Gently with the Ladies (13 page)

Gently stared very hard at the pike. Was the pattern coincidental? Both these women had attached themselves to rich, elderly men, who had not for long troubled them by continuing in the world. Then they had come together again, enriched by the spoils of the beasts; Clytie, certainly, with the foolishness of a husband, but with only enough of one to make them sport. And how had the beast-providers died? One, at all events, in a road smash. And a road smash was simple enough to engineer if one brought a modest intelligence to the problem . . .

He took the phone again and began to dial, but was interrupted by the entry of Mrs Jarvis.

‘Sorry to trouble you, Mr Gently,’ she said. ‘But there’s a woman downstairs asking to see you.’

He laid the phone down. ‘Who is it?’

‘She wouldn’t give her name, Mr Gently.’

‘Then tell her—’ he began, and stopped.

For Brenda Merryn stood in the doorway.

The den was illuminated by a reading-lamp and Mrs Jarvis made a silent comment. On going out she switched on the room-light and paused with her fingers on the switch. Then she went.

Brenda Merryn winked at Gently. ‘I don’t think your good lady trusts us.’

She went deliberately back to the door and switched the room-light off again.

‘All right with you?’

Gently hunched a shoulder. Brenda Merryn came back into the room. She was dressed to kill in a plunging gown of crimson
crépe
with a frilled bosom. Over this she was wearing a black three-quarter coat, but now she slipped it off and threw it over a chair. She stood hands-on-hips, smiling down at Gently, pervading the den’s pipe-smoke with Blue Grass.

‘Like me?’

She swung her hips.

‘I’m a dangerous woman when I’m roused. Your Mrs Mop was quite right. Nobody would believe I’m here to talk ballet.’

‘So why are you here?’

‘Seduction, perhaps. You annoyed me so much this afternoon. But you were on duty this afternoon, so you had to be strong and incorruptible, didn’t you? Only now you’re not on duty. You’re just a man. In a room. With a woman.’

‘I wouldn’t rely on me not being on duty.’

She gave a laugh. ‘That would be too dull. If policemen were always, but always, policemen, and never did anything about pretty girls. She wasn’t your wife, was she?’

‘That was Mrs Jarvis.’

‘You’re not married, engaged, emotionally involved?’

He shook his head.

‘So what’s wrong with me? We’re free and white, so why not be friends?’

‘And that’s your only reason for coming here?’

She gave a twirl. ‘I thought it was a good one. You can see I’ve put some effort into it – bath, perfume, lace undies, the lot. And if you were chivalrous you’d leave it at that, and only put up a token resistance. I know I’m part of a case by day, but I’m something else again at eleven p.m.’

‘How did you come by my address?’

‘My dear Watson. It’s in the phone-book.’

‘What made you look for it in the phone-book?’

‘Your eyes and hands. Say your hands.’

‘Before or after you’d talked to Fazakerly?’

‘Ah,’ she said. ‘This is bigger than both of us. But have it your way if you like. It was after I’d had my talk with Siggy.’

‘And what did he talk about.’

‘He said you were wonderful. He said you were a devil, but you were wonderful. And I agreed with him, of course, because that was exactly my impression. And I got to wondering where you lived and how and with whom you spent your evenings, and well, one thing led to another, and there were your hands, and here I am.’

‘Did Fazakerly threaten you in any way?’

‘He told me your name was George and that you were a bachelor.’

‘Because he’d guessed you’d told his wife about Miss Johnson?’

‘Yes, George, he’d guessed. No George, he didn’t threaten me.’

‘So it was you who told her?’

She gave another twirl. ‘Don’t you realize,’ she said, ‘what your manner does to me? You’re so damnably tough and undentable, it simply turns me to a jelly. I said he’d guessed.’

‘He’d guessed right.’

‘I may have told her. Does it matter?’

‘It matters when.’

‘Say on Friday.’

‘Not on Friday.’

‘You choose the day.’

She swept odorously past Gently to the hard-seated settle, which was the summit of the comfort the den had to offer. She arranged the cushions fastidiously and spread herself at full-length. Then she opened a small vanity bag and lit a cigarette.

‘Very well,’ she said. ‘Then we’ll be serious. We’ll play it your way, like tough hombres. It will give Mrs Jarvis time to settle in and I love it anyway, that’s what’s killing me. So give me the action, George. Chew me up and spit me out over your shoulder.’

Gently put a light to the bent pipe. ‘I think you told me some lies,’ he said.

