Alan Hunter - Gently Does It

‘Oh, yes.’

‘Was he on good terms with your father?’

‘I do not know — my father was not… a condescending man.’

‘He had no reason to harbour a grudge against your father?’

‘Oh, no.’

‘The maid, Susan, is an attractive girl. Is there anything between her and Fisher?’

‘… No! Nothing whatever!’

Gently’s eyebrow rose the merest trifle and he transferred his gaze to the top of the far window. ‘Would it be correct to say that you were in considerable fear of your father?’

‘I do not know… fear.’

‘You had observed how Peter was treated, how he was driven out and completely disowned. Did it not suggest to you that a similar fate might be yours on some other occasion?’

‘Peter took money… he got married.’

‘But you also disobeyed your father in the matter of going to the pictures.’

‘That was very wrong of me, very wrong.’

‘Miss Huysmann, were you deceiving your father in any other matters, perhaps more important ones?’

‘I do not know how you mean!’

‘You were very isolated here. You went out very rarely. You were denied all the usual facilities for meeting people and making friends. And you are twenty-seven. Did you propose to continue in this way of life indefinitely, or had you resolved to, shall we say… assert your rights, in some manner?’

‘I cannot understand!’

‘Your visits to the pictures, for instance, were they always made alone? Was it always to the pictures that you went?’

‘Always — to the pictures! — always!’

‘And always alone?’

‘Every time I was by myself!’

‘You were never accompanied by… Fisher, for example?’

A hot blush sprang into the pale cheeks. ‘No! Never! Never!’

‘Your association with him has always been that of mistress and servant?’

‘How can you ask such things! How can you ask them!’ Tears welled up in the dark eyes and she covered her face with her hands.

Gently said: ‘I don’t like asking these things, Miss Huysmann, any more than you like being asked them. But if justice is to be done, we must have a clear picture of all the events surrounding this crime. You may think that these questions are unnecessary, you may be tempted to answer them untruthfully; but remember that they are the steps by which a man may be brought to the gallows and that no personal feelings should be allowed to dictate what you will answer.’

She cried: ‘It isn’t true… I cannot help him!’

‘You wish to answer that your association with Fisher is completely impersonal?’

She raised her face from her hands, agonized and tear-wet. ‘Yes, that is my answer… O God! Please, let me go now, please!’

Hansom said: ‘That stuff about the pictures — did it add up?’

Gently leant a freshly filled pipe to his lighter. ‘No,’ he said, ‘it didn’t. She didn’t go to the pictures.’ He gave a few puffs and adjusted matters with his thumb.

‘Then you’re reckoning that she was in the house during the afternoon?’

‘It could be that.’

‘And Fisher was there with her and she set him on to get rid of the old man and they swiped the money just for a blind. It’s not a bad line at that!’ exclaimed Hansom admiringly.

Gently smiled at the far-flung Pylades. ‘You’ve got a lurid imagination,’ he said.

‘And young Peter comes in and nearly messes things up. They watch him quarrelling through the transom lights, and see the old man give him a note which might be traced and realize it’s a pip. Fisher goes in and does the job, and then they slide out and collect alibis. Why, it’s a natural!’

‘And how about the knife in the trunk?’

‘Oh blast, you can surely think of something to cover that!’

Gently’s smile widened to include the still-vexed Bermoothes. ‘It’s an interesting conjecture. There’s only one element lacking.’

‘And what would that be?’

‘Proof,’ said Gently simply, ‘there isn’t a grain of it.’ And he blew a playful little smoke-ring over his colleague’s close-cropped head.

Alan Hunter

Gently Does It

L EAMING BY DAYLIGHT was as handsome as ever. When he came in he immediately produced his gold cigarette case and offered everybody one of his hand-made cigarettes. Hansom and the constable accepted. Gently had only just puffed his pipe into flavoursome maturity. Leaming took a cigarette himself, tapped it on the case, twisted it between his lips and lit it with a slim, gold-plated lighter. Then he sat down, and with a jet of smoke from each nostril indicated that he was alert and attentive.

Gently said: ‘You’ll be able to tell me — who got the City’s first goal yesterday? Was it Robson?’

Leaming glanced at him in surprise. ‘It was Smethick, actually,’ he said. ‘He scored from a free kick after a foul on Jones S.’

Gently murmured: ‘Ah yes, in the twenty-second minute.’

A correction seemed to hover on Leaming’s lips, but eventually he said nothing.

‘I don’t suppose we shall need to keep you very long, Mr Leaming,’ Hansom said. ‘We’d just like to know a few routine details.’

‘Glad to help you in any way.’

‘What time did you leave the yard yesterday?’

Leaming thought and answered carefully: ‘At twenty past one.’

‘Were you the last person to leave?’

‘Yes. I usually lock up personally.’

‘Is the entire yard locked up, or only the office and buildings?’

‘The office and buildings. But there is a boom across the entrance to prevent unauthorized vehicles entering and parking.’

‘But that would not prevent persons from entering or leaving the yard?’

‘It would not — there is an unlocked side-gate in any case.’

Gently asked: ‘Isn’t it tempting providence to allow free access to the yard in that manner?’

Leaming shrugged and breathed smoke. ‘There’s nothing to steal but timber. Nobody would manhandle a load of that right across the yard to the gate — especially under the eye of Mr Huysmann. His bedroom windows look down on the yard.’

Hansom continued: ‘When did you last see Mr Huysmann?’

‘He left the office at about ten past one. He looked into my office to say that he was going to London on Monday.’

‘Did he say what for?’

‘To pay Olsens’ for the last quarter’s shipments. Olsens’ are our agents at Wapping.’

‘Was it usual for Mr Huysmann to make payment in person?’

‘Oh yes, invariably. And always by cash — it was one of his eccentricities.’

‘About how much would the quarterly payment amount to?’

Leaming thought unhurriedly. ‘This quarter’s was eleven thousand three hundred and twenty-seven pounds plus some odd shillings, less three per cent for cash.’

‘Did you notice anything unusual about Mr Huysmann yesterday morning?’

‘Nothing in particular. He was a little — ah — agitated because his son was in town. I believe he thought that Peter only came to Norchester to annoy him, but that’s by the way. He mentioned the will again and said that after Easter he proposed to call on his solicitors.’

‘Did he lead you to suppose that he expected a visit from his son?’

‘As a matter of fact, he did say something of the sort, or at least something which might be construed that way. He said (he had a peculiar way of speaking): “He’ll find me ready for him, Leaming, ja, ja, he’ll find me ready.”’

‘And you think it might have referred to an expected visit?’

‘It might have referred to his intention to change his will, of course, but since then I’ve wondered.’

‘Would you say that he stood in any fear of his son?’