Gently Sinking by Alan Hunter Page B

lights on when he came in. He swore at Tommy, punching him about. Tommy was dazed at first. He was naked.’
    ‘But he overcame your husband?’
    ‘Tommy was a boxer, I don’t think Freddy really hurt him. Tommy kept moving, swaying about, taking the gyp out of Freddy’s punches. Then he sort of jolted him on the side of the jaw and Freddy went down like a sack of potatoes.’
    ‘He Henry Coopered him,’ Gently said.
    ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘He hit him like that. And Freddy dropped like Cassius Clay and didn’t come round for five minutes. I was scared. We got our clothes on. There was blood dribbling from Freddy’s mouth. Tommy put him on the bed and undid his collar. When he came round, he looked like the devil.’
    ‘Did Blackburn clear out then?’
    She shook her head. ‘He knew he’d have to talk some sense into Freddy. The way Freddy was when he came round he’d probably have gone for me, perhaps killed me. Tommy said all right, so he was laying me, why should that worry Freddy? Freddy was getting his somewhere else, he hadn’t touched me for months. Freddy said that didn’t excuse anything, I was still his wife whether he had me or not. Tommy told him I was human all the same. Freddy said that was his business, not Tommy’s. And they went on talking around like that, you know, saying things that didn’t mean anything, on and on. Then we moved down here and sat around, getting drunk. In the end we were drunk. Tommy spent the night on this settee. In the morning he was gone. Freddy had a hangover, wasn’t talking.’
    ‘Were any names dropped during this session?’
    She drew smoke a couple of times.
    ‘Freddy sneered about Tommy’s black girlfriend, but I don’t remember any names.’
    ‘How was your husband’s woman referred to?’
    ‘I don’t think she was, except indirectly. I’m sure now Tommy didn’t know who she was, he talked as though Freddy were just playing the girls.’
    ‘You got no impression they might be sharing the same woman.’
    ‘No. Freddy’s too clever to let anything drop. Even when he’s angry, you don’t get past him. He’s got a cold compartment somewhere inside. And that was about that where we were concerned. We’ve made no pretence with each other ever since. Tommy opted out. I wasn’t in love with him. Freddy and I were just waiting for the break-up. This is obviously it.’ She breathed smoke harshly. ‘In fact, I’m on my way to my lawyer’s.’
    ‘I see,’ Gently said.
    Her shoulders lifted.
    ‘You’ll be seeing Freddy, of course,’ she said.
    ‘I’ll be seeing him.’
    Her strange eyes found Gently’s. ‘Tell him I know,’ she said. ‘Just that.’

CHAPTER SIX
    T ALLENT WAS ABSENT on his statement-taking when Gently returned to HQ, but the Yard man found Makin sitting at Tallent’s desk with a foolscap list in front of him.
    ‘Take a look, sir,’ he said to Gently. ‘This came in a moment ago.’
    Gently took the sheet. It was from the Immigration Department. It listed the illegals believed by Kingston to have sailed on the
Naxos Island’s
last voyage. They were twenty-two. Alongside six of them Immigration had noted relatives living in the UK. Five lived out of London in Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. One lived in London. It was Sunshine. He’d lost a brother, Sonny, aged eighteen.
    ‘I’d say that tied things up a bit, sir,’ Makin said. ‘It was his sister’s dabs in the flat all right. And her having the knife, too, that was jam. I reckon her and her brother fixed it between them.’
    ‘It’s tempting,’ Gently said. And I can add another motive.’
    He sketched his interview with Mrs Grey.
    ‘Oh, very sweet, sir,’ Makin said. ‘Grey egging them on. Then fingering Taylor.’
    ‘You think that’s it?’ Gently said.
    He lit his pipe, went to sit down.
    ‘Well, it adds together, sir,’ Makin said cautiously. ‘We’re short of proof, but it adds together.’
    Gently puffed, said, ‘Let’s add it together. Grey