‘Where was she when you entered the room?’

‘Man, she’s on the bed,’ Sharkey said. ‘They’s both on the bed. She’s underneath him. That’s the way.’

‘You were able to see this?’

‘Don’t I say so?’

‘You were able to see her?’

‘Yeh, man. Yeh.’

‘Though she was beneath Blackburn?’

‘Yeh. I can see her.’

‘Well enough to know she was a stranger?’

‘I did know that,’ Sharkey said.

‘Then you approach the bed,’ Gently said. ‘You can see her. Doesn’t she see you?’

‘Man, she ain’t seeing,’ Sharkey said. ‘She got her eyes closed. She don’t see me.’

‘So you stab him,’ Gently said. ‘Is she still insensible?’

‘I don’t know, I don’t wait,’ Sharkey said.

‘While you stab him twice,’ Gently said.

‘I just don’t know, man. It’s all like a nightmare. I don’t know.’

‘But you’ll know this,’ Gently said, ‘since you saw her so well. Was she a white woman?’

‘She, she—’ Sharkey said, ‘she’s a white woman.’

‘So she couldn’t have been Sadie?’

Sharkey dropped his head.

‘Well,’ Gently said, ‘I’m glad that’s established, your sister being under such grave suspicion. Now we’ll be able to relieve her mind when she walks through that door.’

Sharkey jolted upright.

‘You don’t need her here, man!’

‘She seems to think otherwise,’ Gently said.

Out in the hall there’d been voices and footfalls.

Now there came a rap on the door.

Sadie Sunshine came in.

Sharkey Sunshine jumped up.

They stood facing each other in front of the desk.

Seen together, there was no mistaking the kinship between the two fine-featured faces. She was nearly as tall as he. They made matching male and female figures. She was elegant, he was powerful, each with a natural grace of carriage.

‘You, woman,’ he said from deep in his chest. ‘You keep your mouth shut, you woman.’

‘You, man,’ Sadie Sunshine said. ‘Who you think you telling, you, man?’

‘This ain’t your affair,’ Sharkey Sunshine said. ‘You just do what I’m saying, you, woman.’

‘This my affair too,’ Sadie Sunshine said. ‘You a big fool, Sharkey Sunshine, you, man.’

She turned impetuously to Gently.

‘You don’t listen to this man,’ she said. ‘He has an idea in his head that he ought to protect me. I don’t need protecting by him.’

‘You, woman, be quiet,’ Sharkey Sunshine said.

‘Oh no,’ Sadie Sunshine said. ‘Oh no. You’ve told these policemen your story, Sharkey. Now you just let me tell them mine.’

‘I’ve confessed, you, woman.’

Sadie Sunshine laughed.

‘And you think they believed you, you fool man?’

‘I killed Blackburn,’ Sharkey Sunshine said. ‘I killed him.’

‘Man, you weren’t even near the place.’

She took the chair Sharkey had sat in, folded her long legs neatly together. She laid her bag and her gloves on her lap. She met Gently’s eyes firmly.

‘I was the woman with Blackburn,’ she said. ‘I went to his flat to make it up with him. He was in my arms when he died. I saw the man: it wasn’t Sharkey.’

‘Oh, you fool, woman!’ Sharkey groaned.

‘This is very interesting,’ Gently said. ‘So who was it?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘We didn’t have the light on. But it wasn’t Sharkey. He didn’t have a beard.’

‘You could see that?’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I could see that. I could see his silhouette against the curtains. And it wasn’t Sharkey. It was a shorter man. It was a man with a very short neck.’

‘Who you didn’t know.’

‘Who I didn’t know. I’m not even sure he was black.

‘And he just stabbed Blackburn and ran.’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Stabbed him and ran.’

She sat very still, slightly smiling, eyes large and unwinking.

Sharkey towered over her chair, scowling down, a hand on the chair-back.

‘So,’ Gently said, ‘you claim to be an eye-witness.’

‘I sure was that,’ Sadie Sunshine said.

‘You saw the murderer, saw the blows struck.’

‘I could feel them.’

She blinked her eyes.

‘Did you scream?’

‘I guessed I screamed. Maybe that’s why he left so fast.’

‘Leaving you pinned down by Blackburn’s body.’

‘Don’t remind me of that,’ she said.

‘Of course, you’d be terrified,’ Gently said. ‘Left in that situation with a murdered man. In the dark as you were. With blood pouring over you. What did you do?’

She laughed nervously.

‘I guess I got out from under.’

‘What about the blood?’

‘I sluiced it off in the shower. I was in my birthday-suit, remember.’

‘That’s curious,’ Gently said. ‘We didn’t find any blood-traces other than those on the bed. And Blackburn bled quite freely. And all this happened in the dark.’

‘I guess I didn’t get so much on me,’ Sadie Sunshine said. ‘I was sliding out of that pretty quick. I switched the light on as soon as I reached it, saw I had some smudges down the side.’

‘Did it call for a shower to remove those?’

‘I thought it had better be a shower,’ she said.

‘Wouldn’t you be in a hurry to leave there?’ Gently said.

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I got in the shower.’

‘Going back to the attack,’ Gently said. ‘You could see the attacker, you could feel two blows.’

‘Two blows,’ she said, ‘very quick. Then I was screaming and he ran out.’

‘He didn’t hesitate.’

