The Marx Sisters bak-1

by Barry Maitland

  Peg put her hand to her mouth, her eyes wide. ‘Oh no. Poor Terry. I know you suspected him… Poor Caroline too, and the girls…’ She shook her head.

  ‘I’m not surprised,’ Finn said. ‘I said as much to ye weeks ago, did I not, hen?’

  Peg nodded. ‘Yes, you did, Danny, and I didn’t believe you. I just couldn’t imagine that Terry would really do such a thing. To his aunties! He was such a dear little boy. Meredith did spoil him, I know. We all did… But surely, Inspector, you don’t imagine that he could have’-her voice dropped to a whisper as she struggled to articulate the awful thought-‘murdered his own mother… and his aunt!’

  ‘We don’t know, Mrs Blythe. He hasn’t been charged with that. And that’s why, until we are satisfied that we’ve got the person responsible, you shouldn’t think of going home. Nor of telling anyone where you’re staying. That’s the whole point after all, isn’t it?’

  She didn’t seem to understand at first, and then she looked at Danny Finn and blushed.

  ‘Oh dear! You mean… Oh, but Inspector,’ she recovered herself with a tinkling laugh, ‘you can’t mean Mr Finn. He is a good friend. With him I feel as safe as houses.’

  Danny Finn returned with Kathy and Brock to the interview room upstairs at 20 Jerusalem Lane.

  ‘How long have you known Peg Blythe?’ Brock began. Finn seemed quite relaxed, taking an interest in all the activity going on around him in the incident centre. He was dressed in an anonymous business suit, pale blue shirt and dark tie, with a diary and gold pencil forming a bulge in his shirt pocket.

  ‘Oh, let me see. The demolition contractor moved on tae site at the beginning of November last, and I came round tae see the two sisters maybe a week or two before that.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Well, they were the last people on the site who hadn’t agreed tae sell up and go, and I was concerned we might have some trouble from them. You know, complaints about noise and the like. So I went round tae see what they were like, and try tae explain what was goin’ tae happen.’

  ‘You befriended them.’

  ‘Aye, I suppose ye could put it like that. Tae tell ye the truth I liked the old dears. They’re real characters. Ye know about their politics? Make Wedgie Benn look like a rabid Tory.’

  ‘And no doubt you could give them disinterested advice on whether they should sell up or stay here?’ Kathy’s voice was cold with scepticism.

  ‘Look, lassie, I don’t like sarcasm. If ye have something ye’re trying tae say, you just say it.’

  ‘Well, Mr Finn, I suppose what I’m trying to say is that it seems to me your main purpose in befriending the two sisters was to persuade them to sell up to your company.’

  ‘Aye, that’s exactly right. Look, I like things simple, and it was obvious that those old dears livin’ in the middle of a building site wasn’t goin’ tae be simple. It seemed obvious tae me that they should sell up. But equally it seemed obvious that yon wallies at Jonathan Hockings had made a pig’s ear of negotiating with the ladies, an’ I can imagine that greedy wee Terry only made things worse. So I decided that it needed someone tae talk it over sensibly with them.’

  ‘Someone impartial, like you.’

  ‘Someone like me who understood what the score was, yes. I made no pretence about where my loyalties lay, but equally I told them how they could get the best deal from First City. They weren’t under any illusions, don’t you worry.’

  ‘And now, you’re still negotiating?’

  ‘Mrs Blythe phoned me today, Sergeant. Not the other way around.’

  ‘From what you said earlier, Mr Finn, you knew Terry Winter,’ Brock said. ‘How come?’

  ‘He was goin’ spare when it turned out that his aunts wouldn’t leave even after his mother died. He an’ yon Quentin Gilroy’-he pronounced the name as if it were a weak joke-‘got together, an’ Gilroy suggested Winter speak tae me about ways tae persuade the old ladies tae leave.’

  ‘Why would he suggest your name, Mr Finn?’

  ‘Because he knows my reputation as a total bastard, I expect, Chief Inspector.’

  ‘Or perhaps your record of violent crime, Mr Finn.’

