Alan Hunter - Gently where the roads go

Friday August 16th in a small town, in a small country, in a small world, in a large universe, Friday August 16th. A certain point in space-time with a very local description, unaccepted as an event by the electronic expression containing it. Perhaps emotion, no more, an alien wanderer in the curvatures; the burden carried by those other lonely aliens, men. Giving them local habitation where they were strangers gone foreign, a detailed assurance of identification, a comfortable shadow on their blank chart. Friday August 16th in a small town, in a small country. A point negligible in space-time. A man crying. Other men.

The door opened to admit Empton. He didn’t come into the room immediately. He stood in the doorway, hand on the knob, peering at the man who sat drooped in his chair. Empton’s blue eyes didn’t flicker and he stood as still as the door. He didn’t look anywhere except at the man. Finally, his teeth began to show.

‘Little Jan!’ he said softly. ‘We wondered where you’d got to, little Jan.’

He closed the door without a sound, and reaching behind him, shot the snack.

The man twisted round at the sound of Empton’s voice, crouched a little, didn’t say anything. Whitaker rose, pushing his chair back clumsily. Empton came across the room.

‘Is he the — one?’ Whitaker asked.

‘But of course, old man,’ Empton said. ‘This is little Jan, the West Hampstead instrument maker. We’ve met before, haven’t we Jan?’

‘My name-’ the man began.

‘Oh, don’t let’s be formal, old fellow,’ said Empton. ‘You’re with friends, don’t you remember? My little visit and advice I gave you?’ He ran the tips of his fingers over his knuckles. Kasimir kept his eye on the knuckles. ‘I sometimes look in on these chaps,’ Empton said, ‘when they first arrive here. A purely courtesy call. What’s he been telling you?’

‘Nothing,’ Gently said.

Empton showed his teeth. ‘They don’t,’ he said. ‘That’s one of the oddities of the profession, old man. There’s really only two ways of getting anything out of them.’

‘What’s the other way?’ Gently said.

‘Money,’ Empton said. ‘And we’ll try that first. Purely out of deference to bourgeois prejudices. I don’t think it will work, not in the present company. I think he killed Teodowicz. I think your presence will be inhibiting.’

‘I think it probably will,’ Gently said. ‘So I’ll stay here.’

‘Just as you like,’ Empton said. ‘It doesn’t matter. If you took him to court you’d never get a conviction.’

He looked round the office, picked up the chair Felling had used, placed it so he sat opposite to Kasimir with their knees nearly touching. He flicked Kasimir’s chin. Kasimir jerked his head back. Empton leaned forward slightly, stared hard, flicked him again. Whitaker seated himself uneasily. He sent glances at Gently. Gently sat with half-closed eyes, hunching back in his chair.

‘Little Jan,’ Empton said.

Kasimir sat very straight.

‘Little Jan,’ Empton said, ‘you’ve got something we want. We’re going to have it, little Jan, and you know we’re going to have it. That’s the situation, little Jan. I think you appreciate it, don’t you?’

He flicked. Kasimir winced, didn’t try to avoid it.

‘Yes,’ Empton said. ‘You’re a man of intelligence, you appreciate the situation. We know too much to be played with, Jan, and I’m sure you won’t waste our time by trying it. You’re going to give us what we want, Jan, because there’s no other way out. You’re going to cooperate, Jan. You’re going to tell us everything, Jan.’

He flicked.

‘Now’, he said. ‘We’re going to be generous with you, Jan. We could hang you, Jan. You know that? We could put up a case that would hang you for certain. And you’ve come such a long way, Jan, you’ve been through so much, Jan, it would be a pity, wouldn’t it, Jan, if we had to hang you at the end of it. All strapped up with a hood over your face. Such a long way from Poland. It isn’t nice, Jan. Not being hung. You wouldn’t want us to do that, would you?’

He flicked twice at Kasimir’s throat. Kasimir gasped, didn’t move.

‘And we don’t want to do it, Jan,’ Empton said. ‘We’re soft-hearted. It would grieve us. And you’re a useful man in your way, Jan, it would be a waste to hang you. So we’re going to be generous with you, Jan. We’re not going to hang you, Jan, unless we have to. We’re going to be terribly nice and English, and hope that you’ll be nice to us. You’re in a free country, Jan, you know that?’

He flicked.

‘You know that?’ he repeated.

Kasimir swallowed, nodded his head.

‘Yes,’ Empton said. ‘A free country.’ He touched his knuckles with his fingers. ‘And we hope that you’ll be nice to us, just like one Englishman to another. And useful, Jan, to your new country. Cooperative, Jan. Patriotic, Jan. And not too bloody expensive, Jan. Remembering how easily we could hang you. The taxpayers pay their money grudgingly. We have to be sparing of it, Jan.’ He flicked Jan. ‘How much do you want?’

Kasimir didn’t move a muscle.

Empton flicked. ‘You heard me, Jan?’

Kasimir breathed hard, didn’t speak.

Empton laid his fist on Kasimir’s chin and pushed Kasimir’s head first one way, then the other.

‘Little Jan,’ he said. ‘How much?’

Kasimir stared at him. He said nothing.

‘Perhaps little Jan is afraid,’ Empton said. ‘Perhaps he doesn’t trust us with his secrets. Thinks if he told us how he killed Teodowicz we might write it down and use it as evidence. But that’s because little Jan is a wog. He doesn’t understand our English justice. He doesn’t know that a confession of murder obtained by a bribe is inadmissable. But he’s hearing it now, isn’t he, Jan?’ Empton gave Kasimir a double slap. ‘And he knows he can deal, doesn’t he, Jan?’ Empton feinted a slap, let his hand fall. ‘So what’s the price, little Jan?’

Kasimir closed his eyes, rocked a little.

‘A couple of thou?’ Empton said. ‘Don’t go to sleep, Jan. I might have to wake you.’

‘I did not kill him,’ Kasimir said huskily. ‘You know about that. It is not me.’

‘Eloquence,’ Empton said, slapping him. ‘Little Jan has got a tongue.’

‘I did not kill him,’ Kasimir said. ‘I will not confess. I did not kill him.’

‘I’ll make it three thousand,’ Empton said.

‘No,’ Kasimir said. ‘Was not me.’

Empton slapped him. ‘Don’t push your market.’ He slapped him again. ‘Three and a half.’

‘No. No.’

Empton paused. ‘Just what have you got to sell us?’ he asked. ‘Who was Teodowicz?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Four thou.’

‘Is no good,’ Kasimir said.

Empton slapped him. ‘Five thou.’

‘No,’ Kasimir said. ‘I will not confess.’

‘What’s the figure?’

Kasimir said nothing. Empton slapped him. Kasimir still said nothing.

‘So it’s something big,’ Empton said. ‘Or you think it is, little Jan. And you’re not going to muck it away because you think we can’t stick you with the killing. But you’re wrong there, little Jan. We can fix you up all right. And we don’t have to put in a confession which the judge would sling straight back at us.’ He eased away from Kasimir. ‘We’ve got you taped, little Jan,’ he said. ‘You received instructions to kill Teodowicz. We pay money. We get info.’

‘No!’ Kasimir said.

‘Oh yes,’ Empton said. ‘You’re a little green in the racket, aren’t you? There’s plenty of double-selling goes on among the ranks of Tuscany, you know. And you’ve been sold. Right up the Volga. You were sent here to kill him, little Jan. You took a week off from making instruments and you came here, and you killed Teodowicz.’