‘He didn’t hesitate.’

‘So it couldn’t have been him who wiped the knife-handle.’

Sadie Sunshine’s eyes didn’t blink.

‘No,’ she said. ‘I did that afterwards.’

‘You,’ Gently said.

‘It was naughty,’ she said. ‘I know I shouldn’t have done that. But I recognized the knife. It meant it was one of our people. So I gave it a wipe with my hankie.’

‘Why didn’t you take it?’

She made a face.

‘I wasn’t going to pull it out,’ she said. ‘It was only a cheap, common sort of knife. I sure didn’t think you’d ever trace it.’

‘You kept a cool head,’ Gently said.

‘Not me,’ she said. ‘I was in an all-ways tizzie. But I had to wash and dress, I couldn’t just run, so I guess I cooled a bit in the process.’

‘It was then you thought to wipe the knife-handle.’

‘The knife-handle, the doors, things I’d touched.’

‘And when you did something else.’

‘Maybe,’ she said.

‘Concerning Blackburn’s wallet.’

‘The wallet,’ she said.

Gently stared at the ceiling.

‘The wallet,’ he said, ‘was in Blackburn’s jacket, which hung over a chair. The murderer didn’t have time to go through it, but someone did. It was empty.’

Sadie Sunshine repeated her nervous laugh.

‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’ll come clean. I took his money. He owed me that much. And he surely didn’t have any more use for it.’

‘How much?’ Gently said.

‘Oh . . . about fifty.’

‘Mostly in fivers?’ Gently said.

‘Mostly in fivers,’ she said. ‘A few ones.’

‘Miss Sunshine,’ Gently said to the ceiling, ‘you’re a liar.’

He came up suddenly from his chair.

‘You’re liars, both of you,’ he said. ‘Neither of you was in that flat on Tuesday evening. Neither of you was in Chiswick.’

‘Man, that ain’t so—’ Sharkey began.

‘You,’ Gently said, ‘never left the Club.’

‘I did!’

‘You didn’t,’ Gently said. ‘You couldn’t leave it for an hour and nobody notice. You’re a figurehead there. You’re the MC. You leave a gap when you go out. And you didn’t go out. Your customers say so. Who served the band at 10 p.m.?’

‘I—’ Sharkey said.

Gently turned to Sadie.

‘You were in Acton,’ he said. ‘With James Osgood.’

‘I never was!’

‘Oh yes,’ Gently said. ‘You were giving him a whirl to spite Blackburn. It was a bad alibi, so you didn’t give it. Osgood had reason to settle with Blackburn. It was a bad alibi for Osgood too. You were hot. You wouldn’t do.’

‘But this is crazy—!’

‘Stop lying,’ Gently said. ‘You two are covering, but not for each other. You’re covering for the woman who is Grey’s mistress. Who borrowed Sadie’s bonnet. Who couldn’t run.’

‘Oh man, we ain’t—!’ Sharkey cried.

‘Who propositioned Blackburn,’ Gently said. ‘Who was waiting in his flat for him on Tuesday. Who killed him with a knife taken from Sadie’s bedroom.’

‘Oh God, my God!’ Sharkey cried.

‘So don’t let’s waste each other’s time,’ Gently said.

He picked up the paperweight, let it drop with a bang.

‘I knew this yesterday,’ he said.

Sharkey reached over the desk, grabbed Gently’s arm.

‘But why you think this, man,’ he cried. ‘Why you think little Sarah kill him? She don’t have any reason at all.’

‘Tell me her maiden name,’ Gently said.

‘Her maiden name—!’

‘Isn’t it Quintos?’

Sharkey gazed, lips trembling.

‘Sarah Quintos,’ Gently said.

He pushed the Immigration Department list towards Sharkey.

‘You lost a brother,’ he said. ‘One. She lost brothers, sisters, father, mother, a grandparent: her all. She didn’t have anyone left but you.’

Gently snatched his arm from Sharkey’s grasp.

‘And yesterday she didn’t have you either,’ he said. ‘After you’d guessed about Grey.’

‘Oh, oh,’ Sharkey sobbed.

He slid down on the front of the desk.

‘It’s true,’ he sobbed. ‘Oh, I been cruel. I didn’t know I could be so cruel.’

Sadie Sunshine sat very pale.

‘She’d have told you,’ Gently said to her. ‘You knew about Grey. That’s why you ran. So we’d suspect you. So we wouldn’t bother much with Mrs Sunshine.’

Sadie Sunshine said, ‘It was Grey.’

‘Yes,’ Gently said. ‘Grey. Perhaps even losing her whole family wouldn’t have turned Sarah into a killer. And unless she talks we can’t touch him.’

‘He’ll need to watch out,’ Sadie Sunshine said.

‘I’m afraid he’s good at that,’ Gently said.

Sadie Sunshine didn’t say anything.

Gently shrugged.

‘Right,’ he said to Tallent. ‘Time to go out and bring her in.’

‘No, man!’ Sharkey cried, jumping up. ‘You cain’t do that, sir – you cain’t.’

‘I must,’ Gently said.

‘No,’ Sharkey cried.

He went down on one knee before Gently.

‘Let me fetch her. Oh, please. She ain’t going to give nobody any trouble.’

‘It’s my duty,’ Gently said.

‘She’ll be frightened, sir. Please. Please.’

Gently paused.