‘We’ll do that too,’ Gently said. ‘But it would save us a lot of sweat if we knew where to look.’
‘Ask around, you bastard,’ she said. ‘You’re so damned good at asking questions. I don’t know where he’d have gone.’
‘This is one likely place.’
She sat up again. ‘You lousy slop! Haven’t you just been searching everywhere? Nobody lives here with me — I wouldn’t have Sawney if he came on his knees. I didn’t like him, can’t you understand? He was a crude, snidy type. I had him in here when I was stuck for a bloke but that was all — I didn’t like him!’
‘But he might have come here.’
‘He didn’t come here!’
‘Somebody came in this direction.’
‘Oh hell,’ she said. ‘Hell. Hell. Why did I ever ask you in?’
‘That’s a question,’ he said.
She lay back, moaning. She turned on her side and kicked her legs.
‘Get out,’ she said from behind her teeth. ‘And I hope the next one gives you the pox.’
He rose. He went to look at the ashtray. He replaced the chair. He went out.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Friday, August 16TH, the day of the inquest on Teodowicz; beginning heavily, dewily, and with the first sun gold. Nothing to mark the day particularly except an incursion of pressmen, and they were barely noticed in the initial bustle of Offingham’s High. A number were quartered at the Star. These had noticed Gently’s late return. One of the younger ones had sought to question him and had gained experience by doing so. The air was stiller even than yesterday, soft, suspended; the light full of bright glare, penetrating shadows, flattening recessions. The warmth of yesterday lay in the bricks to supplement the warmth of today.
Gently left his car at the Star and walked the two hundred yards to Headquarters. He found Felling in Whitaker’s office, and Whitaker absorbing yesterday’s developments. A number of leads had come to nothing. Madsen’s prints had been found about Teodowicz’s flat. Freeman and Rice’s search had been abortive. Felling had not found the cafe where Teodowicz had eaten. The Mini-Minor belonged to Offingham Hire Cars Ltd and had been returned to them before the police had traced it. The hirer had given the name of Johnson, had not been remembered as wearing dungarees; he was described vaguely as well-spoken, perhaps with an accent, possibly foreign. Felling, after dusting some parts of the car, had concluded that the hirer had worn gloves. Sawney had not been apprehended. There was no word from Empton.
Whitaker got up when Gently entered. ‘I’m going to have to congratulate you,’ he said. ‘Yesterday I was telling you this case hadn’t an angle, today you lay the chummie flat on my plate. That’s a smart piece of police work, if you don’t mind me saying so. That service connection just didn’t dawn on us.’
‘It would have done,’ Gently said, glancing at Felling.
‘I’m not sure it would, sir,’ Felling said. ‘That bottle of cleaning fluid didn’t tell me anything. I was out of my depth, so I might as well admit it.’
‘But you’d have made inquiries about the gun,’ Gently said. ‘You’d have got round to Huxford at last. It’s too close and handy to overlook. You can see one of the hangars from the lay-by.’
Felling shrugged, stared at nothing.
‘We don’t mind admitting it,’ Whitaker said. ‘This is a job where you need a specialist. We haven’t had a murder here in living memory. Do you reckon Madsen was in on the racket?’
Gently sat down. ‘It seems to follow. We have to accept that he destroyed those records. Though why Teodowicz should keep any records of the racket is one of those curious little points.’
‘Well, I got his dabs, sir,’ Felling said. ‘They were on the poker and on that pin-up.’
‘Another curious point,’ Gently said. ‘I could have sworn Madsen lied to us about that.’
‘Yes,’ Felling said. ‘He was shaky, sir. But there were his dabs, as plain as you could wish.’
‘So,’ Gently said, ‘even a specialist can fall down. I didn’t think he had a sense of humour, either.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Whitaker said. He was looking pleased. ‘We’ll see if we can catch up with Madsen later. He couldn’t have had anything to do with the killing. If he’s a rogue we’ll be on to him soon enough. But that bottle was puzzling us. What do you make of the bottle?’
Gently hunched his shoulders. ‘That’s the third curious point. Sawney obtains fluid for cleaning a gun, and the fluid turns up in Teodowicz’s garage.’
‘Perhaps there’s nothing to it after all, sir,’ Felling said. ‘Perhaps Teodowicz got it off him for something else.’
‘Or perhaps it was Madsen’s,’ Whitaker said. ‘He may have had a firearm, and got rid of it after the killing.’
‘Hmn,’ Gently said. ‘That would be more likely. You wouldn’t bother to obtain it unless you had a gun. A pity we couldn’t print it.’
‘Yes, it was, sir,’ Felling said. ‘And I reckoned that Madsen knew more about it than he was saying.’
The Town Hall clock chimed a quarter. Felling looked at his wristwatch.
‘I’d better be getting down there, sir,’ he said to Whitaker. ‘I’ll need to see one or two people.’ To Gently he said: ‘Will you be looking in at the inquest, sir? It’ll only be the evidence of identification.’
‘Yes,’ Gently said. ‘I’ll be looking in. What time is it set for?’
‘Eleven hundred hours,’ Felling said.
He rose, took his hat. When the door closed Whitaker chuckled.
‘Felling’s a little peeved by it all,’ he said. ‘But he’s a good fellow. He takes it well. I wonder how his highness from MI5 will take it.’
‘I don’t think he’s been told.’ Gently had no expression. ‘I didn’t ask them to pass a message when I was ringing the Yard.’
Whitaker laughed outright. ‘You’re a bit of a devil. He’ll still be chasing this Kasimir fellow. And that must be a frost. You can’t have it both ways. With Sawney in the picture, Kasimir is out.’
‘I wonder,’ Gently said.
Whitaker looked at him. ‘Oho,’ he said.
‘I want to talk to Kasimir,’ Gently said. ‘I don’t mind Empton chasing him down.’
Whitaker was silent for a moment. ‘You still think there’s a connection?’ he asked.
‘I want to talk to him,’ Gently said. ‘I don’t think he’s clear from this at all. And I don’t think he’s very far away. But I was being slow last night. I’d got the Sawney angle uppermost, I wasn’t seeing the picture as a whole. I’ve been trying to see it since. And I want to talk to Kasimir.’
‘Last night,’ Whitaker said, puckering his eyes. ‘Would that be the fellow whose car you had checked?’
Gently nodded. ‘Wearing new dungarees. And hiring a car to go and sit in The Raven. I didn’t get a good look at his face and he was gone while I was still trying to place him. But what I saw of him tallied with Empton’s photograph. I’m pretty certain he was the man.’
‘But what was his interest in The Raven?’
‘He probably thinks the same as I do.’
‘What do you think?’ Whitaker said.
Gently hunched. ‘It’s not far from the lay-by. And it lies between that and the aerodrome, which is an interesting situation. And the proprietress knew Teodowicz, knows Madsen, knows Sawney. And she knows me. And she’s a liar. And she’s a very clever woman.’
Whitaker raised his eyebrows. ‘What am I to understand by that.’
‘It’s just for the record,’ Gently said. ‘I don’t want Wanda Lane scared.’
‘You want a man there?’
‘No. No man. You couldn’t do it without her knowing. But you can have a man in the streets looking for Kasimir, and check the hotels and lodging houses.’
‘I’ll have Freeman do that,’ Whitaker said. ‘Is there anything else that ought to go on the record?’
Gently looked at him, seemed about to say something, changed his mind, made a slight gesture with his
