Kramer rose and opened a window on the two women edging compulsively towards the cottage.
“Good afternoon, ladies,” he said cheerfully.
Rebecca covered her head and ran, squealing like a black sow.
Miss Henry was made of sterner stuff.
“I knew it couldn’t really be her,” she said.
“Why not, Miss Henry?”
“Because she’s with the Lord-and He doesn’t allow it.”
That brought Kramer’s head back through the lace curtains. He pressed a fist to his lips and then went outside.
“I’m sorry that we’ve upset your servant. It was just a little test we had to carry out.”
“All I can say is that it’s just as well the old lady is in the front room. A shock like this could have done terrible things to her. I must admit I don’t feel quite myself either.”
“I’m sorry about that, too.”
Miss Henry subsided into the garden seat conveniently behind her.
“It was uncanny, you know,” she said.
“The music?”
“Dear old Greensleeves. The number of times we’ve heard that in the past. Always the same mistakes, too, the silly things. And the way it goes boomp-boomp-boomp like a train coming out of the station. Who was playing? One of her nice gentleman pupils?”
“Which exactly do you mean, Miss Henry?”
“Oh, they all looked about the same from where we were. Two were on the tall side, one middling and there was rather a stout gentleman, too. None was any better than the other at it. A shame, too, because an hour’s lesson isn’t cheap.”
“They always stayed an hour?”
“From eight to nine. You could set your watch by it.”
“I know I’ve probably asked you some of these things before, Miss Henry-you don’t mind?”
“It’s only you’re always on about my poor gentlemen. They haven’t done anything wrong, have they?”
“Why do you keep calling them gentlemen?”
“Because of their clothes and the way they held themselves. I can always spot one, it’s my upbringing, you know.”
“Last time you said there were five of them.”
“Gracious, did I? Perhaps I was counting that gentleman who called about her life insurance.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I almost bumped into him one night as he was coming out of the lane and I was coming back from a late meeting at church. He said ‘excuse me’ so politely I had to mention it to her.”
“Why didn’t you mention it to me, then?”
Miss Henry caught the change of tone and her brows quivered in an anxious arch.
“You did ask about regular callers, sir. He only came the few times.”
“Did she say what insurance company?”
“I think it was-Trinity? Does that sound right?”
“Is this the man, Miss Henry?”
“I haven’t got my specs with me, if-”
“Just take a look.”
“Goodness, that’s him. I know by the shape of the head. A Mr-?”
“Francis, Leon Francis.”
This went down well with Miss Henry. She put her head to one side and whispered it over.
“That is a nice name. Now you aren’t being nasty to him, are you?”
“Come on, Miss Henry, I’ve told you how sorry I am we gave you a fright. We didn’t do it on purpose, you know.”
“Now you’ve gone and reminded me again. The awfullest part was when the music stopped. Rebecca and me both thought we could hear the poor thing talking.”
“We weren’t making a sound in there.”
“How silly! You never could hear her anyway, even from up close, and she always pulled the big velvet curtains for our sakes.”
“We all make mistakes, Miss Henry,” Kramer said, taking her arm.
And he led her, just like a real lady, all the way down to the kitchen door.
There was nothing like a stroll by the river, especially in the spring. Love was everywhere you looked if your ears were sharp enough.
Then Moosa made the mistake of uttering an emphatic gasp and the big black lover spotted him from his position in the tall grass.
“Churra! You wait!”
Moosa could not bring himself to-he fled. And stumbled right into another unhappy circumstance.
“What do you want, coolie?” the hobo snarled, looking up from the suitcase of new shirts he was packing.
Moosa lifted his shoe delicately off the open lid.
“A thousand, two thousand pardons! My stomach is giving me hell, master.”
He nodded towards a clump of bushes right down at the river’s edge.
“Got the runs, have you?”
The hobo laughed nastily and his companion, who had been urinating behind a tree, came round grinning.
“You know what, Clivey boy? I’d say the churra’s been putting some of that hair grease of his in the curry.”
This joke went down even better. Moosa joined in the laughter with a will.
“What’s so funny, coolie?”
“He’s being cheeky, Clivey boy. Shall we?”
“Please, my masters. It was the big grass hiding you beneath.”
The first hobo closed the suitcases with a double snap of the catches.
“I don’t want to touch the dirty bastard in his condition, Steve.”
Another good laugh.
Steve picked up a stone.
“Go on, run then, churra!”
It missed Moosa by a good yard but he kept zigzagging until he reached the bushes. There he was sick.
For a long while he just sat listlessly. Then he dragged out his handkerchief and the police photograph came with it. Moosa scrambled to his feet. For the past hour he had quite forgotten that he was being paid to fight crime in Trekkersburg. Any crime. Those shirts in the suitcase had been in their cellophane wrappers. Unopened.
When Zondi arrived at the cottage in Barnato Street he was still wearing his chauffeur’s coat. Bob Perkins was just leaving.
“I’ve really enjoyed myself,” he said, as he backed along the verandah with the tape recorder in his arms. “Of course I don’t mind walking, Lieutenant, it’s not far. And thanks a lot, hey?”
Kramer waved a dismissal.
“Did you get what I sent you for, boy?” he said.
Zondi stepped into the cottage after him and laughed.
“That driver of Boss Trenshaw is a proper fool. He thought I was trying to take his job away from him.”
“So you didn’t get anything?”
“Oh, yes. I told him my master was a Number One doctor and that I had a flat over the garage. Then he talked without worry.”
“Good. And the newspaper files?”
“First class.”
“We’ve been busy, too.”
