‘I’m saying that Roscoe, Ames and Taylor came to Lynton to blackmail Pershore, and that he, very determinedly, has responded by killing two of them.’
Coffee was brought in by a woman from the canteen. It was none too warm and probably concocted from a powder. In the square the fish-and-chip saloon was doing excellent business; quite a group were clustering round it, eating from newspapers and greaseproof bags.
‘Don’t you see the improbability of it?’
At last there was a spell for Gently’s pipe. Having got rid of his coffee, he scraped out the bowl and refilled it. After food, it was usually the second pipe which tasted the best.
‘He’s been a figure here for twenty years. After all that time, and with never the slightest suspicion…’
Round and round the super was gnawing at it, trying his best to find a weak place. Against anyone else, yes, it was a case — but against Geoffrey Wallace Pershore, Esq…
‘We probably shan’t know until we get hold of Roscoe.’
‘Just ask yourself! What could they have dug up about him?’
‘It might be something from a long time ago — before he ever set foot in Lynton.’
‘He came from overseas.’
Griffin was childishly bent on getting his foot in somewhere.
‘It was South Africa, I believe. I can remember it quite plainly. It was while you were still at Cheapham, sir.’
‘South Africa, eh…?’
‘He was as brown as a berry — younger, of course, not much over thirty. There was a lot of gossip. He had a Bentley in those days. According to what they said, he’d made his pile out of palm oil or something.
‘Anyway, he took a liking to Lynton and started investing his money here. Then, just before the war, he bought Prideaux Manor from old Major Calthorpe. During the war he organized the local St John’s Ambulance, and turned Prideaux Manor into a nursing-home.
‘Everyone thought he’d get an Honours List mention.’
‘Should’ve done!’ wailed the super. ‘It was only damned favouritism…’
‘Since then he’s done a great deal for Lynton. His name has been at the head of every charity list. He came to the assistance of the football club when it looked like going broke, and started the Library Appeal Fund with a thousand guineas.
‘His brokerage business qualifies him for the council. He’s been an alderman six years and was sheriff two years ago. Now, as I expect you know, he is to be the next mayor.’
‘Quite a busy career, in fact!’
‘Whatever you think of him, he’s public-spirited.’
‘And after twenty years he wouldn’t want the good work blemished… especially by a trio of Stepney spivs.’
‘But can you be certain, Gently!’ the super moaned. ‘It’s such a fantastic idea — and if you happened to be wrong…!’
‘I’ll check off the points for you.’
Gently extended his clumsy fingers.
‘All in all, I think you’ll find they add up to a case.
‘First, Pershore attended the meeting at Newmarket. Second, he was the source of the money. Third, he inspected the mill on the Thursday morning and knew about the flour-hopper. Fourth, he would have a set of keys to the mill. Fifth, he has no checkable alibi for the Thursday night. Sixth, his story about the money being stolen is unsupported by fact. Seventh, he manufactured evidence in an attempt to support it.
‘Tomorrow, I hope, the bank will be able to tell us that he withdrew the first five thousand pounds a few days after the Newmarket meeting. As far as we’re concerned, that will just about clinch it.’
‘But it’s all circumstantial — a defence would make hay of it.’
Gently hunched a shoulder. ‘There’s Roscoe to come! Also we’ve got an eyewitness tucked away in the cellar. I think Blacker will talk if you put it to him nicely.’
The super got to his feet and began pacing the room again. His distress was genuine and Gently felt sorry for him. Griffin, toying with his coffee-spoon, seemed caught between two contrary currents. He wanted to be loyal to the super, but nevertheless, as a policeman…
‘Get Blacker up here!’
The super had made his decision.
‘One way or another we’ve got to settle this matter.’
He glanced defiantly at Gently, but Gently was busy going through his pockets. Surely, in some neglected corner, there ought to be a peppermint cream?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Later on, the super had resigned himself to the calamity which had fallen jointly on himself and Lynton. After Blacker went he sat a long time brooding darkly over his two-tone desk.
Not that Blacker, though he had talked, had proved entirely satisfactory. His evidence was of the type which a defence counsel such as Pershore could brief would tear into fine shreds.
‘There was a car standing in Cosford Road which looked like a Bentley… no, it wasn’t stood under a light, nor I couldn’t see the colour…
‘Of course I saw him go down the yard… looked familiar, I thought
… the little bloke, too… I didn’t hear any struggle.
‘Then I tumbled to it, when I heard whose the money was. That was Pershore all right, and I don’t mind swearing to it.
‘If I put it to them straight, are you going to get me off the other…?’
Blacker had done some brooding of his own, sitting three hours in a cell with the smell of new cement in his nostrils.
But it was testimony that convinced the super, however vulnerable it might be to forensic corrosives. Gently’s reconstruction was being corroborated every time the foreman opened his mouth. And behind it all loomed Roscoe, the man no counsel could shrug aside.
‘Are you suggesting we make the arrest?’
He was trying to keep the bitterness out of his tone. The fish-and-chip saloon had departed for pastures new, and a clean, bright spring moon was climbing over the Georgian roofs and chimneys. Once or twice, from high overhead, they had distinctly heard the piping calls of migrant birds coming in from the sea.
‘No… not yet. The case isn’t foolproof.’
‘You want to dig up his past?’
‘Most of all I want Roscoe.’
‘Aren’t we doing all we can about him?’
‘We’ll have to take a risk.’
The super flashed a look at Gently, not quite understanding him. The man from the Central Office wore a stubborn expression which Dutt could have interpreted. His pipe, unlighted, stuck out of his mouth at an angle.
‘Tomorrow I’d like Blacker remanded on that charge, but I don’t want the money referred to. Have a word with the magistrate — it shouldn’t be difficult. Substitute “stolen property” or something like that.
‘And naturally, you’ll fob off the coroner about Ames.’
‘The press will be awkward.’
‘Try and clamp down on them! They’ll usually cooperate if it’s in a good cause. Then I’d like Inspector Griffin to keep investigating that robbery — any sort of play-acting to keep Pershore happy.
‘If he can get his prints we’ll send them up to Records, and perhaps you’ve got a man who can do some quiet digging. That Upcher deal will bear looking into — it should hardly fit Pershore’s story as neatly as he pretends it does.’
