go to whom?’
‘I have been kindly suggested by her.’
‘You’d not do that …’
‘Me? No, thank you. I have my family to think of, and my blood.’
‘What will Billy Whispers do if she should go?’
‘Use the razor on Dorothy, I should say. Unless she first shops him to such police officers as Mr Inspector Purity.’
‘But if she does, the case must be proved in court?’
‘With the woman as witness, that is not difficult at all. But when the man comes out of his jail again, that chick should leave town by the first train she can catch.’
I finished my drink, and held out my hand to thank her. ‘Telephone me, Johnny,’ she said. ‘You’ve got the number.’
‘I will.’
‘You promise?’
‘I do.’
‘Kiss me goodbye.’
While holding her, I thought of Dorothy and Billy, and whether I should not go down to Brixton and advise that little Gambian to turn his Miss Dorothy loose before the trouble started. These serious thoughts were interrupted by Miss Theodora, who was saying in my ear, ‘Won’t you just once, Johnny? I promise I’ll never ask you ever again …’
Oh dear, this female person! Where was her modesty? ‘Oh well, if you feel so bad,’ I said to her. ‘Where is it you keep your bedroom in this flat?’
9
The Blake Street gamble-house
When I left Mr Vial’s party, I wandered across the silent reaches of Mayfair, which, in the middle night, looked like crissed-crossed canals where the water of life had drained away. In a vast, sad, dramatic square, I paused in the lamp- and moonlight, and gazed at the blue foliage of huge, languishing trees. I took out a cigarette. ‘Light, Mr Pew?’ said someone. ‘You don’t remember me?’ the voice continued. ‘I thought we’d be meeting again before too long.’
‘You’re acting mysteriously, whoever you are. You must be a member of the secret service.’
‘As a matter of fact, that’s what I thought you might possibly be.’
I turned, and saw Detective-Inspector Purity of the CID. He was wearing a tuxedo with a considerable air, had his hands in his coat pockets, and an empty pipe clenched between his teeth. ‘I’m out and about around the clubs tonight,’ he said. ‘Routine check-up, that’s all it is. As I was saying. I know it’s not my concern, but I thought you were doing special work of one kind or another.’
‘Did you?’
He came rather nearer and put the pipe in his breast pocket. ‘It stands to reason, Mr Pew, that someone from the service must be keeping an eye on these coloured folk, and I saw at once an official like yourself wouldn’t be mucking in with them like you did that night we picked you up, unless you had your cover story ready …’
‘If I were what you suggest, of course I wouldn’t tell you.’
‘Naturally … though I could always try to check … But it’s clear as daylight someone is watching these colonials – the troublesome elements among them. First the Maltese come, then the Cypriots, and now this lot! They don’t make the copper’s task any the easier.’
‘You find that colonials are more trouble than the natives?’
‘What natives? Oh, I see what you mean. No, I don’t suppose so, really … but it’s a new problem. When they come unstuck, of course, they get more publicity in the Press than ours do. But I don’t suppose their criminality is out of all proportion … It’s just that they’re there, you see.’
‘I’ll say good night to you.’
‘Yes, I thought we’d be meeting again,’ Inspector Purity said, falling in alongside as I moved away. ‘You’ve been to a party, I expect?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Good one? Jolly? There are some very nice flats around the Marble Arch …’ He stopped a minute. ‘By the way, you didn’t mind me asking you what I did?’
‘About my job? I’ve left the Colonial Department, as it happens.’
‘Yes, I heard that – word gets around.’ He sounded pleased. ‘And now you’re just a private person.’
‘That’s it.’
‘Doing nothing so very special at all, you’d say. Well, that’s interesting to know.’
We went on some way in silence. He had the art which coppers have of inserting his personality, unwelcomed and uninvited, into your own.
‘And how’s young Mr Fortune?’
‘Who?’
‘Come on, now. You know who I’m speaking of.’
I stopped. ‘Is this an official interview?’
‘Not exactly. No, I wouldn’t say so.’
‘Then good night.’
‘So you have seen something of him? I thought perhaps you had. He’s a nice boy, in his way.’ Mr Purity took his hands from his pockets and slapped his flanks.