  Finn laughed. ‘Well, I don’t think that Quentin knows about any imaginary “record of violent crime”, though no doubt if he did it would only go tae enhance my professional reputation.’

  ‘ “Imaginary”? Theft, assault and attempted murder don’t sound too imaginary, Mr Finn.’

  ‘Chief Inspector, no young lad with any gumption came out of the Gorbals in my day without a record. When I was fourteen I had a nice wee business supplying plumbing materials tae a builder’s supply yard. At night me an’ my pal would climb over the wall and pinch the pipes, and next day we’d take them back an’ sell them tae them again.’ He chuckled at the memory. ‘I was a budding entrepreneur, that’s all. A Thatcherite ahead of my time. Later on I got in a bad fight in a pub, an’ that was where the GBH an’ resistin’ arrest came from. It was all a long time ago.’

  ‘What about the assault on the tourist ten years ago?’

  ‘Och!’ Finn ran a gnarled hand through the unruly tuft of thinning hair that stuck out of his scalp. ‘Ten years ago I was made redundant for about the fifth time. We were up north and I had a young family. I was a trained chippie, but there was no work for carpenters there. I was made redundant that last time on Christmas Eve. Have you ever been sacked on Christmas Eve yourself, lassie? No, well…’ He looked perplexed for a moment as he thought he caught the faintest trace of a smirk on Kathy’s face. ‘Well, anyway, I got a job sweeping the service roads underneath one of the shopping malls in the town. Part of the job was to stick a label on the windscreen of anyone who parked illegally down there, telling them they’d be prosecuted if they did it again. One day this big car parked, and I stuck on the label. Next thing, the driver, some foreign character, starts abusing me. I didn’t like the way he talked tae me, as if, because I was sweeping roads, I was no better than dirt myself. He told me tae get the label off his windscreen, so I said all right, Jimmy, if that’s what ye want, an’ I put my broom through the bloody windscreen.’

  He shrugged. ‘I felt better, I can tell ye, but of course, next thing he’s got the centre manager down there insisting they call the police, and swearing I’d tried tae kill him, which of course was all a load of nonsense. The centre manager didn’t know what tae do, and he got on tae Mr Slade, whose company owns the centre. They paid off the tourist, an’ once he’d gone back home the charges against me were dropped. They had tae sack me of course, but the next time Mr Slade was up north he asked tae see me. We got on like a house on fire, an’ the end of it was that he offered me a job down here in London.’

  ‘What about Terence Winter?’ Brock persisted. ‘What did you discuss with him?’

  ‘He came into the office one day. He saw Mr Slade, who couldn’t do much except tae sympathize with Winter’s predicament. Then Winter asked for me. He said he’d heard from Gilroy that I could get things done. I thought he was jokin’, an’ I told him about the tricks we used tae play when I was a lad, terrorizing old ladies in the street, like tying the door knockers on opposite sides of the close together with string, then knocking one, an’ when they opened their door they’d cause another knocker tae go, an’ then that one would get another going, an’ so on until the whole close was in an uproar. As I say, I thought he was jokin’. I had no idea he’d actually try tae get them tae leave that way.’

  After Finn had left, a WPC passed on a message to Brock from Sergeant Griffiths, who had been sent to bring in Geraldine McArthur, Winter’s former mistress. McArthur had not been seen since leaving work the previous afternoon. The WPC added that a Dr Naismith and her solicitor were waiting to see him.

  Brock asked her to show them up to his office, rather than the interview room at the back, because it was warmer and he wanted Judith Naismith to see the grisly photographs of Eleanor Harper’s corpse pinned up on the wall. But if she saw them as she came
in, she showed no sign of it. Her face was set with determination as she and her solicitor, an elegantly dressed man in his late thirties, sat facing Brock and Kathy.

  ‘It is essential for reasons of her work that my client return immediately to the United States, Chief Inspector. Unless you can provide some very convincing reasons for continuing to hold on to it, we must insist that you return her passport to her and allow her to leave the country forthwith. She has made a booking for a flight this afternoon, and she intends to catch it.’

  ‘I see.’ Brock scratched his beard. ‘I take it then that Dr Naismith now intends to answer my questions?’

