Gently with the Ladies (Inspector George Gently 13)

elegantly dressed in hypocrisy, and unless you remember that hard core she’ll always be a mystery to you.’
    Gently smiled. ‘Perhaps you need that holiday.’
    ‘Oh I need it. I’m pretty sour. Just now I’m all for the Greek attitude to women: a slave at home and a whore abroad.’
    ‘Second-class citizens.’
    ‘Even lower. They’re distant a thousand incarnations.’
    ‘It may be because of that they need men.’
    ‘Yes. To eat. They live off us.’
    He puffed the cigar hard, making a heavy cloud between them. His mouth had a bitter set and his eyes were small and remote.
    ‘Where will you go?’ Gently said.
    Fazakerly’s face relaxed. ‘Everywhere. There’s a Hillyard twelve-tonner I’ve got my eye on. She’ll do. She’s my hand.’
    ‘You’ll go sailing?’
    ‘What else? It’s the one antidote to illusion. When your world goes awry there’s always a yacht and sea to sail her on. Each time you putter out into the estuary you’re starting the Grand Voyage. It may be only to the Point. It may be over the edge of the world.’
    ‘Alone.’
    ‘Alone. If that’s what you call it. But one isn’t really alone, you know. You’re lonelier here in this damned city than you’ll ever be with a sheet in your hand.’
    ‘I thought you might take Sarah Johnson with you.’
    ‘By God, you’ll never understand.’
    ‘The trial won’t be for three months yet. Give me a ring before you set sail.’
    Fazakerly shook his head. Gently finished his coffee, stubbed his cigar and went.
    Brenda Merryn’s opinion had been that Sarah Johnson would be back in favour within a fortnight.
     
    Albertine’s trial was interesting. She had been charged with murder committed in the course of a felony, but her counsel submitted that the killing and the (without prejudice) felony constituted separate acts. This was accepted. Counsel then submitted that the killing was justifiable homicide and that the (without prejudice) felony was supposititious and incapable of proof. The first contention was accepted. The felony remained on the indictment. She was found guilty, but her sentence was commuted to deportation and she was returned to her own country. Though perhaps not to Illiers.
     
    Norwich, 1964/5