Read Gently with the Ladies (Inspector George Gently 13) for Free Online Page A

and cords?’
    ‘My God,’ she said. ‘You sound like Siggy.’

     
    There was a tap at the door and Albertine entered with a tea-tray. It was a Georgian tray with a shell-pattern border and carried a silver tea-service of the same period. Mrs Bannister rose and fetched a small table and placed it by the settee. Albertine set the tea-tray on the table. Mrs Bannister dismissed her in French.
    ‘Was she here on Monday?’ Gently asked.
    ‘No. We give the servants Monday off.’
    ‘You were alone?’
    ‘I was alone. Do you take milk, Superintendent?’
    She handed Gently his tea. It was in a fluted cup which doubtless bore a mark of crossed swords, along with a silver spoon with a rat-tailed bowl and trellisengraving on the shank. The tea was slightly aromatic. Mrs Bannister drank it with a squeeze of lemon. While she drank she watched Gently, her large eyes tight with aggression. Finally she took a cigarette from a vanity bag lying on the settee and lit it with a tiny wax match, and breathed smoke once or twice.
    ‘No doubt I over-estimate you,’ she said. ‘After all, you’re still a policeman. You’ll have the moral attitudes of a policeman. You wouldn’t dare not to have, would you? For you, sex is fundamentally distasteful, and you wish the Almighty had ordered it otherwise. But since he hasn’t, then it’s your duty to keep the lid on the sewer. Your point of view is a little blasphemous, but the Almighty must shoulder some blame for that.’
    She flicked her cigarette waspishly.
    ‘May I smoke my pipe?’ Gently asked.
    ‘Please do. I shall have the room squished after you’ve gone in any case.’
    ‘What did you talk about at lunch on Monday?’
    ‘Is it any of your business?’
    ‘You told my colleague the deceased was in good spirits. Yet she was quarrelling bitterly a short time afterwards.’
    Mrs Bannister closed her eyes. ‘Couldn’t you have used some other word?’ she said. ‘Deceased: just a word in a report. It’s so pitifully inadequate.’
    ‘Did she mention her husband and this woman?’
    ‘She didn’t mention her husband at all. He wasn’t a topic of conversation. We were discussing autumn fashions.’
    ‘Nothing else?’
    ‘Our evening arrangements.’
    ‘Her husband’s affair wasn’t even hinted at?’
    ‘Not even a hint. I can tell you quite certainly that nothing was further from her mind. She burst in, as she always did, full of fun and high spirits. She brought some sketches from Waring with her, I daresay you’ll find them upstairs. We had them spread all over the floor. She was very excited about the new line. During lunch we were choosing a coat for her and deciding about accessories. Then we discussed what to wear that evening, but she soon returned to the sketches, and she went out planning to ring for an appointment. That was what her mind was full of.’
    ‘But she’d have mentioned this woman on a previous occasion.’
    ‘Perhaps it would help if I knew who she was.’
    ‘Don’t you know?’
    ‘I’m afraid not. I’ve never been much interested in Siggy’s women.’
    ‘But you knew he had them, and so did Mrs Fazakerly.’
    Mrs Bannister breathed smoke delicately. ‘I have to give you the point,’ she said. ‘I find that quarrel of theirs incomprehensible. Nobody cared about Siggy’s women. He was always sleeping about somewhere. If anything, I imagine Clytemnestra encouraged it, it provided an emotional sedative for him. She knew about some of them, because she used to joke about them, and I’m willing to swear that’s all it meant to her.’
    ‘Yet you heard the quarrel.’
    ‘Only a word or two.’
    ‘Enough.’
    Mrs Bannister nodded. ‘She was being hysterical, and about a woman. She was warning Siggy to drop her, or she’d stop his money. I suppose he confirms it?’
    ‘Oh yes.’
    ‘Who was the woman?’
    ‘A Sarah Johnson.’
    ‘Clytemnestra never mentioned her to me. I’m afraid I’m mystified by the whole business.’
    She