‘Any time,’ Deeming said. ‘We don’t like screws having it dull.’
‘Don’t misunderstand me,’ Gently said. ‘Murder can never really be dull.’
He unlocked the Rover, got in, lit his pipe. They watched him silently. He drove away.
At the Sun it was later than teatime but his waitress fetched a tray for him in the lounge. He was surprisingly stiff from his bout of riding and his arm was aching where Hallman had punched it. He had the evening paper brought in. The Lister case had gone off the front page. The paper originated in Norwich and there was nothing in it about the business at Castlebridge. He ate his toasted teacakes sombrely, drank his tea, stared at the window.
He was back with his pipe when Setters came in. The local inspector looked relieved to see him.
‘I’ve been trying to contact you all the afternoon,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t seem to get a fix on you after you left Castlebridge. Then we got a motorist making a report about some dangerous driving in Five Mile Drove, and the car sounded a bit like yours, and you could have been there about then. Did you have any trouble?’
Gently grunted. ‘Not to say trouble,’ he replied. ‘A little playfulness, perhaps, and some polished stage- management.’
‘What this motorist reported didn’t sound very playful.’
‘It’s a matter of taste,’ Gently said. ‘It might seem boisterous to some people.’
He gave Setters an account of the events of the day. Setters sat droopingly listening, dragging on a cigarette and flicking his nails. When Gently had finished Setters sat silent for some moments, then he said:
‘It looks to me as though it’s just the reefer-boys you’ve been having a tangle with.’
‘That’s how it looks,’ Gently admitted.
‘It looks to work this way,’ Setters said. ‘They knew you saw the collector at Castlebridge, so they aimed to confuse you, and lay on alibis, and take the juice out of you too. First there was two instead of one, then there was six instead of two. So you can’t swear to any one of them, and one and all have got alibis. I didn’t realize we’d got such clever bastards in Latchford.’
‘But it wasn’t necessary,’ Gently said. ‘That’s the significant point. I didn’t recognize the collector. All the play-acting was superfluous.’
‘Bixley knew you’d suspect him,’ Setters said. ‘Maybe that’s why he set it up. That and to make you look small, which he’d want to do to keep face.’
‘But now I’m positive it was him,’ Gently said, ‘after a build-up like that. Or am I only supposed to be positive — was that the idea of it?’
‘I don’t get it,’ Setters said. ‘You’re straining my poor provincial brain. But here’s a hard fact I came to tell you — we found some sticks at Elton’s place.’
He gave Gently a side glance.
‘They were in the garden shed,’ he said. ‘There were five of them, in a box. A chocolate box. It’s got no good prints on it.’
‘Anything else?’ Gently asked.
‘Yes,’ Setters said, ‘from the Yard. They put a call through for you just this minute. That’s why I came hunting you up.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
They went down to Police H.Q. and Gently took the call in Setters’ office. Pagram came on at the other end. He was eating something and talking with his mouth full.
‘You’ve dropped some dynamite,’ he said. ‘Down in Narcotics you’re the blue-eyed boy. That telephone number took them straight to the top man, a gent by the name of Leo Slavinovsky. They copped him bending with all the goods on him — and ten or a dozen of his associates. Don’t mind me, I’m catching up, I’m having a picnic in the office.’
‘Anything I can use?’ Gently asked.
‘I’d say it looks promising,’ Pagram said. ‘Slavinovsky’s premises are in Gumbrill Street, Bethnal. Wasn’t it Bethnal you had your eagle eye on?’
‘Yes, Bethnal.’ Gently nodded.
‘Well, the results are still coming in. They’ve got some interesting records from Slavinovsky’s safe which look like filling a few vacant cells. His set-up is definitely a Bethnal product. All the Cuthberts they’ve pulled in belong to that area. I’ve told them to check for connections with your wide boy at Latchford. I’m waiting now to hear from them. I’m eating canteen cheese rolls.’
‘You’ll have indigestion,’ Gently said.
‘A man must live,’ said Pagram. ‘Now you can hang up and let me finish. It’s difficult to drink, eat, and talk.’
Gently hung up, made himself comfortable to wait for the call back. Setters came in with the box and reefers which he’d found at Elton’s home. The box was a small one, a quarter-pound box, and of a different brand to those seized at Castlebridge. The reefers were of the same make. The box was empty except for the reefers.
Setters sat down beside the desk, lit a cigarette, drew heavily.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ he said. ‘It was painful, but I did it.’
‘About these?’ Gently said.
Setters nodded, drew some more.
‘It’s having you with me,’ he said. ‘I can’t keep it simple any longer. I keep being devious about everything, I want to come up with something clever. So though this rubs, I’ve got to say it. I think that crap is a plant.’
‘Mmn,’ Gently said. ‘Did you talk to Maureen?’
‘Yep,’ Setters said, ‘I talked to her. I think she knew Elton was smoking and I think she destroyed any sticks he left there. But I don’t think she planted these. There’s no single reason why she should. And she wouldn’t have planted them in the shed, but in his bedroom somewhere. It’s the shed angle that started me off, there’s no lock on the shed. You’ve only to hop over the fence, sneak up the path, and open the door.’
‘Was she there when you found them?’ Gently asked.
‘Yes,’ Setters said. ‘She was hanging around. I got the impression that she was surprised and didn’t like it very much. But she wouldn’t open up on it, other than swearing they weren’t hers. I think they were planted and she’s got a good idea about who did the planting.’
‘Bixley,’ Gently mused. ‘Or one of his side-kicks.’
‘From what you tell me,’ Setters said, ‘that would be the idea. I wouldn’t know if his grapevine told him about what Greenstone gave us, but if it did this could be an attempt to fasten the reefer-passing on Elton. So like that it might not have been Elton who was sitting at the table with Betty Turner. It might have been Bixley, and he’s got reasons for wanting to keep us from thinking that. Or maybe again he was just trying to make a scapegoat out of Elton, which attempt has now fallen through owing to what you saw at Castlebridge today.’
‘Have you rung the hospital today?’ Gently asked.
‘Yes, twice,’ Setters said. ‘She’s improving, she’s got her eyes open. But she isn’t talking yet.’
‘It might not have been her Greenstone saw,’ Gently said. ‘It might not have been Bixley or Elton with her. All Greenstone was certain about was Lister and him taking the serviette.’
‘And the sticks,’ Setters said. ‘Don’t forget he took them.’
Gently nodded. ‘It wasn’t very gallant of him to take his fiancee’s supply of reefers.’
‘Meaning?’ Setters asked.
‘Just a point,’ Gently said. ‘Because it might not have been Betty Turner who Greenstone saw. Perhaps Lister was deeper in this than we thought. Perhaps he took the reefers because the girl couldn’t pay for them. There may be an angle we haven’t got on to why he was ridden off the road.’
Setters looked doubtful. ‘I like it simple,’ he said. ‘That’s my natural-born instinct. If there was something else we’d have got a smell of it beyond all this surmising. We’re getting smoke blown in our eyes with this dope- peddling business. The fact is Elton had a motive, and I don’t see where anyone else has.’
‘Mmn.’ Gently conceded the point. ‘He’s certainly in it up to his eyeballs. Leach, the man they’ve arrested over
