Gently Go Man by Alan Hunter Read Free Book Online Page B

He pushed Sidneyto one side. Sidney staggered, went falling, got tangled up with a chair. He jumped up and stood swearing. His two followers did nothing. Gently spun a chair back to front. He sat down, looked round him.
    ‘Dicky Deeming?’ he said.
    The older man gave him a nod. ‘You’re well clued-in, man,’ he said. ‘Don’t seem to need introductions.’
    ‘I didn’t know Lister,’ Gently said.
    Deeming smiled faintly, said nothing.
    ‘You were all friends of his?’ Gently said.
    ‘Yes,’ Deeming said. ‘We were his friends.’
    ‘But somebody wasn’t,’ Gently said.
    ‘So you tell us,’ Deeming said.
    ‘He was killed,’ Gently said.
    ‘Like that’s certain, man,’ Deeming said.
    He was around thirty, tall, with a large, gaunt-cheeked face, light hair cut close, slate eyes, big ears. He wore a white-trimmed black windcheater, black jeans, sandals. He had a hard, large-framed body. It showed well in the windcheater.
    ‘So what’s your theory?’ Gently said.
    ‘Like why should I have one?’ Deeming asked.
    ‘You’ve talked to Maureen, she says, you know what we think about Johnny. He made it, that’s all, he was out there with them. That’s crazy, it sends us. Johnny comes very big with us.’
    ‘Yuh, big, he’s big with us,’ several of them growled.
    ‘He was the mostest, coolest,’ said a girl with dark hair.
    ‘And as for this jazz about his being busted,’ Deeming said, ‘like we’ve seen enough of screws to know the action they make.’
    ‘You think we’re lying to you?’ Gently asked.
    ‘Throwing a curve,’ Deeming said. ‘That’s not lying, it’s trying it on, hoping it’s going to fit some place. You don’t like hipsters in Squaresville. You like to put the heat on them. So you make a deal out of Johnny and come pushing us around with it.’
    ‘And like we don’t stand for it,’ Bixley said, stepping up closer.
    ‘Cool it, Sid,’ Deeming said. ‘Pitching screws is for squares.’
    ‘He bugs me, this guy does,’ said Bixley. ‘Me, I could spread him on the wall.’
    ‘Dicky says cool it,’ Maureen said. ‘So cool it quick, you big ape.’
    Gently puffed a few times. ‘You know we’ve spoken to Betty Turner?’ he said.
    ‘The screws,’ Deeming said, ‘don’t keep us posted with the news.’
    ‘She confirms that someone rode them off the road that night.’
    ‘Like you could imagine things,’ Deeming said. ‘With leading questions when you’re muzzy.’
    ‘All right,’ Gently said. ‘So the police are lying their heads off. Lister crashed himself for the kick, and didn’t give a damn about his fiancée. And Elton ran away from nothing, because there was nothing to run away from. And there’s nobody here who smokes reefers or knows where reefers can be obtained.’
    Nobody said anything for a couple of moments. They were all scowling, but they didn’t say anything. Bixley was grinning a stupid grin and showing his teeth atGently. The Italian had faded behind his counter but he still had his ear cocked. Deeming alone wasn’t scowling. He’d got the least bit of a smile.
    ‘It’s a kick, smoking,’ he said. ‘It’s a kick, and it touches. Jeebies go for the touches, they don’t give a damn for Squaresville. Like I’ve smoked myself, man, when I was up in the Smoke, and you won’t never stop it. If you could’ve done you would’ve.’
    ‘Lister,’ Gently said, ‘had five sticks in his possession.’
    Maureen’s hand flew to her mouth. Her eyes went to Bixley.
    ‘Like you’ve answered it, screw,’ Bixley said, still grinning with his teeth. ‘Like he’d been smoking that night. Wouldn’t make him ride good.’
    ‘You were at that jazz session,’ Gently said.
    ‘So what does that make?’ Bixley said.
    ‘You were where you could see if he was smoking. And what he was smoking,’ Gently said.
    ‘Yuh,’ Bixley said, ‘sure. Like I went there just to watch him. Got my chick along, too, but I was watching Johnny