Gently with the Ladies (Inspector George Gently 13)

threaten you in any way?’
    ‘He told me your name was George and that you were a bachelor.’
    ‘Because he’d guessed you’d told his wife about Miss Johnson?’
    ‘Yes, George, he’d guessed. No George, he didn’t threaten me.’
    ‘So it was you who told her?’
    She gave another twirl. ‘Don’t you realize,’ she said, ‘what your manner does to me? You’re so damnably tough and undentable, it simply turns me to a jelly. I said he’d guessed.’
    ‘He’d guessed right.’
    ‘I may have told her. Does it matter?’
    ‘It matters when.’
    ‘Say on Friday.’
    ‘Not on Friday.’
    ‘You choose the day.’
    She swept odorously past Gently to the hard-seated settle, which was the summit of the comfort the den had to offer. She arranged the cushions fastidiously and spread herself at full-length. Then she opened a small vanity bag and lit a cigarette.
    ‘Very well,’ she said. ‘Then we’ll be serious. We’ll play it your way, like tough hombres. It will give Mrs Jarvis time to settle in and I love it anyway, that’s what’s killing me. So give me the action, George. Chew me up and spit me out over your shoulder.’
    Gently put a light to the bent pipe. ‘I think you told me some lies,’ he said.
    ‘Oh, those hands!’ Brenda Merryn moaned. ‘I told you lies by the dozen.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘A woman has to lie. Lying is fundamental with women. Especially to policemen with hands like yours. We just open our mouths and babble anything.’
    ‘For example, you know a great deal about Beryl Rogers.’
    ‘Not a great deal. Say more than I told you.’
    ‘You know where she is.’
    ‘Just look at my knees. Please. Once. I’ll tell you anything.’
    ‘Where is she?’
    ‘She went to New Zealand.’
    ‘But where is she now?’
    ‘Does it matter? You must have enough on Siggy by now. You’ll be picking him up again tomorrow.’
    ‘I need to know where she is, Miss Merryn.’
    ‘Not Miss Merryn, George. I can’t stand it.’
    ‘I think you can tell me.’
    ‘You wouldn’t look at my knees, and anyway Beryl Rogers didn’t murder Clytie.’ She made a gesture of dragging at the cigarette, and another gesture of exhaling the smoke. ‘She’s just a ghost,’ she said, ‘that’s all Beryl is. A nasty, silly little, shallow little ghost. If you know the story you know what she is. I don’t blame Clytie for what she did to her.’
    ‘Have you seen her lately?’
    ‘If you’ll thaw I’ll say yes.’
    ‘In London?’
    ‘Perhaps. I’m a terrible liar.’
    ‘Within the last week?’
    ‘Yes. I can’t refuse you anything. Or if I didn’t see Beryl, I saw someone just like her.’
    ‘Where did you see her?’
    ‘Must we talk of other women? It isn’t worth your while, you know. Beryl Rogers is quite unnecessary. Suppose the ghost did walk a little and then vanished again at cockcrow. It was all an accident. You don’t need her. As I’m a liar, it wasn’t sinister.’
    ‘But Mrs Fazakerly had seen the ghost.’
    ‘Perhaps she only thought she saw it. Perhaps it was all done by mirrors. Perhaps it was hearsay after all.’
    ‘You mean, she was told.’
    Brenda Merryn smiled at him. ‘You aren’t treating me right,’ she said. ‘You’ve got the key to me in your hands and you just won’t turn the lock. In your hands. That’s
double entente.
Give it a turn and see what happens. Give it two turns, one for luck. I have such a simple combination.’
    ‘What I ought to do is give you a spanking.’
    Her smile widened. ‘Score to me. And then I’d blubber on your manly shoulder and that’s the last step up the stairs. But I’m giving you value, if you only knew it, and I’m letting you ask all the questions. Suppose you answer me one.’
    ‘What’s that?’
    ‘Why did you let Siggy go?’
     
    She blew a thin stream of smoke at him and stirred, as though acknowledging the settle’s hardness. The black diamond pattern of her legs readjusted and went still again. She’d been wearing pointed spur-heel shoes but she’d quietly pushed them off her feet. She watched Gently with amused eyes. Gently smoked, didn’t reply.
    ‘You’re a suspicious man, George,’ she said. ‘But I can read you like a book. This is what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, This promiscuous bitch has really come here about the money. Am I right?’
    Gently shrugged. ‘Doesn’t it rather stand out?’
    She laughed. ‘Yes. And it’s partly true. I don’t want to kiss that money