policeman would be?’
The mayor-elect’s mouth opened incredulously.
‘You can’t be serious, Inspector!’
‘I assure you I am, sir. You could quite easily become involved.’
‘But I told you this morning-!’
‘That you had not been in Lynton? I’m afraid we’d need witnesses to prove the truth of that.’
The great man of Lynton rocked slightly in his chair. Even Fuller had been roused from his apathy to stare at his landlord. As for the clerk, she seemed unable to believe her ears…
‘So I would advise you to avoid drawing attention… if you value your civic reputation! Once the press get hold of these things they take a lot of living down. On the whole, the less your name appears in this business the better.’
It was a palpable threat, and Pershore was visibly shaken by it. An automatic protest died haplessly on his lips. One could have homicidal tenants — that was one thing! — but prospective mayors should not be personal participants…
‘Of course, I–I see your point, Inspector!’
‘Mmm.’ Gently struck a match and set it to his pipe.
‘It was never my intention — I think I know better-’
‘If you don’t mind I’d like to be getting on with my enquiry.’
Pershore lapsed into a dismal silence and Gently blew a number of smoke-rings. In the yard a lorry had drawn up, its idling motor providing an undertone to the beat of the naphtha engine.
Fuller, probably, should be out there giving the driver instructions.
‘Why didn’t you mention Mr Pershore’s visit?’
‘I’d forgotten about that.’
The miller sounded sullen, but somehow more composed. The Pershore interference had unfortunately given him time to pull himself together.
‘It was quite a big thing to forget. Does Mr Pershore come round so often?’
‘No, it isn’t that — I’d just forgotten what day he came on.’
‘But naturally, you remember it now?’
‘He was here on Thursday morning.’
‘At what time was that?’
‘It was about eleven or just after.’
‘What makes you so certain?’
‘Mary fetches in the coffee about then, and she was out after it when Mr Pershore arrived.’
‘What else have you forgotten?’
‘Nothing… I’ve told you all I remember.’
Privately Gently was wishing Pershore would fry in hell for his self-consequential interruption. Fuller had been offered a breathing space, and his returning confidence showed what use he had made of it. If Blacker had talked, why was Gently going this devious way to work with the miller?
He couldn’t have talked, and Fuller realized it…
‘How long were you without a foreman?’
‘How long? Roughly six or eight-’
‘Quite a time in fact! Yet you suddenly appointed a new one.’
‘It meant extra work…’
‘Then why did you wait so long?’
‘At first-’
‘Meaning what?’
‘The first week or two-’
‘But you talked of six or eight weeks!’
‘I know! It was later on-’
‘So you were overworked for a month or six weeks, but did nothing about it till last Friday?’
‘I’d been meaning to-’
‘How long has Blacker worked here?’
‘Several years — Mary will tell you-!’
‘Six years. What about the others?’
‘Of course, there’s some of them-’
‘Ten years? Twenty? One or two of them who worked here before you took the mill over?’
‘Yes — one or two!’
‘Then why was Blacker made foreman?’
‘Because he’s got the-’
‘After a bare six years?’
‘It’s enough-’
‘Over the heads of the others — and a man of his character?’
‘I tell you-’
‘Good for discipline, eh? Just the move to keep them happy!’
‘I made him up on his ability!’
‘About twelve hours after a murder on the premises!’
Pershore seemed about to break in again, but Gently nailed him down with a glance that made the mayor- elect shiver. Let him interfere this time — only let him dare! But Pershore had appreciated the threat of that glance…
‘Why are you afraid of Blacker?’
‘That’s ridiculous…’
‘Don’t tell me you like the man!’
‘We’ve always got on-’
‘He’s a bad lot, and you know it. He haunts the pubs and keeps company with prostitutes — probably runs one of them, if I know anything about it! And he’s a slacker and a troublemaker, despised by the men you’ve put under him, on top of which he’s insolent to you personally. If you’re not afraid of him, why don’t you kick him out? Of all the others, why make that fellow the foreman of your mill?’
‘You don’t know him, I tell you!’
‘Oh, yes, I do — I’ve met Blackers before! They are constitutional parasites, Mr Fuller, one meets them at all levels. They are a work-shy race always on the lookout for the easy touch. And Blacker has found one in you, hasn’t he? He’s found a way of putting the pressure on! He saw something — he heard something — and now you’re under his thumb.
‘And that was on Thursday night, because he put the bite on you first thing on Friday morning.
‘If it wasn’t to do with Taylor, Mr Fuller, you’d better have a cast-iron story to tell!’
The miller shuddered as though he were being whipped, but the obstinate pout of his lips set tighter. Blacker hadn’t talked, that was the sheet-anchor he was clinging to. Gently could suspect what he liked… but Blacker hadn’t talked!
‘Look — where did you see this before?’
Gently shoved the gold cross into the wretched man’s hand.
‘I–I haven’t ever seen it!’ Fuller shrank away from it sensibly. ‘I don’t understand-’
‘And you wouldn’t know where I found it?’
‘No! How should I know?’
‘Though it was amongst the barley-straw in the hayloft?’
‘I tell you — how should I know!’
This time the barb had caught something. Gently could feel the tug at his line. The desperation was seeping back into themiller’s tone, a ghastly look had come into his eyes.
‘Let me tell you something, Mr Fuller! We’ve got very comprehensive records of criminals like Taylor. He happened to have been a Roman Catholic — not a very good one, perhaps, but a man likely to have carried one of those things about.