  ‘She does. Indeed she would have done so last night if you and your officers had been more, what shall we say, considerate in your treatment of her.’

  ‘Well then, tell us about your contacts with Meredith Winterbottom, Miss Naismith.’

  She told them, in a clear, measured tone, without any unnecessary words or gestures, of the two meetings she and Bob Jones had arranged with Meredith, confirming his account of both.

  ‘You had no contact with her independently of Mr Jones?’

  She shook her head.

  ‘And what about Eleanor Harper?’

  ‘I met her briefly on that first occasion. Otherwise I’ve had no contact with her.’

  ‘Really?’

  She stared back at him steadily. ‘That’s correct.’

  ‘Tell us about the books you saw in Eleanor’s flat-the older books that interested you particularly.’

  ‘They were a few first editions, and some books with dedications written apparently by Karl Marx.’

  ‘How valuable, would you say?’

  ‘I couldn’t say. I’m not a book dealer. But certainly of interest to a historian like myself.’

  ‘Interesting enough to make a special trip across the Atlantic.’

  ‘Oh, come, that’s not such a big deal. It’s very cheap. A pleasant weekend trip, that’s all. And I had other business in London.’

  ‘What about other documents?’

  ‘Mrs Winterbottom gave me a couple of handwritten pages. One was a letter, the other a piece of text of some kind. She was unclear as to whether there was any more, and on their own they didn’t amount to much.’

  ‘Has anyone been in touch with you recently, offering you the books or other material?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘And did you make any attempt to contact the two sisters in the last few days, by phone or in person?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘When did you first learn that Eleanor Harper had been murdered?’

  ‘When my solicitor here told me this morning.’

  ‘And where were you on the night of Tuesday last, the 31st?’

  ‘In my hotel. The Connaught, in Kensington High Street.’

  Brock became silent, staring at the papers in front of him.

  ‘All right, Chief Inspector? All in order? Can we be on our way?’ The solicitor eased forward in his chair as if to stand up.

  ‘Yes, you may as well.’ Brock’s voice was flat, his face tired. ‘And perhaps you would advise your client not to bother coming back to waste my time until she’s decided to be honest with me.’

  After a second’s pause, Judith and her solicitor both began to protest at Brock’s bowed head. When they had finished, he looked up and fixed Judith in the eye.

  ‘I find it inconceivable that you would come all the way to London to buy documents from someone and then go home empty-handed without making any subsequent attempt to contact the owner of those books. I don’t believe that you are being honest with us about the significance of the documents. And your hotel tells us that you did not return to your room on the night of the 31st of March. Now, please go away and consider this matter a little more seriously. This is a murder inquiry. You will remain in this country until I consider that we are getting your full cooperation.’

  Judith had become even paler than usual. She turned to her solicitor, who said hurriedly, ‘I’d like to have a few private words with my client, Chief Inspector.’

  ‘Be my guest.’ Brock flapped his hand at the interview room across the landing. Kathy noticed that the weary droop to his shoulders lifted as soon as they left the room, and a little smile came into his face.

  After a few minutes they returned, and the solicitor spoke. ‘It appears, Chief Inspector, that Dr Naismith had personal reasons for concealing her whereabouts on Tuesday night. She did indeed not return to her hotel room that night. In fact she spent the evening and the night in the company of a close friend. The friend is married as it happens, and Dr Naismith feels that it would cause considerable unnecessary distress if the family became involved in this matter.’

  ‘Oh dear,’ Brock sighed, ‘we seem to have an epidemic.’

  ‘Pardon me?’

  ‘Could you give us his name and address, please?’

  The solicitor looked questioningly at Judith, who shook her head abruptly.

  ‘I understand that it is an extremely sensitive situation, Chief Inspector. Surely you can appreciate-’

  ‘Sorry.’ Brock got to his feet and moved to get his coat from behind the door. ‘Not good enough. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got work to do.’

  22

  They were sitting in the darkened motel room, Terry in the armchair and Geraldine on the floor at his feet, her arms wrapped round his legs, her head resting on his knee. He felt stiff and uncomfortable-and a little ridiculous, as if she’d just brought him down with a flying rugby tackle. His brain was unnaturally active, too terrified to feel tired.

