John Creasey - Gideon’s Sport

“Yes, it certainly needs concentration,” he said. “Go and get her, will you?”

He finished his coffee, ate another chocolate biscuit, had a flash thought that Kate would discourage him from having any chocolate during the day. for he was beginning to fight the weight war. wondered how Kate was, and poured himself more coffee. Henry was doubtless taking this proffered chance of briefing the girl — probably, he grinned to himself, reassuring her that he, Gideon, was not an ogre!

There was a tap at the door, and Henry brought the girl in.

Gideon’s first reaction was: “What a nice little thing.”

She was on the short side, and could only, with the height rule, just have scraped into the Force. She was trim, neatly-dressed in a cream linen suit, edged with brown. She wore a wide-brimmed straw hat of the same brown hue, carried brown gloves and wore matching brown shoes. There was something very frank and open about her face, with its broad yet delicate features. She wore lipstick and the curiously smooth dark honey-colour of her skin might owe a little to make-up.

She moistened her lips, and he saw that she had nice teeth, one of them gold-capped. That gold could betray her, unless she painted or covered it as part of her disguise.

“Detective-Constable Juanita Conception, Commander,” Henry introduced.

Gideon nodded and put down his cup, smiled without showing quite how well-impressed he was, and asked: “You really think there’s serious trouble brewing for Thursday’s big match, do you?”

“I’m quite sure there is, sir,” she answered. Her voice was pleasant; perhaps a little trembly, although she controlled any nervousness well.

“Then it’s a very good thing we know.”

“Yes, sir. I think so.”

“What kind of trouble, do you know yet?”

Gideon noticed Henry watching very tensely, as if afraid the girl might make a bad impression.

“I only know a little, sir. In the organisation there’s a small central committee which makes that kind of decision and they’re not going to announce their plans until the last moment. I’m not on that committee.” She hesitated, and gave a hesitant little smile: “They think there might be a leakage of information, sir.”

Gideon chuckled: “I don’t blame them!”

That was the moment when Detective-Constable Juanita Conception relaxed — and the moment when the Superintendent, also, seemed to lose his fears. The girl’s smile, this time, was bright and flashing, and Henry chuckled, too; evidence of how pent-up he had been.

“Constable Conception thinks she has some idea of what the Committee might be planning,” he put in.

“Good. What is it?”

“The one thing I know, sir, is that they have managed to get hold of a thousand tickets for Thursday, the first day of the match,” the girl told him. “Out in the open tickets, I mean. The bleachers, sir.”

“A thousand?”

“Yes, sir. The Central Committee had a lot of the members buying-some of them went back three or four times for more tickets.”

“Is this common knowledge?”

“There’s a lot of talk about seeing the game, sir,” said Juanita Conception, “and they all seem to tell me more than anyone else — any Jamaican is supposed to be just crazy about cricket”

“And aren’t you?”

“I’d prefer one hour at the Centre Court at Wimbledon, sir, to a whole Test Match — even if it was against the West Indies!”

“I see,” said Gideon, drily. “Don’t ever tell my son that!” He moved to a big armchair and sat down. “Have you any idea how many people are likely to be involved?”

“A thousand, I suppose.”

Gideon, momentarily taken aback, suddenly chuckled again. This girl put him in a good humour and he was extremely glad he had not created problems of tension.

“Where will they come from?” he asked.

“I’m not sure, sir, but I do know at least fifty are coming in from Europe and they say there will be some on the S.S. France when she reaches Southampton from New York. That will be the day before the match begins.”

“I see.” Gideon looked at her very levelly, so that her smile faded, and she waited. But there was no tension; obviously she was at ease now. “Constable — do you think your identity has been suspected?”

“No, sir.”

“What do you think would happen if your colleagues on the Action Committee found out?”

She didn’t answer at once, and Gideon prompted: “Haven’t you thought of that?”

“Often, sir,” she replied.

“Well?”

“I’m sure there’s no danger,” Henry put in quickly.

The girl looked at him gravely for a long time, then turned back to Gideon, and he had no doubt at all that she would answer truthfully and that her opinion would be well-considered. She frowned, slightly; it seemed to narrow her features and to give her an added attractiveness.

. “I think they would disfigure me, sir,” she answered at last. “One or two might want to kill me.”

“Juanita!” exclaimed Henry.

“I do, sir,” insisted Juanita, without even glancing at him. “They feel very strongly about the apartheid situation, and they would believe I had betrayed them.” When Gideon made no answer, she added in a hushed voice: “And i one way, they would be right, wouldn’t they? That’s the awful tiling about —” She broke off, and after a pause went on in a different, almost defensive manner: “You did ask me, sir, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I wanted to know and I am very glad to know, answered Gideon. “You started to say something about -

“What I’d like to know is whether there was anything new last night,” interrupted Henry.

It was obvious that he had been searching for some justifiable way of interrupting, that this change of mood was far from his liking. And his exclamation: “Juanita!” told its own story: this was more than an official association — which could result in another cause for worry. She reported to him ‘at night’ he had said. Where? From the moment the conversation had taken this turn he had tried to break it up, but the girl did not even glance at him; her only concern at that moment was with Gideon. And Gideon, also, ignored Henry, who did not try again.”

“It’s the most awful thing about the world today,” she went on, flatly. “You have to spy on one another, if you believe in a thing strongly enough. And most of the Action Committee believe passionately, sir — they really do. Some or them — I really do think some of them would go to the stake for what they believe in. They hate apartheid. They certainly don’t mind a few months in prison.” She continued to eye Gideon levelly, but paused for a long time; it was his time to speak.

“Do you hate apartheid?” he asked, very quietly.

“In a way I do, sir,” she answered, without hesitation: obviously she had long since worked out her attitude about this. “But primarily I believe that you’ve got to obey the law, sir. You’ve just got to be law-abiding. I think a demonstration, especially an ugly demonstration about this — this game,” she said with almost scornful emphasis, “could do a terrible lot of harm. You just have to believe in something, sir, and I believe in law and order.”

Gideon spent a long moment looking intently into her alert, eager face, sensing that she was almost begging him to understand, then cleared his throat and asked: “And you’d go to the stake for it, in your own way, would you?”

“Well, of course,” said Juanita Conception, quite simply.

Gideon drew his gaze away at last and spoke to Henry: it was almost as if he had only now remembered that the other man was still present. At the back of his mind, there was a very great admiration for this young woman, and it was easy to understand that Henry might have become very attached to her. Henry was married, of course, so that could create all manner of complications. But the girl was remarkably level-headed and would probably keep any situation under control.