‘You had one there, Jan.’
‘My name is John.’
‘Jan. That’s what it says.’
‘I don’t know what it says.’
‘It says Jan Kasimir.’
‘I am Campbell.’
‘Jan Kasimir.’
‘Campbell.’
Gently shrugged. ‘It’s quite a good photograph of you, Jan,’ he said. ‘Don’t you like it?’
‘Is not of me.’
‘Perhaps you don’t like the moustache?’
‘I have not ever a moustache.’
‘Oh, I think it was a nice touch. When did you shave it?’
His knuckles were white.
‘Before you saw Teodowicz?’
‘Who is Teodowicz?’
‘The man whose inquest you went to, Jan.’
‘I do not know him.’
‘Your fellow countryman.’
‘I am Scotsman.’
‘Timoshenko Teodowicz.’
‘No,’ the man said. ‘I do not know him. I do not know anything about Teodowicz.’
‘Don’t you read the papers?’
He sat still. He bit his lips together very hard.
‘And Teodowicz is dead,’ Gently said. ‘And the way he died wasn’t pretty, Jan. There was nothing parsimoniously Scottish about the number of bullets that went into him. Over two hundred of them, did you know that? Somebody stood there pumping them into him. Not long after you’d been to see him. The man whose inquest you attended today.’
He sat still.
‘Unpleasant,’ Gently said. ‘Haven’t you any comment to make, Jan?’
The lips bit tighter.
‘A pity,’ Gently said. ‘Somebody is going to hang for Teodowic, Jan.’
The man was trembling. He leaned forward. His eyes stretched wide, showing rings of white. ‘ Hypocrite! ’ he screamed at Gently. He crumbled in the chair. He began to cry.
Well,’ Gently said. ‘A comment after all. Why am I a hypocrite, Jan?’
The man was sobbing to himself words not in English. He didn’t pay any more attention to Gently.
Whitaker flinched, looked unhappy, asked: ‘What are we going to do about him?’
Gently watched the man crying. He had covered his face with his hands. The hands were pale hands and the fingers were sensitive. They too had been bleeding. The blood had dried on the fingers.
Gently chucked his head. ‘We’ll have to unleash Empton. I’m afraid we’ve strayed into his department.’
‘Empton,’ Whitaker said.
Gently picked up the phone. The man continued to cry, Felling to stare through the window.
Friday August 16th in a small town, in a small country, in a small world, in a large universe, Friday August 16th. A certain point in space-time with a very local description, unaccepted as an event by the electronic expression containing it. Perhaps emotion, no more, an alien wanderer in the curvatures; the burden carried by those other lonely aliens, men. Giving them local habitation where they were strangers gone foreign, a detailed assurance of identification, a comfortable shadow on their blank chart. Friday August 16th in a small town, in a small country. A point negligible in space-time. A man crying. Other men.
The door opened to admit Empton. He didn’t come into the room immediately. He stood in the doorway, hand on the knob, peering at the man who sat drooped in his chair. Empton’s blue eyes didn’t flicker and he stood as still as the door. He didn’t look anywhere except at the man. Finally, his teeth began to show.
‘Little Jan!’ he said softly. ‘We wondered where you’d got to, little Jan.’
He closed the door without a sound, and reaching behind him, shot the snack.
The man twisted round at the sound of Empton’s voice, crouched a little, didn’t say anything. Whitaker rose, pushing his chair back clumsily. Empton came across the room.
‘Is he the — one?’ Whitaker asked.
‘But of course, old man,’ Empton said. ‘This is little Jan, the West Hampstead instrument maker. We’ve met before, haven’t we Jan?’
‘My name-’ the man began.
‘Oh, don’t let’s be formal, old fellow,’ said Empton. ‘You’re with friends, don’t you remember? My little visit and advice I gave you?’ He ran the tips of his fingers over his knuckles. Kasimir kept his eye on the knuckles. ‘I sometimes look in on these chaps,’ Empton said, ‘when they first arrive here. A purely courtesy call. What’s he been telling you?’
‘Nothing,’ Gently said.
Empton showed his teeth. ‘They don’t,’ he said. ‘That’s one of the oddities of the profession, old man. There’s really only two ways of getting anything out of them.’
‘What’s the other way?’ Gently said.
‘Money,’ Empton said. ‘And we’ll try that first. Purely out of deference to bourgeois prejudices. I don’t think it will work, not in the present company. I think he killed Teodowicz. I think your presence will be inhibiting.’
‘I think it probably will,’ Gently said. ‘So I’ll stay here.’
‘Just as you like,’ Empton said. ‘It doesn’t matter. If you took him to court you’d never get a conviction.’
He looked round the office, picked up the chair Felling had used, placed it so he sat opposite to Kasimir with their knees nearly touching. He flicked Kasimir’s chin. Kasimir jerked his head back. Empton leaned forward slightly, stared hard, flicked him again. Whitaker seated himself uneasily. He sent glances at Gently. Gently sat with half- closed eyes, hunching back in his chair.
‘Little Jan,’ Empton said.
Kasimir sat very straight.
‘Little Jan,’ Empton said, ‘you’ve got something we want. We’re going to have it, little Jan, and you know we’re going to have it. That’s the situation, little Jan. I think you appreciate it, don’t you?’
He flicked. Kasimir winced, didn’t try to avoid it.
‘Yes,’ Empton said. ‘You’re a man of intelligence, you appreciate the situation. We know too much to be played with, Jan, and I’m sure you won’t waste our time by trying it. You’re going to give us what we want, Jan, because there’s no other way out. You’re going to cooperate, Jan. You’re going to tell us everything, Jan.’
He flicked.
‘Now’, he said. ‘We’re going to be generous with you, Jan. We could hang you, Jan. You know that? We could put up a case that would hang you for certain. And you’ve come such a long way, Jan, you’ve been through so much, Jan, it would be a pity, wouldn’t it, Jan, if we had to hang you at the end of it. All strapped up with a hood over your face. Such a long way from Poland. It isn’t nice, Jan. Not being hung. You wouldn’t want us to do that, would you?’
He flicked twice at Kasimir’s throat. Kasimir gasped, didn’t move.
‘And we don’t want to do it, Jan,’ Empton said. ‘We’re soft-hearted. It would grieve us. And you’re a useful man in your way, Jan, it would be a waste to hang you. So we’re going to be generous with you, Jan. We’re not going to hang you, Jan, unless we have to. We’re going to be terribly nice and English, and hope that you’ll be nice to us. You’re in a free country, Jan, you know that?’
He flicked.
‘You know that?’ he repeated.
Kasimir swallowed, nodded his head.
‘Yes,’ Empton said. ‘A free country.’ He touched his knuckles with his fingers. ‘And we hope that you’ll be nice to us, just like one Englishman to another. And useful, Jan, to your new country. Cooperative, Jan. Patriotic, Jan.
