Free Gently With the Painters by Alan Hunter Page B

they all put it on for her – I’m sure I don’t know why.’
    ‘Did you see her with Mr Allstanley?’
    ‘You mean the one who’s going bald? I can’t say I remember that … but then, I didn’t see everything, did I? He’s one of them who lives out, so you don’t see much of him in the pub. But the rest of them often drop in. There’s a couple sitting up there now.’
    ‘Was there anyone she was especially … fond of?’
    Dolly took a thoughtful sip at her beer. ‘No … not unless it was Stephen Aymas, and she was pally enough with him. I used to think she had a weak spot for money… Mr Mallows, and the one who works at the bank. But Stephen, he only works on a farm, so it couldn’t have been money in his case, could it?’
    She gazed up at Gently with naive hazel eyes, appealingly unaware of his being anyone out of the ordinary. Her make-up was heavy and clumsily applied; as though it were a ritual which she accepted rather as a duty.
    ‘You didn’t chance to meet her husband, I suppose?’
    ‘Oh yes, but I did.’ Dolly nodded her head at him assuringly. ‘And I’ll tell you something about him. He was as jealous as could be. I know for a fact that he used to follow her in the street.’
    ‘You’ve seen him do that?’
    ‘Yes, I have – and another thing. He once came into the bar when they were having a meeting down here. He had a pint and hung around, trying to see down the hatch, then he asked me right out if Mrs Johnson was at the meeting.’
    ‘How did you know who he was?’
    ‘I told you, I’d met him before. My uncle runs the bar at the golf club and I’ve been up there to lend a hand. I particularly noticed Mr Johnson – he’s got a way with him, you know. Then there’s that silly moustache of his, and the way he likes to turn his chair round.’
    ‘This following her in the street! How did you come to notice that?’
    ‘I saw him do it from my window. You can see all the Walk from up in my bedroom, and I just happened to notice her, along with Mr Mallows. Then I saw Mr Johnson. He followed them right up the Walk.’
    ‘When do you say this was?’
    ‘I dunno … round about Whitsun.’
    ‘And what about the other?’
    ‘Oh, that was at the meeting last month. He came in here just after it started, and stayed leaning on the bar for a good half-hour. He bought a packet of Players – I remember that especially. It was the last packet, you see, so I had to fetch some more from the store …’
    ‘Did you see him again that evening?’
    ‘No. He hasn’t been here since.’
    When he remembered how nearly he had missed interviewing these people, Gently couldn’t help feeling alarmed with himself. It had been touch and go whether he had visited the pub, or had trusted to Hansom’s usually efficient researches. Now, it became clear, the Chief Inspector had scamped this angle, for if Dolly’s statement had been in his files the Yard would scarcely have been called at all …
    ‘Coming to that meeting on Monday!’
    He almost made Dolly jump. She had been nursing her beer glass between her knees, causing the contents to rotate. ‘I’d like you to tell me everything you can remember about it – even the little things which don’t seem to matter.’
    ‘There isn’t much to tell, really …’
    ‘Never mind. Do your best. Let’s have it from the time when the bar opened after tea.’
    Dolly nodded and sought inspiration in a sip of beer. ‘Well, I’m not in the bar when it opens, not as a rule. For the first hour it’s quiet enough, just the men off the market. I did slip in for some fags and stop a moment to have a word with them – they were talking about the new winger, the one the City has bought from Newcastle.
    ‘Then I went back to my bedroom to do a bit of mending – you’d be surprised how I bust the straps off my things! – and out of the window I saw one or two of them arrive – the artist lot, I mean; Mr Mallows and some of the others.
    ‘It’s easy