‘Anything to tell us?’ he asked.
Felling’s heavy face was paled, he was clasping his hands behind his back.
‘It’s a bloody mystery to me, sir,’ he said. ‘That’s all I can say about that. I took his prints, Freeman was with me. Freeman knows I took his prints.’
Gently picked up another card. ‘Is this your signature here?’ he asked.
Felling glanced over the card. ‘Looks as though it might be mine,’ he said.
‘Yes, but is it?’ Gently said. ‘Take a good look at it and tell me.’
Felling took the card. His hand was unsteady. He didn’t seem to see what he was looking at. He handed it back.
‘Could be, sir. I’m not going to swear that it’s mine. Like I said, it’s a bloody mystery, but Freeman knows I took those prints.’
‘What you’re saying,’ Gently said, ‘is that someone switched this card for the genuine one? That someone had access to the blanks? That someone forged your signature accurately?’
‘Well, what else could it be?’ Felling said.
‘Between the time,’ Gently said, ‘when you took the prints, and the time you compared them with Teodowicz’s record?’
‘It must have been done,’ Felling said. ‘That’s the only explanation.’
Gently shook his head. ‘I don’t think so. There’s another explanation, Felling.’
‘Well, I don’t know what it is,’ Felling said. ‘I took his prints, I bloody know that.’
‘You also identified the body. With Madsen.’
Felling pulled his head back, didn’t say anything.
‘I can add to that,’ Gently said, ‘that somehow I didn’t get to hear of this cremation. And somehow Madsen’s prints were found in Teodowicz’s flat to support Madsen’s story about destroying the documents. That’s two sets of prints with something queer about them, two curious facts that need explaining. I could add some other pointers if I thought it worthwhile.’
‘What are you trying to get at,’ Felling said. ‘I could bring a case for defamation of character.’
‘That’s enough of that sort of talk, Felling,’ Whitaker said. ‘It stands out a mile, man. Your goose is cooked.’
‘It’s a lot of lies,’ Felling said. ‘He can’t prove a thing, sir.’
‘It’s self-evident!’ Whitaker snapped. ‘Shut your mouth, I’m bloody ashamed of you.’
‘I’m going to have my lawyer,’ Felling said.
Whitaker looked at Felling. Felling was silent.
‘Any comment?’ Gently said to Wanda.
Wanda’s mouth was bitter. Her chin was lifted.
‘Or from you?’ Gently said to Madsen.
Madsen gave him a shrinking smile.
‘All right then,’ Gently said. ‘I’ll do the talking, since none of you seem to want to begin. And while I’m talking it may occur to you that there isn’t much point in keeping silent. Because I’m going to charge each one of you three with being an accessory to Sawney’s murder, and if you were accessories after the fact it’ll be up to you to convince me of it. You know the ropes. What you say after this may be taken down and used in evidence. Freeman, put a chair there for Felling.’
‘I don’t want your chair,’ Felling said.
‘Put one there all the same,’ Gently said. ‘Stand over in front of it, Felling, whether you sit or not.’
‘I’m not going over there,’ Felling said. ‘I’m not in this, it’s a bloody frame-up.’
‘Much more of it,’ Whitaker said, ‘and I’ll have you handcuffed. Get over there, Felling. Get in that chair.’
Felling lounged across to the chair, pretended to dust it, sat, sprawled his legs. He looked at Wanda. Wanda didn’t look at him. He looked at Madsen, Madsen dropped his eyes.
‘Now,’ Gently said. ‘This is a crime arising out of the racket at Huxford. Why it took this particular form of violence is something not quite clear. That doesn’t matter, from a prosecution viewpoint, we shall get a conviction just the same. But from another viewpoint it matters a great deal: from the viewpoint of political implication. Teodowicz is a Pole. He is a political refugee. He had received some overtures from the Polish authorities. It may be that as a result of threats from this quarter he took the course that he did take. If that’s the case, we want to know it. We want to expel the people responsible. We want to make representations to the Polish authorities to try to prevent the same thing happening again. And conversely, if the Polish authorities had an innocent part in this, we want to establish that, too. We need to know. And I’m pretty certain that one of you is able to tell us.’
