Джон Пристли - Salt is Leaving

"Off you go, girl. I'll have an old chum of mine waiting to take us to Buzzy's long before you"re ready."

And so he had, to her surprise. Often he seemed so vague that she tended to forget he was capable of all manner of clever little arrangements. Though she guessed what Buzzy's would be like, she couldn't help feeling in the taxi that she was going to a party. She slipped an arm through his and squeezed it, and tried some gay chatter. But though he nodded and smiled, he wasn't really responsive.

"What's the matter? The rain? The night? Buzzy"s?"

"Probably they come into it, Maggie. I've never liked wet Saturday nights, and I don't think I'll enjoy Buzzy"s. But it's chiefly something else. No thought in it. Just a feeling. One part of intuitive apprehension to two parts of melancholy. Sorry!"

"It's the Noreen Wilks thing, isn't it?"

"Yes – that and the poor bedevilled human race. And now I'm playing Buddha, not God. I'd better shut up."

Then they were climbing the stairs that led to Buzzy's peculiar office, long and narrow and with the window down one side, high above the dancing floor. Buzzy himself, wearing a vast dinner jacket, was smoking a cigar and drinking whisky. He was delighted to see them.

"Miss Culworth – Dr Salt – welcome to the big monkey-house! Bzzz . Look at "em down there. Did you ever see such a bloody spectacle? Two to three hundred of "em twisting their guts out – an" paying good money to do it – an" not one smiling face. Bzzz . That's progress, that is – affluence – technology – welfare-"

"She's still here, Buzzy?" said Dr Salt.

"Of course. But not on the floor. My boys have her taped. Bzzz . What are you drinking? How about something fancy, Miss Culworth? Now you take your pick." He waved at the long table and its array of bottles. "I've got the lot there. Bzzz ."

Maggie said she would have some Cointreau, and as there really wasn't room for Buzzy to act as barman at that table, Dr Salt attended to her before giving himself some whisky. She perched on a narrow sofa alongside the window, and she stared down, fascinated, at the dancers.

"Coloured lights now, Buzzy," she told him over her shoulder. "It's really quite pretty. Salt, come and look."

"They get the lot down there, same as we do up here," said Buzzy. "Only what they get's different. Bzzz . Lights all colours. Sprung floor. Five-piece band on Fridays and Saturdays – costs the earth. All for long-haired young twerps an" their scrawny little birds. Bzzz ."

"And their money, Buzzy, don't forget," said Dr Salt.

"No, Doc, I don't make my real money here. That comes out of the betting shops, where they change their money for bits of paper. Bzzz ."

"Why bother about this place, then?"

"Bother? I love it, Doc. Just sitting here gives me something to do with my evenings. Bzzz . Besides, it's prestige, Doc. I'm Buzzy Duffield of Buzzy's Club . I'm one of Birkden's Trend-setters. That reminds me. How was the Beverly – Astoria ?"

"Oh – I ought to have thanked you for last night, Buzzy. Now I do. But now I realize I'm old-fashioned. I like small out-of-date hotels where you ring a bell and somebody answers it, and you haven't to operate a switchboard to ask for somebody and anything." Dr Salt was ready to go on, but now he was interrupted.

"That's right, Super," said Buzzy, looking up. "Don't knock. No cissy stuff."

"This might be a raid," said Superintendent Hurst, who was standing in the doorway, shaking a wet mackintosh, and looking rather grim. ""Evening, Miss Culworth – Dr Salt."

"Go on. Bzzz . We don't break the law here, Super. I know too much."

"No, you only think you do, Buzzy. People break the law all the time – especially in places like this – and if we wanted to catch them, we could. We nearly did tonight – yes, here. But I said No. I'd do it my way."

"Now what's this about? No, let me think. Bzzz . It hurts, but it's good for me. Otherwise, the stupid twerps I have to deal with, I'd be stupid for ever. Bzzz . All right. I've thought. It's not me you"re interested in. It's Doc Salt here. Right? An" you wouldn't know he was here if you hadn't put a tail on him. See how it is, Doc? Bzzz . Try to help the police and they tail you. Disgusting!"

"Either keep quiet or clear out, Buzzy," Hurst began.

"Since when? This is my office, Super. Who you working for – Hitler or Stalin?"

"Not funny. Turn it off, Buzzy. I'm here to talk to Dr Salt, for his own good, so if you"re a friend of his, you'll let me get on with it. Now, Dr Salt, what do you think you"re doing?"

"People seem to have been asking me that for days," said Dr Salt mildly. "Now let me see. This afternoon I sold my car-"

"All right," Hurst cut in roughly. "If you"re going to take that line, then you'd better come along with me and make a statement."

"Certainly not. Unless, of course, you"re thinking of putting me under arrest."

Salt had spoken quite gently, but Maggie knew him sufficiently well now to realize that he was nearly as angry as the superintendent seemed to be. She looked from one man to the other, feeling rather frightened. The hard beat of the band below was like a pulse, steady but throbbing with anger.

After a pause, Hurst said, "You think that's impossible, don't you?"

Salt offered him a shrug. "I've stopped thinking anything's impossible, Superintendent."

"You did me a good turn the night before last." Hurst hesitated. "So I didn't agree you ought to be brought in to make a statement."

Salt stared at him. "A statement about what?"

"You"re concealing evidence in a murder case."

"I must be rather stupid tonight," Salt told him quite pleasantly. "I find this very confusing. I thought you people believed the case was closed. And I was unpopular because I said it wasn"t. Now you talk about concealing evidence as if I wanted to close the case and you wanted to keep it open. I don't know where I am."

"Yes, you do. And you"re meddling in police work, Dr Salt."

"You"re beginning to sound like Colonel Ringwood."

This brought a loud guffaw from Buzzy.

"Now let's stop this banter and backchat," said Hurst, raising his voice. "You've already announced you have evidence that Derek Donnington didn't kill the Wilks girl."

"Have I? What is it?"

"How the hell do I know?"

"Well, how the hell do you know I have any such evidence, Superintendent?"

"Let's stop being funny, shall we? This is serious. It could be very serious for you, Dr Salt."

"Very well." And Maggie knew as soon as he had said this that Salt was now just as angry as the superintendent, but in a different way, cold and scornful.

"Now I'll talk seriously, Superintendent. If I hadn't planned to leave Birkden – on Monday, I hope – I'd ask in public, loud and clear, why the Birkden police think they"re working for United Fabrics. No, no – don't interrupt now – I'm still serious, and I haven't finished. You got that information about my having evidence from Aricson. Has he been told not to meddle in police work? Has Sir Arnold Donnington been told? No, only Dr Salt, who meddled and meddled until he found that girl's body, and who's meddling on until he discovers who killed her."

"You"re bluffing."

Salt grinned at him. "I might be – yes. Then again, I might not be."

"What about that evidence? You told Aricson-"

"I told Aricson what I wanted him to believe. After all, he shouldn't be meddling in police work, should he?"

Hurst hesitated a moment. "Well, I'll go along with you there, Dr Salt. But I'm warning you – you"re going to have to be very very careful. If they can get you on anything – from suppression of evidence to defamation of character – they will do. And by this time tomorrow you'll have had it. But I'll give you a break tonight because I owe you something. And if you want to waste your time here, that's all right to me. I can't find you. Now, Buzzy, one of my men said he'd seen Dr Salt come in here tonight. Care to say anything about that, Buzzy?"