Free Gently to the Summit by Alan Hunter Page A

in glum and silent, soon warmed to the snugness of Gently’s retreat. He browsed over the books and the photographs and the fishing rods, and the big stuffed pike with its glassy eye. He too was an angler, it appeared, though his talk was of Gwyniads and bottomless llyns; and by the time they’d eaten supper and were sitting over the fire his mercurial spirits were once more to rights.
    ‘But I don’t mind telling you I’m foxed by all this. We’ve had plenty of bites, but we never strike a fish.’
    ‘All the same, it’s interesting. Some of the bites are unexpected. We were using paste over at Hendon, but we got a pike-size in nibbles.’
    ‘He’s a deadly liar, man, is that Mr Stanley.’
    Gently yawned. ‘I agree … he’s also an actor of some talent. And still the questions are: what’s behind it? Why was he covering up on Kincaid? Why didn’t he want us to meet Piper and get the information we did from him?’
    ‘Do you think it’s her he was protecting?’
    ‘That’s a very seductive theory. Fleece was in the same line of business; there’d be an esprit de l’électricité or something. They’re both liars, Stanley and her. We can’t take their words for the extent of the acquaintance . And if Mrs Fleece is Paula Kincaid, she’d have reason enough to want it kept quiet.’
    ‘But where does the bloke in the sports car come into it?’
    ‘Where indeed? We shall have to know that. And there’s another idea that’s struck me. We may have jumped at the divorce angle too quickly.’
    ‘How do you mean, man?’
    ‘Can’t you see the alternative? Kincaid was moving heaven and earth to find her. She may have been using the hotel as a hideout when his inquiries were getting too close.’
    ‘Aye. That’s possible too.’
    ‘And one of the club members may have been in the secret. That would account for her getting that trunk-call . The sports car johnny may be a blind.’
    A grin spread delightedly over Evans’ face. ‘Man,’ he said, ‘you’re cheering me up something wonderful. But what about Kincaid’s reaction to that picture – you aren’t going to tell me you accept it as positive?’
    ‘He talked to his lawyer, don’t forget.’
    ‘I know. And little good it seems to have done him.’
    ‘I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Kincaid is far from being a simpleton. He may have decided to change his mind about his policy of being himself; in which case he wouldn’t recognize fifty photographs of his wife. And we’d be the more likely to believe him if he kept up the pretence, so why should he drop it? His course of action is plain.’
    ‘That’s a beautiful piece of reasoning, and I wish I could believe it.’
    Gently chuckled. He tapped out his pipe on the serpentine bar of the grate. ‘Tomorrow we’ll do somemore fishing. We’ll cast a line in Fleece’s business. And perhaps a little quiet ledgering in the Everest Club waters.’
    The morning was fugitively fine with a bright sun among darkling clouds. In the gardens across the way the autumn trees steamed and sparkled. Gently was finding it rather pleasant to have a guest sharing his breakfast routine, even though the papers were subdivided and his reading time was diminished. Evans was enjoying himself too and his appetite delighted Mrs Jarvis. Her cousin had married a Welshman, she told them, and really he was quite like one of the family …
    The arrival of their Wolseley put an end to the domestic interlude. Fleece’s firm, Electroproducts, had an address at Ilford. They took the North Circular Road, bending through Edmonton and Woodford, the great reaching arc that spanned the metropolis like a dome. Electroproducts occupied a site not far from Seven Kings station. One saw at a glance that it was unable to challenge comparison with its vast competitor at Hendon. A range of plain crook-roofed buildings , some subsidiary sheds and erections and a yard enclosed with wire mesh: these comprised its entirety. In the yard was