Alan Hunter: Gently where the roads go

‘I don’t want your chair,’ Felling said.

‘Put one there all the same,’ Gently said. ‘Stand over in front of it, Felling, whether you sit or not.’

‘I’m not going over there,’ Felling said. ‘I’m not in this, it’s a bloody frame-up.’

‘Much more of it,’ Whitaker said, ‘and I’ll have you handcuffed. Get over there, Felling. Get in that chair.’

Felling lounged across to the chair, pretended to dust it, sat, sprawled his legs. He looked at Wanda. Wanda didn’t look at him. He looked at Madsen, Madsen dropped his eyes.

‘Now,’ Gently said. ‘This is a crime arising out of the racket at Huxford. Why it took this particular form of violence is something not quite clear. That doesn’t matter, from a prosecution viewpoint, we shall get a conviction just the same. But from another viewpoint it matters a great deal: from the viewpoint of political implication. Teodowicz is a Pole. He is a political refugee. He had received some overtures from the Polish authorities. It may be that as a result of threats from this quarter he took the course that he did take. If that’s the case, we want to know it. We want to expel the people responsible. We want to make representations to the Polish authorities to try to prevent the same thing happening again. And conversely, if the Polish authorities had an innocent part in this, we want to establish that, too. We need to know. And I’m pretty certain that one of you is able to tell us.’

He broke off, looked from one to another of them. Nobody volunteered to speak. Felling was staring at the ceiling, his lips formed in a noisless whistle. Wanda’s eyes bored at Gently. Madsen didn’t raise his head. Madsen was leaning forward out of the chair, his fair complexion flushed.

‘Very well,’ Gently said. ‘You probably still think I’m bluffing. So I’ll just run through the course of events to let you see where you all stand. Sawney and Teodowicz were operating a racket in stores stolen from Huxford. Sawney obtained possession of the stores by fraud and Teodowicz collected and disposed of them. You probably knew of this, Mrs Lane, but there is no evidence to implicate you. You, Madsen, certainly knew of it, and I think we shall be able to implicate you. And you, Felling, are self-evidently implicated. You knew of the racket. You were drawing a cut from it.’

‘Oh I was, was I?’ Felling said. ‘You’d better see if you can prove it, hadn’t you?’

‘Certainly,’ Gently said. ‘Why else were you part of this conspiracy to aid Teodowicz? There can be only one reason. Teodowicz had it in his power to inform on you. Because of that you took the risks which have put you in the position you now occupy.’ He picked up a paper from the desk. ‘How much do you have in your current account, Felling?’

‘To hell with my current account,’ Felling said.

‘You have over six hundred pounds,’ Gently said. ‘Would you care to explain where that came from?’

‘Why should I explain it?’ Felling said. ‘I can win a bit at racing sometimes, can’t I?’

‘Oh, just keep quiet, man,’ Whitaker said. ‘I used to credit you with some intelligence.’

‘It’s a bloody lie,’ Felling said. ‘And nobody’s going to make anything else of it.’

Wanda Lane said: ‘It’s the bloody truth. You make me sick. You blackmailed Tim.’

‘Shut up, you tart,’ Felling said.

Wanda turned her head to spit. She didn’t say anything else. Felling sat scowling at his fists. Sweat was shining on his face.

‘I’ll continue,’ Gently said. ‘Sawney was in a false position. It was Teodowicz who handled the money, Sawney who would have to answer the questions. Teodowicz was trying to squeeze Sawney. Sawney resisted. They quarrelled over it. Then Sawney threatened to do something which, as it turned out, became his death warrant.’ Gently looked at Madsen. ‘What was that thing, Madsen?’ he asked.

‘I don’ know,’ Madsen said, shivering. ‘I don’ know anything about all this.’

‘I think you do,’ Gently said. ‘I think you know more than anyone.’

‘No,’ Madsen said, ‘no. I don’ listen, I don’ hear nothing.’

‘I’ll jog your memory,’ Gently said. ‘Sawney threatened to talk to a certain Stephan Razek.’

Madsen dug his chin in his chest, wouldn’t look towards Gently.

‘Sawney knew Razek,’ Gently said, ‘when Razek was at Huxford during the war. Razek is at present on attachment in this country and somehow Sawney must have got to know about it. He threatened to tell Razek of Teodowicz’s whereabouts. On the surface this wasn’t a very serious threat. It led only to Teodowicz being approached and urged to return to Poland to stand trial. This sort of thing has happened before and there seems nothing particularly sinister about it. People have resisted these approaches and there have been few attempts at coercion. But with Teodowicz it was different. He met the threat with a savage crime. He engineered a disappearance for himself intended to prevent all further pursuit. It follows that such a course was necessary to him, and we know that he had planned it in outline beforehand. But we don’t know why. And we need to know it.’ Gently stared at Madsen. ‘Why?’ he asked.

‘No,’ Madsen said, ‘no!’ He squirmed in the chair, hunched over his knees.

‘Are you afraid?’ Gently said. ‘Is that it?’

‘I don’ know about Tim’s affairs!’ Madsen said.

Wanda Lane said: ‘Leave him alone. You don’t think Tim would tell him anything, do you?’

‘I don’t think he’d tell anyone anything,’ Gently said. ‘But Madsen knows. He had the opportunity to know.’

‘Tim told me,’ Wanda said. She glared at the men behind the desk. ‘But you bastards will never get it out of me. Not while Tim’s alive,’ she said.

‘Listen to the whore,’ Felling said.

‘You keep quiet!’ Whitaker snapped.

‘Bloody why should I?’ Felling said.

‘I should, old fellow,’ Empton said.

Felling was quiet. Nobody else said anything.

‘We come to the mechanics of it,’ Gently said. ‘Teodowicz had a Sten gun and ammunition from Huxford. I don’t think he obtained it with the intention of shooting Sawney, I think it was insurance against this factor we don’t know about. Perhaps you’ll tell us how long Teodowicz had it, Madsen?’

‘Yes,’ Madsen said. ‘That is right, for some time. Tim say he would like to have a weapon of some sort, Sawney say all right, he can fix him with a gun.’

‘How long ago?’

‘Oh, one, two years,’ Madsen said. ‘Tim like the gun, he is often playing with it.’

‘Did Tim say what the gun was for?’

Madsen shrank a little. ‘He don’ say that.’

‘So,’ Gently said, ‘Teodowicz had the gun, and he could easily arrange for Sawney to meet him. He had only to say he had some money for him for Sawney to come running. He rang him up, appointed a meeting in the car park behind Baddesley station. That was where he wanted Sawney’s van found when it was discovered that Sawney was missing. Then he rang the guardroom at Huxford and gave them an anonymous tip-off about Sawney, providing at once the reason for Sawney’s flight and grounds for suspecting Sawney of the crime to follow. He met Sawney, he killed or disabled him, exchanged clothes with him, drove him to the lay-by. There he inflicted such injuries on him with the gun that identification would be doubtful. He sent a final burst from bushes to suggest the van having been ambushed, then he escaped through the fields to The Raven, where his hiding place was prepared. About a mile distant, over the fields, a car was waiting for the final stage, but in the meantime he had to remain on the spot to ensure that his colleagues did their job. Mrs Lane was completely under his influence, but Felling and Madsen only under duress. He needed to be there as a perpetual threat to prevent any treachery on their part. He had also some loose ends to tidy. Some documents remained in his handwriting. He destroyed these without informing Felling, which gave Felling a little trouble later on. You didn’t burn those papers, did you, Madsen?’