Alan Hunter - Gently Go Man

‘Anything else?’ Gently asked.

‘Yes,’ Setters said, ‘from the Yard. They put a call through for you just this minute. That’s why I came hunting you up.’

They went down to Police H.Q. and Gently took the call in Setters’ office. Pagram came on at the other end. He was eating something and talking with his mouth full.

‘You’ve dropped some dynamite,’ he said. ‘Down in Narcotics you’re the blue-eyed boy. That telephone number took them straight to the top man, a gent by the name of Leo Slavinovsky. They copped him bending with all the goods on him — and ten or a dozen of his associates. Don’t mind me, I’m catching up, I’m having a picnic in the office.’

‘Anything I can use?’ Gently asked.

‘I’d say it looks promising,’ Pagram said. ‘Slavinovsky’s premises are in Gumbrill Street, Bethnal. Wasn’t it Bethnal you had your eagle eye on?’

‘Yes, Bethnal.’ Gently nodded.

‘Well, the results are still coming in. They’ve got some interesting records from Slavinovsky’s safe which look like filling a few vacant cells. His set-up is definitely a Bethnal product. All the Cuthberts they’ve pulled in belong to that area. I’ve told them to check for connections with your wide boy at Latchford. I’m waiting now to hear from them. I’m eating canteen cheese rolls.’

‘You’ll have indigestion,’ Gently said.

‘A man must live,’ said Pagram. ‘Now you can hang up and let me finish. It’s difficult to drink, eat, and talk.’

Gently hung up, made himself comfortable to wait for the call back. Setters came in with the box and reefers which he’d found at Elton’s home. The box was a small one, a quarter-pound box, and of a different brand to those seized at Castlebridge. The reefers were of the same make. The box was empty except for the reefers.

Setters sat down beside the desk, lit a cigarette, drew heavily.

‘I’ve been thinking,’ he said. ‘It was painful, but I did it.’

‘About these?’ Gently said.

Setters nodded, drew some more.

‘It’s having you with me,’ he said. ‘I can’t keep it simple any longer. I keep being devious about everything, I want to come up with something clever. So though this rubs, I’ve got to say it. I think that crap is a plant.’

‘Mmn,’ Gently said. ‘Did you talk to Maureen?’

‘Yep,’ Setters said, ‘I talked to her. I think she knew Elton was smoking and I think she destroyed any sticks he left there. But I don’t think she planted these. There’s no single reason why she should. And she wouldn’t have planted them in the shed, but in his bedroom somewhere. It’s the shed angle that started me off, there’s no lock on the shed. You’ve only to hop over the fence, sneak up the path, and open the door.’

‘Was she there when you found them?’ Gently asked.

‘Yes,’ Setters said. ‘She was hanging around. I got the impression that she was surprised and didn’t like it very much. But she wouldn’t open up on it, other than swearing they weren’t hers. I think they were planted and she’s got a good idea about who did the planting.’

‘Bixley,’ Gently mused. ‘Or one of his side-kicks.’

‘From what you tell me,’ Setters said, ‘that would be the idea. I wouldn’t know if his grapevine told him about what Greenstone gave us, but if it did this could be an attempt to fasten the reefer-passing on Elton. So like that it might not have been Elton who was sitting at the table with Betty Turner. It might have been Bixley, and he’s got reasons for wanting to keep us from thinking that. Or maybe again he was just trying to make a scapegoat out of Elton, which attempt has now fallen through owing to what you saw at Castlebridge today.’

‘Have you rung the hospital today?’ Gently asked.

‘Yes, twice,’ Setters said. ‘She’s improving, she’s got her eyes open. But she isn’t talking yet.’

‘It might not have been her Greenstone saw,’ Gently said. ‘It might not have been Bixley or Elton with her. All Greenstone was certain about was Lister and him taking the serviette.’

‘And the sticks,’ Setters said. ‘Don’t forget he took them.’

Gently nodded. ‘It wasn’t very gallant of him to take his fiancee’s supply of reefers.’

‘Meaning?’ Setters asked.

‘Just a point,’ Gently said. ‘Because it might not have been Betty Turner who Greenstone saw. Perhaps Lister was deeper in this than we thought. Perhaps he took the reefers because the girl couldn’t pay for them. There may be an angle we haven’t got on to why he was ridden off the road.’

Setters looked doubtful. ‘I like it simple,’ he said. ‘That’s my natural-born instinct. If there was something else we’d have got a smell of it beyond all this surmising. We’re getting smoke blown in our eyes with this dope-peddling business. The fact is Elton had a motive, and I don’t see where anyone else has.’

‘Mmn.’ Gently conceded the point. ‘He’s certainly in it up to his eyeballs. Leach, the man they’ve arrested over at Castlebridge, was trying to help me keep it with Elton.’

‘You think he was lying?’

‘Like a trooper.’

‘It might have been the truth,’ Setters said.

‘He was lying,’ Gently affirmed. ‘Though it may have been only to oblige a customer. Bixley’s alibi isn’t cast iron. It’s just on the cards he caught up with Lister.’

‘But what was his motive?’ Setters asked.

Gently shrugged. ‘There’s none to date.’

‘I don’t like it,’ Setters said. ‘I wish to Christ we could pick up Elton.’

He lit another cigarette from his butt, smoked silently for a while. The station routine went on outside, voices, feet tramping, a telephone bell. Gently sat poring over the box and reefers, his eyes narrowed and unshifting. Setters sat hugging a bony knee, he’d got the visitor’s chair, it wasn’t comfortable.

‘There’s Dicky Deeming,’ Setters pondered. ‘Do you think he knows what goes on?’

Gently smiled at the box. ‘He plays the big brother,’ he said.

‘He’s got influence with them,’ Setters said. ‘You’ve only to talk to them to find that out. I don’t like him, I don’t like his influence, but he never bothers us.’

‘He’s their high priest,’ Gently said.

‘Yes?’ Setters said. ‘What would that be?’

‘Just high priest,’ Gently said, ‘the one who gives them the law.’

‘This jeebie stuff?’ Setters asked.

Gently nodded. ‘That’s it. It’s Dicky who’s spread the gospel in Latchford. It came to Latchford with Dicky.’

‘I knew I didn’t like him,’ Setters said. ‘I knew there had to be a reason. Hell, I’ll make it tough for Dicky — fetching that stinking stuff in here!’

No.’ Gently shook his head. ‘That’s the wrong sort of treatment. If you make a martyr out of Dicky you’ll play right into his hands. The cult has got a religious twist, it’ll flourish on persecution. So don’t knock it, don’t push it, just ignore it where you can.’

‘Pushing reefers,’ Setters said. ‘Riding bikes like madmen.’

‘That’s where you don’t ignore it,’ Gently said. ‘That’s where you clamp down hard. But don’t touch Dicky for the moment, let him amuse himself with me. His influence has got a credit side. He tries to keep his flock from being rowdy.’

Setters sniffed. ‘Are you on to him for something?’

‘I’m not quite certain,’ Gently said. ‘He’s in this business, and yet he’s detached from it. But he’s certainly on to me.’

‘You mean it was him who set it up today.’

‘He played a big part in it,’ Gently said. ‘But whether it was for devilment or for a reason is something I haven’t settled yet. Perhaps tomorrow’s paper will tell us.’