‘Oh, those hands!’ Brenda Merryn moaned. ‘I told you lies by the dozen.’

‘Why?’

‘A woman has to lie. Lying is fundamental with women. Especially to policemen with hands like yours. We just open our mouths and babble anything.’

‘For example, you know a great deal about Beryl Rogers.’

‘Not a great deal. Say more than I told you.’

‘You know where she is.’

‘Just look at my knees. Please. Once. I’ll tell you anything.’

‘Where is she?’

‘She went to New Zealand.’

‘But where is she now?’

‘Does it matter? You must have enough on Siggy by now. You’ll be picking him up again tomorrow.’

‘I need to know where she is, Miss Merryn.’

‘Not Miss Merryn, George. I can’t stand it.’

‘I think you can tell me.’

‘You wouldn’t look at my knees, and anyway Beryl Rogers didn’t murder Clytie.’ She made a gesture of dragging at the cigarette, and another gesture of exhaling the smoke. ‘She’s just a ghost,’ she said, ‘that’s all Beryl is. A nasty, silly little, shallow little ghost. If you know the story you know what she is. I don’t blame Clytie for what she did to her.’

‘Have you seen her lately?’

‘If you’ll thaw I’ll say yes.’

‘In London?’

‘Perhaps. I’m a terrible liar.’

‘Within the last week?’

‘Yes. I can’t refuse you anything. Or if I didn’t see Beryl, I saw someone just like her.’

‘Where did you see her?’

‘Must we talk of other women? It isn’t worth your while, you know. Beryl Rogers is quite unnecessary. Suppose the ghost did walk a little and then vanished again at cockcrow. It was all an accident. You don’t need her. As I’m a liar, it wasn’t sinister.’

‘But Mrs Fazakerly had seen the ghost.’

‘Perhaps she only thought she saw it. Perhaps it was all done by mirrors. Perhaps it was hearsay after all.’

‘You mean, she was told.’

Brenda Merryn smiled at him. ‘You aren’t treating me right,’ she said. ‘You’ve got the key to me in your hands and you just won’t turn the lock. In your hands. That’s
double entente.
Give it a turn and see what happens. Give it two turns, one for luck. I have such a simple combination.’

‘What I ought to do is give you a spanking.’

Her smile widened. ‘Score to me. And then I’d blubber on your manly shoulder and that’s the last step up the stairs. But I’m giving you value, if you only knew it, and I’m letting you ask all the questions. Suppose you answer me one.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Why did you let Siggy go?’

She blew a thin stream of smoke at him and stirred, as though acknowledging the settle’s hardness. The black diamond pattern of her legs readjusted and went still again. She’d been wearing pointed spur-heel shoes but she’d quietly pushed them off her feet. She watched Gently with amused eyes. Gently smoked, didn’t reply.

‘You’re a suspicious man, George,’ she said. ‘But I can read you like a book. This is what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, This promiscuous bitch has really come here about the money. Am I right?’

Gently shrugged. ‘Doesn’t it rather stand out?’

She laughed. ‘Yes. And it’s partly true. I don’t want to kiss that money goodbye. Be reasonable, George, it’s an awful lot, and I’m only a weak, erring mortal. You dangled that money under my nose and I was rude as hell to the patients this evening.’

‘You’d better make it up with Fazakerly.’

‘Suddenly, I don’t want to make it up with him. I see he’s blown the gaff about me. But I didn’t expect any different.’

‘Perhaps he wouldn’t make it up with you.’

‘Of course he wouldn’t. I’m a lost trend. Miss Johnson has twisted him round her finger and just now, George dear, she’s quite welcome. But marrying Siggy is marrying a murderer, and that’s too exciting for a girl like me. Oh, I probably wouldn’t wind him up like Clytie, but just the same, the thought would be there.’

‘He may not have done it.’

‘Oh quite. But that isn’t your position, is it?’

‘We haven’t charged him.’

‘Not yet. You’re waiting for one more little piece of evidence.’

‘And you can give it me?’

The diamonds moved. ‘You’d be surprised what I could give you. If you’d only climb off that high horse for a minute and let your blood flow normally. Have you talked to Sarah Johnson?’

Gently nodded.

‘How much did she tell you?’

‘That she’d known Beryl Rogers.’

‘Only that?’

‘She told me the reason why Beryl Rogers went abroad.’

‘My, my,’ Brenda Merryn said. ‘The slut has more enterprise than I gave her credit for.’ She chuckled. ‘Wouldn’t you think, judging as a man, that butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth?’

