Gently with the Ladies (Inspector George Gently 13)

‘Johnson places Merryn for us as spying on her on Sunday. The maid places her here on Monday. Then the way she’s behaved. It keeps adding up.’
    ‘What about the necklace.’
    ‘Why shouldn’t she have pinched it?’
    ‘Too clever.’
    ‘I don’t know. Killing people is emotional. You wouldn’t be clever all the time.’
    ‘The killer and the thief may be two people.’
    ‘Not likely, Chief. Too improbable.’
    ‘The necklace bothers me. So does the row. We may have been letting the row steal the show. Perhaps the motive is elsewhere. Maybe that’s what’s so puzzling.’
    A cry from Mrs Bannister interrupted them. She had come to to find herself on the settee. The first thing her eyes had rested on had been the stains and she was squirming away from them with an expression of horror.
     
    ‘You did this deliberately, Superintendent!’
    She pushed the policewomen aside and got up from the settee. Indignation brought colour surging back into her cheeks. She quivered, and her dark eyes flashed.
    ‘It was a low trick. You put me there deliberately to see what effect it would have on my nerves. You have descended to this. You are so incompetent you have sunk to trying to scare confessions out of people. But it won’t work, Superintendent. All this pantomime is to no purpose. You are fundamentally a very stupid man. You had better have left things to Inspector Reynolds.’
    Brenda Merryn clapped. ‘Isn’t she fabulous? And she knits barbed wire and chews nails.’
    ‘Belt up, Sybil,’ Fazakerly said. ‘You cackle around like a wet hen.’
    Mrs Bannister ignored them. Now she’d seen Sarah Johnson standing rigidly by the window. Her indignation leaked from her and her eyes hooded and softened.
    ‘Beryl!’ she exclaimed thrillingly.
    ‘Don’t talk to me,’ Sarah Johnson said.
    ‘Beryl, look at me. It’s been so long.’
    ‘I want nothing to do with you, Mrs Bannister.’
    ‘Beryl, I have a debt. I owe you so much. Now I’ve found you I want to pay it.’
    ‘Mrs Bannister—’
    ‘Sybil.’
    ‘All I want is to forget you. And the shame I feel. Please don’t say any more.’
    ‘Ah, you haven’t forgiven me,’ Mrs Bannister said, edging closer to the window. ‘I’ve suffered too, Beryl, so much, you’ll never know the pain I’ve endured because of you. I wronged you terribly. Yes, I know it. I should have stood by you come what may. It would have been best. You can never understand what a moment’s weakness cost me.’
    ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
    ‘You are bitter, Beryl. Perhaps I don’t deserve the right to repay. But I shall repay, yes, two for one, every bitter moment I’ve caused you. Come back to me, Beryl. Live with me again. You shall have a flat here if you want it. I’ll divide my foolish money with you and we’ll live together like two queens. Give me that happiness. To repay. I’ve suffered enough to deserve it.’
    ‘Are you listening carefully?’ Fazakerly said. ‘It’s a fair offer, Sybil’s bint. There’s money in it. Sybil’s loaded. You’ll scarcely get a higher bid.’
    ‘Johnny. Please don’t talk like that.’
    ‘Sorry. Of course you must save your face.’
    ‘You’re brutal, Johnny.’
    ‘I’m punch-drunk. But Sybil’s nice. Love Sybil.’
    Sarah Johnson closed her eyes and tears brimmed over and down her cheeks. She ran to the far end of the lounge and threw herself in a chair.
    ‘Touching,’ Fazakerly said. ‘So touching. You press the button, you get the response. To her, Sybil.’
    Mrs Bannister stalked up to him. For a moment it seemed she would strike him a blow. But immediately his hands shaped a boxing defence and he balanced himself on his toes. She turned malignantly to Reynolds.
    ‘You want to know who killed Clytemnestra! It’s simple. You need only know one fact and that is that he and his sister-in-law are conspirators. That’s the secret. They are in it together. When you know that, you know all.’
    ‘Ha, ha,’ Fazakerly said.
    ‘Oh, of course he’ll laugh,’ Mrs Bannister said. ‘They have kept it concealed with very great care, but they could not conceal it from me. She’s been his woman all along. She’s always been envious of Clytemnestra. The difficulty was how to replace her without saying goodbye to her money. And this was the plot. She was to be killed apparently in a row over poor Beryl, but with so many doubtful circumstances that Siggy would get off. He had this relative in the Yard,