Gently with the Ladies (Inspector George Gently 13)

her, I daresay you’ll find them upstairs. We had them spread all over the floor. She was very excited about the new line. During lunch we were choosing a coat for her and deciding about accessories. Then we discussed what to wear that evening, but she soon returned to the sketches, and she went out planning to ring for an appointment. That was what her mind was full of.’
    ‘But she’d have mentioned this woman on a previous occasion.’
    ‘Perhaps it would help if I knew who she was.’
    ‘Don’t you know?’
    ‘I’m afraid not. I’ve never been much interested in Siggy’s women.’
    ‘But you knew he had them, and so did Mrs Fazakerly.’
    Mrs Bannister breathed smoke delicately. ‘I have to give you the point,’ she said. ‘I find that quarrel of theirs incomprehensible. Nobody cared about Siggy’s women. He was always sleeping about somewhere. If anything, I imagine Clytemnestra encouraged it, it provided an emotional sedative for him. She knew about some of them, because she used to joke about them, and I’m willing to swear that’s all it meant to her.’
    ‘Yet you heard the quarrel.’
    ‘Only a word or two.’
    ‘Enough.’
    Mrs Bannister nodded. ‘She was being hysterical, and about a woman. She was warning Siggy to drop her, or she’d stop his money. I suppose he confirms it?’
    ‘Oh yes.’
    ‘Who was the woman?’
    ‘A Sarah Johnson.’
    ‘Clytemnestra never mentioned her to me. I’m afraid I’m mystified by the whole business.’
    She stared thoughtfully at Gently, as though holding him to blame for her mystification. Perhaps she would liked to have denied the truth of anything about Clytie Fazakerly to which she was not privy. She had drawn her legs in beneath her again and sat curiously upright, without support.
    ‘Had Mrs Fazakerly any relatives?’
    ‘Only her step-father and the Merryn woman. Her step-father is a solicitor in Bristol and he’d ceased to have anything to do with her. Brenda Merryn is her half-sister, a doctor’s receptionist or some such person. I’ve seen her here a few times. She meant nothing to Clytemnestra.’
    ‘Had she any close friends?’
    Mrs Bannister eyed him, but contented herself with a ‘No’.
    ‘Well, acquaintances who might visit her?’
    ‘We invited few people here.’
    ‘But you can name one or two?’
    ‘Oh, our friends are mostly about town. People you meet going around. You’d really waste your time investigating them. Anyway, where’s the point, Superintendent? The facts of the case are not in dispute. Siggy killed her. I know it. You know it. It was on his face when I saw him.’
    Gently nodded. ‘When you saw him, you say the lift was in use?’
    ‘Yes. The numbers were flashing. I don’t know why I particularly noticed it.’
    ‘Was the lift coming up or going down?’
    ‘I don’t remember. Wait! – coming up.’
    ‘You’re certain?’
    ‘Yes . . . I can see the numbers.’
    ‘And would you remember where it stopped?’
    She looked away, then quickly back at him. ‘Now we’re being clever again,’ she said. ‘No, I don’t know where it stopped, but I can tell you certainly where it didn’t. It didn’t stop on these two floors. If it had stopped on this one I would have seen it. If it had gone past I would have heard it. Ergo, it stopped lower down.’
    ‘Did you hear or see it later on?’
    ‘No, because I was not in the hall.’
    ‘So it, or the stairs, might well have been used, and you would not have been the wiser.’
    She breathed smoke silently for some moments, giving it little, modulated utterances, then she said:
    ‘You know, I don’t think I understand you, Superintendent. Have you some reason for supposing that Siggy didn’t do it?’
    ‘He says he didn’t.’
    She shrugged contemptuously. ‘What was he likely to say? And don’t forget he’s an arrant liar, though you may have discovered that for yourself.’
    Gently nodded. ‘There are also some other points.’
    ‘What are they?’
    ‘Points of detail. For instance, what had he to gain by killing her, when she was leaving her money to you?’
    Mrs Bannister gave a short laugh. ‘So you know about that, do you?’ she said. ‘Oh, the minds of these policemen! And of course, I’m immediately under suspicion.’
    ‘I didn’t say that—’
    She raised her hand. ‘Please! We can manage without hypocrisy. I don’t mind you suspecting me, it gives me a bitter sort of amusement. I am worth suspecting, oh yes, I am