Gently said: ‘When did you make her acquaintance?’

She smiled from under lowered lids. ‘Maybe I get around,’ she said. ‘Rochester isn’t far from London. Heaven knows it was worth seeing the bint who could bridle and saddle Siggy Fazakerly. I never could, I give her that. Just put it down to curiosity.’

She drew on the cigarette a few times, then looked around for a place to stub it. Gently took the massive glass ashtray from his desk and leaned forward to put it on the floor by her. She said quickly:

‘Don’t go. I don’t want you to miss what I’m going to say.’

He remained leaning. She looked at him steadily. She said: ‘Yes. I can clinch the Fazakerly case for you.’

‘So?’ he said.

She swayed her shoulders. ‘Of course, I’m in it for the money,’ she said. ‘I deserve that money as much as Siggy. More. I perform a useful service. And I’m not going to take up a moral attitude to justify myself for shopping Siggy. He shouldn’t have dropped me so bloody suddenly when he ran across the Johnson chit. No kidding, cards on the table. He killed his wife and I want the money.’

‘Very impressive,’ Gently said.

Her eyes swam up to him. ‘You slay me,’ she said. ‘All that sarcasm, what’s underneath it? But you love what I’m saying, and you’ll love me too.’

‘Just what are you saying?’

‘I was there in the flat.’

‘You?’

‘I could be lying. Don’t forget I’m a liar. But I don’t have an alibi, remember? And it’s only ten minutes walk to Carlyle Court. Yes, I was there. I’m your eyewitness. Perry Mason wins again.’

He paused, staring at her. ‘Why?’ he said. ‘Why were you at the flat?’

‘Oh, this and that.’ She drew a knee up. ‘Naturally, we’ll need a cast-iron reason. Let’s say, for instance, I was wild with Siggy for throwing me over the way he did, and that I went down to Rochester on Sunday and recognized the creature he was playing around with. Terribly plausible, don’t you think? I’d met the Johnson at the time of the trouble. So there I’d be with a beautiful card which I could hardly help playing. How do you like it?’

‘Carry on,’ Gently grunted.

‘Praise enough,’ Brenda Merryn said. ‘So then I’d go round to the flat to play my card, which would be after lunch, after morning surgery. And I did go, and I did play it, and I just loved what it did to Clytie, and I knew that Siggy was due back so after I’d left Clytie I stuck around.’

‘Stuck around where?’

‘Do you remember the flat?’

Gently nodded.

‘Then you’ll remember the box-room. It’s at the end of the landing and has a transom light, and I went in there and stood on a trunk.’

‘And there you lit a cigarette . . . and waited.’

‘Well,’ she said, ‘that doesn’t need clairvoyance. And Siggy came in about ten minutes later, and Clytie hit him with all she’d got. For quarter of an hour, or thereabouts. I had the door ajar, listening. This was the pay-off, don’t forget, and I was lapping it up like cream. But then it started to go wrong. Siggy was getting violent too. Suddenly Clytie began screaming “No, Siggy!” and there was a sound of a struggle and a shriek and a thump. How am I doing?’

‘Keep right on talking.’

‘Well, then Siggy bolted out of the door. He rang for the lift but it was in use, so he swore and ran down the stairs.’

‘What was he carrying?’

‘Carrying?’ She hesitated. ‘I don’t remember him carrying anything. But if you say he was, that’s dinkum with me. Only between ourselves, I didn’t see it.’

‘Then?’

‘Then I went in and found her.’

‘Where?’

‘In the lounge. That’s where the row was.’

‘Where in the lounge?’

‘Ah. I’m not too certain. Subject to correction, I’d say the floor. Yes, she was lying on the floor, with Siggy’s belaying-pin beside her.’

‘Did you touch the belaying-pin?’

‘Not likely. After so much indoctrination by T.V. I didn’t touch anything, especially Clytie. The way she was bashed didn’t call for inspection. No, I spent a minute figuring my position and then I decided to follow Siggy. If I stayed and got myself mixed up in it I’d have some crude explaining to do.’

‘You touched nothing, took nothing?’

‘I’m wide open to suggestions.’

‘How did you leave the building?’

‘Inconspicuously. Down the stairs and through the mews.’

‘Through the yard where the dustbins are kept?’

‘Through the yard and straight ahead. But Siggy would have gone out through the front – he had his car there, remember. Then I went home, still inconspicuously. I honestly thought Siggy hadn’t a chance. And it’s a fact that I’m only here now because you didn’t have enough on him to hold him.’