He broke off, looked from one to another of them. Nobody volunteered to speak. Felling was staring at the ceiling, his lips formed in a noisless whistle. Wanda’s eyes bored at Gently. Madsen didn’t raise his head. Madsen was leaning forward out of the chair, his fair complexion flushed.
‘Very well,’ Gently said. ‘You probably still think I’m bluffing. So I’ll just run through the course of events to let you see where you all stand. Sawney and Teodowicz were operating a racket in stores stolen from Huxford. Sawney obtained possession of the stores by fraud and Teodowicz collected and disposed of them. You probably knew of this, Mrs Lane, but there is no evidence to implicate you. You, Madsen, certainly knew of it, and I think we shall be able to implicate you. And you, Felling, are self-evidently implicated. You knew of the racket. You were drawing a cut from it.’
‘Oh I was, was I?’ Felling said. ‘You’d better see if you can prove it, hadn’t you?’
‘Certainly,’ Gently said. ‘Why else were you part of this conspiracy to aid Teodowicz? There can be only one reason. Teodowicz had it in his power to inform on you. Because of that you took the risks which have put you in the position you now occupy.’ He picked up a paper from the desk. ‘How much do you have in your current account, Felling?’
‘To hell with my current account,’ Felling said.
‘You have over six hundred pounds,’ Gently said. ‘Would you care to explain where that came from?’
‘Why should I explain it?’ Felling said. ‘I can win a bit at racing sometimes, can’t I?’
‘Oh, just keep quiet, man,’ Whitaker said. ‘I used to credit you with some intelligence.’
‘It’s a bloody lie,’ Felling said. ‘And nobody’s going to make anything else of it.’
Wanda Lane said: ‘It’s the bloody truth. You make me sick. You blackmailed Tim.’
‘Shut up, you tart,’ Felling said.
Wanda turned her head to spit. She didn’t say anything else. Felling sat scowling at his fists. Sweat was shining on his face.
‘I’ll continue,’ Gently said. ‘Sawney was in a false position. It was Teodowicz who handled the money, Sawney who would have to answer the questions. Teodowicz was trying to squeeze Sawney. Sawney resisted. They quarrelled over it. Then Sawney threatened to do something which, as it turned out, became his death warrant.’ Gently looked at Madsen. ‘What was that thing, Madsen?’ he asked.
‘I don’ know,’ Madsen said, shivering. ‘I don’ know anything about all this.’
‘I think you do,’ Gently said. ‘I think you know more than anyone.’
‘No,’ Madsen said, ‘no. I don’ listen, I don’ hear nothing.’
‘I’ll jog your memory,’ Gently said. ‘Sawney threatened to talk to a certain Stephan Razek.’
Madsen dug his chin in his chest, wouldn’t look towards Gently.
‘Sawney knew Razek,’ Gently said, ‘when Razek was at Huxford during the war. Razek is at present on attachment in this country and somehow Sawney must have got to know about it. He threatened to tell Razek of Teodowicz’s whereabouts. On the surface this wasn’t a very serious threat. It led only to Teodowicz being approached and urged to return to Poland to stand trial. This sort of thing has happened before and there seems nothing particularly sinister about it. People have resisted these approaches and there have been few attempts at coercion. But with Teodowicz it was different. He met the threat with a savage crime. He engineered a disappearance for himself intended to prevent all further pursuit. It follows that such a course was necessary to him, and we know that he had planned it in outline beforehand. But we don’t know why. And we need to know it.’ Gently stared at Madsen. ‘Why?’ he asked.
‘No,’ Madsen said, ‘no!’ He squirmed in the chair, hunched over his knees.
‘Are you afraid?’ Gently said. ‘Is that it?’
‘I don’ know about Tim’s affairs!’ Madsen said.
