when they were discussing Johnson at tea.
‘You were on to it from the start — you could begin to see the pattern.’
‘Don’t talk a lot of poppycock! There wasn’t any pattern to see.’
Stephens was unconvinced, however, and puffed away at a furious rate. Gently slyly watched the young man while polishing off the rest of the sandwiches. He was so intent to learn! Yet his very keenness got in the way. He was for ever looking for a formula where no formula could exist. But, further back than he could remember, hadn’t it been the same way with Gently? Hadn’t he also admired his seniors and striven to find their recipe for success?
‘Go and find us a stenographer… we may be in for an all-night session.’
He suddenly remembered Herbie the Fence, and was surprised that that had been only yesterday.
If Johnson had made a fuss when Stephens had pulled him in, he had succeeded in calming himself during his wait to see Gently. When a detective ushered him in he was smoking a cigarette and, without being invited, he spun a chair and threw himself down in it. Then he stuck a hand in his pocket with an air of being bored, and jingled his change while hissing smoke through his teeth.
Stephens now occupied a chair beside Gently, and their shorthand constable was stationed at the end of the desk. At the other end was standing a freshly ordered jug of coffee, adding its own fragrant ingredient to the atmosphere of tobacco smoke. In front of Gently, as usual, was a pad for him to scribble patterns on.
‘There are some further questions which I have to put to you, Mr Johnson.’
He was drawing a number of parallel lines, greatly to the interest of the observant Stephens.
‘But first, I’m going to give you a chance to amend your former statement to us. I should tell you that it doesn’t agree with our latest information.’
Johnson continued to smoke noisily for a moment or two, though he had ceased to jingle the change in his pocket. He was gazing with apparent interest at the toes of his shoes, his legs being folded and stuck out in front of him.
‘So that’s the way of it, is it, cocker?’ He ventured a glance at the wooden-faced Gently. ‘I thought an old fox like you would sniff the hen roost before long — you wouldn’t have snaffled me at this time of night for nothing.’
‘Have you anything to tell me?’
‘Not until I see the cards, pardner.’
‘My information relates to the Butters family.’
‘What do you advise? Shall I scream for a lawyer?’
There was no sign of panic about the wavy-haired ex-pilot. One would almost have said that he had taken advice already. A bulky, powerful figure in a lightweight tweed jacket, he sat casually at ease and blew his smoke at varying angles.
‘You don’t seem to be aware of the gravity of your situation.’
‘I should be, old sport. It’s my neck that we’re discussing.’
‘And you don’t want to modify your former statement?’
‘No reason to do that — it’s substantially correct.’
‘Didn’t you say that you’d never been unfaithful to your wife?’
Another pause followed, during which Stephens jiffled restlessly. Gently imagined that this was not the way in which his protege had handled Aymas. For at least a minute Johnson was silent, his attention still fixed on the upturned shoes; then he appeared to think better of it, and stubbed his cigarette in Hansom’s ashtray.
‘The Butters are friends of mine — at least, I used to think so. If you like, you can add that on the bottom of the statement.’
‘They were friends and no more?’
‘Butters put business in my way.’
‘Why didn’t you tell him that you were married?’
‘It was something that I preferred to forget.’
‘And you did forget it, didn’t you?’ Gently hatched his lines with swift strokes. ‘I understand that Anne Butters is going to have a baby.’
‘Am I supposed to know that?’
‘I’m giving you every chance to tell me.’
‘That’s jolly decent of you, considering the circumstances.’
He lit another cigarette, flicking the match into the ashtray, and now it was the matchbox which he elected to study. There was no doubt about it — he was a cool customer to interrogate. Was he still picturing himself as a hero before the Gestapo?
‘What prisoner-of-war camp were you in?’
‘I was in Stalag three-two.’
‘Did you ever try to escape?’
‘Twice. Once I nearly got to Denmark.’
‘Were you treated very harshly?’
‘Cocker, don’t make me laugh. I was grilled for twenty days and twice they took me out to shoot me. They wanted to know who planned the break, and if they’re alive, they’re still ruddy well wanting. So you can make up your mind to one thing.’ He sent smoke hissing in all directions.
Gently nodded. ‘Then there’s no more to it. I won’t waste my time in the steps of the Gestapo. To them you were a Royal Air Force officer, but to me you are just another criminal.’
It hit the spot; Johnson’s colour rose. He sucked in an enormous lungful of smoke.
‘Don’t take that line with me, old sport-!’
‘I’m not taking any line — but I’ll tell you the truth.’
Now it was Gently who had the pause to play with, and he occupied it in stroking off an entirely fresh pattern. Both Stephens and Johnson were now following the swept motions, only the shorthand man seeming proof against their fascination.
‘On the Monday night you had come to a crisis — not an emotional crisis, but a business one. I don’t think you gave a damn about losing Anne Butters. An ex-bomber pilot in an MG could soon pick up something else.
‘But you cared a great deal about your lucrative business, and you knew that it would take a knock if ever Butters turned against you. He knew the right people. He had sent you the best part of your clients. And he could, just as easily, put the evil eye on you.
‘So that was the thing which you had to preserve: the goodwill of William Butters, and your steady flow of clients. And the only way to do that was to marry his daughter, to make good the role you played of being an honourable man. Until Anne became pregnant the matter had no great urgency. You could fob off the pair of them with suitable excuses. You could tell him that you were waiting to buy a property that suited you, and her that you were still seeking the grounds for a divorce.
‘But once she became pregnant the situation began to run away with you, and you had to cast about to find a way out of the tangle. What was more, you needed a way which wouldn’t alienate Butters — he was due for a shock, of course; but it was essential not to make him an enemy.
‘No doubt you reviewed the possibilities, of which there were three in number. The first of them, abortion, was the one which you mentioned to Anne. But abortion had grave objections, besides being dangerous in itself: how could you keep the family from knowing, and what effect would it have on Anne? Then there was the possibility of blackmail, which I dare say crossed your mind. So, on the whole, you didn’t favour abortion, except as another excuse to amuse Anne.
‘So you were brought to the second alternative, that of the divorce of which you had talked for so long. As to grounds, you probably had plenty, and without recourse to private detectives. But here again the objections were insuperable. You had to proclaim yourself perjured to Butters. Anne you were sure of if the divorce went through, but she was no use to you unless with her father’s blessing. Also, wasn’t there a chance that he might have spiked that divorce for you? With divorce, the odds were that you would have come off with nothing.’
Gently discontinued his doodling to look hard at the estate agent, whose frowning grey eyes had never left the busy pencil. Stephens, his pipe between his teeth, was sitting as stiff as a cleaning rod. Tobacco smoke drifted lazily towards the harsh strip lighting.
