Read Online Gently Sinking by Alan Hunter - Free Book Online

up the knife. He began paring his nails with it.
    ‘Let’s look at some points, boy,’ he said. ‘Sadie wasn’t in the club Tuesday evening. So like where would Sadie be?’
    Taylor groaned.
    ‘That’s right,’ Tallent said. ‘Where was Sadie when she wasn’t at home? With the stink of her scent all over Blackburn’s flat, and her dabs there too – especially in the bedroom?’
    ‘But she is washed-up with that man—’ Taylor quavered.
    Tallent laughed. ‘I heard Sharkey saying it. I heard Sharkey saying she was in the club all evening – but you didn’t see her there, did you, boy?’
    ‘I know she ain’t been seeing that Blackburn.’
    ‘You weren’t so certain on Tuesday, sonny.’
    ‘But she ain’t been with him before that – ten days, a fortnight she ain’t been there.’
    ‘Now we’re learning,’ Tallent said. ‘So you’ve been watching that flat, have you? Every night, under the limetree. Angry Aaron, the boy with the knife.’
    ‘I didn’t have no knife!’
    ‘I was forgetting,’ Tallent said. ‘Sadie had the knife. In her handbag. For two, three months. Always took it to Blackburn’s flat.’
    ‘She didn’t . . .’ Taylor hesitated, fingers on his sweaty brow.
    ‘Didn’t have the knife?’
    ‘What for would she have it . . . all that time . . . in her handbag?’
    ‘Yeah,’ Tallent said. ‘Yeah, that’s nice. Keep pushing your brains with your fingers, sonny. Maybe she didn’t have it at that. Why keep a knife like that in a handbag? So what would she do with it?’
    ‘I sure don’t know—’
    ‘Oh, come on, now,’ Tallent said.
    ‘I don’t know!’ Taylor said. ‘I guess she got rid of it.’
    ‘Sure she did,’ Tallent said. ‘Back to you.’
    ‘She never did that!’
    ‘Oh yes,’ Tallent said. ‘That nice girl Sadie didn’t keep your knife. She might have had it off you when you flipped, but then she gave it back. It checks, boy.’
    ‘No,’ Taylor said. ‘No, sir.’
    ‘Sure, sure,’ Tallent said. ‘But it checks. You had that knife, that knife killed Blackburn, you were there. It checks.’
    Taylor sobbed into his hands.
    ‘Let’s reconstruct it,’ Tallent said. ‘There wasn’t any break between Sadie and Blackburn, that’s a load of Sharkey’s eyewash. She was still cutting it out at the flat, and you knew she was, because you were watching. And Tuesday night you flipped again, just the way you flipped before. You slid round the back and up the steps and through the flat, and caught them at it. So you cut him. It was dark in there. She wouldn’t know anything till Blackburn flaked on her. By then you were out of the flat and clear, and she maybe doesn’t know now who did it. She could guess, and she saw the knife-handle, but she didn’t know. And she didn’t want to be questioned. How am I doing, sonny?’
    ‘No, no!’ Taylor sobbed.
    ‘Yeah, it’s understandable,’ Tallent said. ‘You had provocation, that’s plain enough. The jury may recommend mercy on that.’
    ‘You’s just so wrong!’ Taylor sobbed.
    ‘No, I’m not wrong,’ Tallent said. ‘You can’t hide these things, boy. That’s the mistake all killers make. So now we know, now it’s out, you better play along and tell me everything. That way you’ll make me a friend, boy, and you sure need a friend just now. Come on, now. You’ll feel better.’
    ‘But I ain’t d’guilty one!’ Taylor sobbed.
    ‘So you and Sadie did it,’ Tallent said. ‘That’s okay with me, I can understand. You’ll do all right. You tell me.’
    ‘Oh Lord, no, no!’ Taylor sobbed. ‘It ain’t so. None of it ain’t so.’
    ‘You stupid bloody fool,’ Tallent said. ‘And me here trying to be your friend.’
    He slammed the knife back in the tray.
    ‘Anything to ask him, sir?’ he said to Gently.
    Gently shook his head. ‘Nothing. You can turn him loose now.’
    Tallent went stiff. ‘Turn him loose?’
    Gently nodded. ‘And provide him with transport.’
    Tallent