Alan Hunter - Gently Go Man

‘Five minutes only, and the patient is not to be worried. She is still quite weak and I will not allow her to be hectored.’

‘Does she know we’re coming?’ Gently asked.

‘Of course,’ the ward sister replied. ‘She asked to be permitted to see you. That’s why you are here.’

She took them into a small room with a large window overlooking the town. By the window stood a white-painted bed in which a girl lay propped up with pillows. She had a snub nose and a rounded chin and her head was capped with a bandage. She looked towards the door eagerly. The ward sister closed the door and stood by it.

‘Miss Turner?’ Gently said.

‘Yes,’ the girl said. ‘I’m Betty Turner.’

‘I’m Superintendent Gently,’ Gently said. ‘I’m glad to hear you’re getting better.’

‘Are you a policeman?’ Betty said.

‘Yes,’ Gently said. ‘They tell me so.’

‘I know he’s a policeman,’ Betty said. ‘But I don’t think I’ve seen you before.’

‘The super’s from the Yard,’ Setters said. ‘He knows all about the accident, Betty.’

She blushed underneath her bandage. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know.’

Gently sat on the chair near the bed, spread himself, put his hat on his knees.

‘You wanted to see us, Miss Turner,’ he said. ‘Have you remembered something else about the accident?’

She nodded, still looking doubtful. ‘Has there been much… much fuss about it?’ she asked.

‘A little fuss,’ Gently said. ‘There always fuss in these cases.’

‘I didn’t know,’ she repeated. She moved her hand under the quilt. ‘I just wanted to tell you,’ she said suddenly, ‘that it couldn’t have been Laurie who bumped into us.’

‘Laurie Elton?’ Gently asked.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘It couldn’t have been Laurie. I knew there was a reason why it couldn’t be, but I haven’t been able to think. He was going too fast, that’s why.’

‘Who was going too fast?’ Gently asked.

‘The man. The one who bumped into us. He was going a lot faster than we were, and Johnnie was flat out just there.’

‘So it couldn’t have been Elton catching you up?’

‘No,’ Betty said. ‘It just couldn’t have been. Laurie’s bike is an old Ariel, it couldn’t make the ton anyway. He was behind us all the way… he wasn’t very pleased with me. We could see his lights miles away. The man who bumped us came from nowhere.’

‘How do you mean — came from nowhere?’

‘Well, we never saw him,’ Betty said. ‘You can see an awful long way there, and there was nobody behind us except Laurie. Then all of a sudden there was this other light catching us up like mad… and then… and then…’ A shiver went through her. ‘I knew,’ she said. ‘I knew he would hit us.’

The ward sister cleared her throat. Betty laid her head back on the pillows. She had a small, pretty mouth and the mouth was trembling.

‘So that’s how I know,’ she said. ‘Poor old Laurie wouldn’t have done it.’

‘Mmn,’ Gently said. ‘That takes care of that point, Miss Turner.’

‘Poor Laurie,’ she said. ‘I wasn’t very nice to Laurie.’

‘Yes,’ Gently said. ‘But now I’d like to go back to that jazz session, Miss Turner.’

Her eyes darted to him, held there. ‘I don’t remember much about it,’ she said.

‘I don’t want you to remember much,’ Gently said. ‘Just what happened about the box of chocolates.’

‘Oh those.’ She dropped her eyes. ‘It wasn’t anything, really,’ she said. ‘Sid Bixley won a box of chocolates. Johnny took them, for a lark.’

‘For a lark?’ Gently said.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘He didn’t mean anything, honestly. He just picked them up as we were leaving. I’m sure he meant to give them back.’

Gently picked up his hat, made a fanning motion with it. He stared out of the window.

‘It won’t do,’ he said, ‘Miss Turner. You’ll have to remember a little more.’

She blushed more deeply. ‘It wasn’t anything to do with me,’ she said.

‘I think it was,’ Gently said. ‘But you needn’t tell me about that. Just why Johnny took that box of chocolates, and what he intended doing with them.’

She moved around under the quilt, took a great interest in the sheet turn-down. The ward sister was rumbling a little, shifted, made a noise with her keys.

‘I could add,’ Gently said, ‘that there’ll be no more jazz sessions at the Ten Spot. And that Sidney Bixley is in custody, charged with trading in reefers and other matters.’

‘Oh,’ she said. ‘I see.’ She continued staring at the turn-down. Well,’ she said. ‘You know all about it. There doesn’t seem much for me to tell you.’

‘It’s just routine,’ Gently urged. ‘We like to get the details straight.’

She nodded her bandages. ‘I suppose so,’ she said. ‘In that case I’d better tell you. He — Johnny — didn’t like me doing it… you know. Smoking those things. I was silly. Sid gave me a couple, just to try them, he said. Then I wanted some more, and he sold me some, and after that I kept buying them. And Johnny found out. He thought it was because of them that I… well, cooled off him a bit.’

‘Was it because of that?’ Gently asked.

‘Oh no,’ she said, ‘it had nothing to do with it. I liked Johnny an awful lot, but he kept wanting us to get married, you know. But he thought it was the reefers, it was no good me saying anything. Then once he caught Sid selling me some. He got ever so angry about Sid.’

‘When was that — on Tuesday morning?’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘You know about it? Johnny took the reefers away from me, lucky I’d got a couple to go on with.’

‘In the Kummin Kafe,’ Gently said.

‘Yes.’ She nodded. ‘You know it all, don’t you? And Johnny talked to me like a Dutch Uncle — he’s an awfully serious boy, Johnny is. How is he getting on, please?’

A little explosion came from the ward sister.

‘He’s comfortable,’ Gently said. ‘You don’t need to worry about Johnny.’

‘I’m glad,’ Betty said. ‘They wouldn’t tell me anything about him. And I do like Johnny, even though I wasn’t, you know, in love with him.’

‘Go on about Tuesday night,’ Gently said.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Well, Johnny was upset. He didn’t say anything more about the reefers, but he was awfully quiet and sort of offhand. He kept watching Sid and Ann Wicks when we were in the Ten Spot, and when Sid got the chocolates he seemed to get all excited. Then he said we were going to leave early, as soon as they’d played the last number, and as we went out he just picked up the chocolates — Sid had given them to Ann, she’d put them with her bag.’

‘Did Bixley see Johnny take them?’

‘No — he couldn’t have done, could he? Anyway, he didn’t come after us. I’m sure nobody noticed.’

‘Did you meet anyone as you went through the milk bar?’ Gently asked.

She shook her head. ‘They were all down below. There was only that blonde woman who serves there.’

‘Did she speak to you?’

‘No,’ Betty said. ‘Just stared at us, that’s all.’

‘Mmn.’ Gently nodded. ‘So what happened when you got outside?’

‘Well,’ Betty said, ‘Johnny opened the chocolates and found the reefers underneath. Laurie came out just then, so Johnny stuck them in his saddlebag. Then he started up and we got away, and Laurie followed behind.’

‘Did Johnny say what he was going to do?’

‘He said he was going to the police when he got back. I was awfully scared about it all. But he said he wouldn’t mention me.’

‘And that’s all… till Five Mile Drove?’