  When the word had gone round the salons the previous day that Terry had been taken to Scotland Yard and the police had searched his Peckham office, Geraldine had not known what to do. Then she remembered that Terry had mentioned a solicitor in Jerusalem Lane who had been helping him. She found the name in the Yellow Pages and, even though the number was now disconnected, managed to get the firm’s other number in Croydon, and so eventually made contact with Mr Hepple.

  At first Hepple had said he was unable to help, but she was so insistent, so distressed, that he asked for a little time to see what he could do. And at that point his famous sense of mischief and wit inspired him with a brilliant idea. How wonderful if Martin Connell, who as Upper North’s solicitor had been all over the papers as the adversary of the famous Chief Inspector Brock, could now be persuaded to take on the great man once more in the service of Mrs Winterbottom’s unworthy little boy! Hepple was surprised and delighted to find Connell more than willing to consider the proposition, even although he had to make it clear that it might be some time before Winter would be in a position to pay anything like Mr Connell’s usual fee-although the lady who had contacted him had assured him that she would meet any obligation.

  And so it was that, when Winter was finally charged at 4.20 a.m. the next day, he found-to his great surprise and the police’s-both Mr Hepple and Martin Connell waiting for him. Geraldine turned up at the court hearing in the afternoon and guaranteed his bail, which the magistrate granted despite the opposition of the police.

  She had rescued him. She smiled to herself and tightened her grip around his legs, a grip which, it occurred to Terry, was a far stronger restraint than any to be found in Her Majesty’s prisons. He put out his hand and stroked her hair, hoping to placate her need for him. She snuggled against his leg and clung to him even more tightly.

  It was really very difficult to believe that not so long ago he would have gone to so much trouble to get this close to her. How desirable those shoulders, that hair had seemed then! Now he saw only the lines around her eyes, and was irritated that someone in their sort of business didn’t make more of herself. It was a source of continual wonder to him how this happened, time after time, this ebb and flow of desire, from craving to indifference, so that the same woman could seem so completely irresistible one week, and so embarrassingly unappealing the next.

  He looked around the cheap furniture of t
he motel room, lit by the table lamp, and remembered Geraldine’s miserable little flat. How threadbare it was compared to what he had left behind in Chislehurst! He had a vivid recollection of the carpet frayed by the door, the clutter of cheap plastic toys left in a corner by her two little brats, the Woolworth’s crockery, the smell of the homemade soup which always clung to the place. How would he be able to stand it?

  Into his mind came a picture of a plastic bag enveloping this head upon his knee, of a hammer thudding into its skull. He shuddered and closed his eyes, and the nausea which had been with him now since the police arrived yesterday morning, returned, welling up in his stomach.

  ‘Darling?’ She was looking up into his face, concerned. She reached up with one hand and took his, gripping it tight. ‘Don’t worry! Everything will be all right now.’

  He groaned. ‘How can you say that?’

  ‘Because it’s true! Look. You’ll admit the things you did to frighten your aunts. You’ll say how stupid it was, how sorry you are, but you were driven to it by your financial worries. It all got out of hand. But at least you didn’t physically hurt anyone. And you’ll make a clean breast of it with your Aunt Peg, and tell her how awful you feel and beg her forgiveness. And she will forgive you, because she’s always been fond of you. And then she’ll tell the court how she’s forgiven you, and no harm’s done, and they won’t be able to punish you. You’ve never been in trouble before.

  ‘As long as they don’t think you had anything to do with the death of your mother and Eleanor-and they can’t if I can tell them that you were with me at the time your mother must have died. And you know’-her voice became a whisper, intense and intimate, and her hand slipped out of his and gripped his thigh uncomfortably tight-‘you know I will say that, don’t you, darling, that I won’t mention the hour you were away

  …’

  ‘It was hardly an hour,’ he said weakly, ‘and it was to check the salon, you know that.’

  ‘Of course, but we didn’t tell them last time, so we can’t bring it up now, can we?’