Gently Sinking Read Online Free Page B

music?’
    ‘That sort of music,’ Tallent said. ‘I could listen to it all day when it’s about a cheapie like you.’
    ‘Naughty,’ Grey said. ‘I’m not cheap.’
    ‘You weren’t so dear, either,’ Tallent said. ‘Fifteen per cent on the net you were getting. A bright boy like you. And you set it up for him, didn’t you? A fat lot Blackburn knew about Jamaica. But slick Freddie knew, he’d been out there running a tourist swindle. Two years Freddie was out there acting like Our Man in Jamaica. The master-mind. And all he got for it was fifteen per cent on the net.’
    ‘That’s sugar for you,’ Grey said.
    ‘Sugar my arse,’ Tallent said. ‘Ozzie’s shot us the whole works. How he picked up the illegals, drove them to Brickfields.’
    ‘You shouldn’t listen to him,’ Grey said. ‘He’ll be your lousiest witness ever.’
    ‘How he dropped them off at the Coconut Grove.’
    ‘Their rum is smuggled,’ Grey said. ‘You know that?’
    Tallent rocked his chair again, came back slit-eyed.
    ‘Only all that doesn’t matter, Grey, does it?’ he said. ‘We can forget the Immigration Act Sixty-two as of 10 p.m. Tuesday evening. That was a holding charge, sonny. You’re never going into court on that. Ozzie, yes. But you’re special. You we groom for the Old Bailey.’
    ‘What, me?’ Grey said.
    ‘Yeah, you,’ Tallent said. ‘We’ve been working on it, Grey, and you came out as the answer. Blackburn cheated you, didn’t he? Never paid you your proper share. And you, who set him up in the business. It’s open and shut, you’re our chummie.’
    Grey polished his nails on his sleeve. ‘If you say so,’ he said. ‘May I smoke now?’
    ‘No,’ Tallent said. ‘You bloody mayn’t smoke now, Grey.’
    Grey looked at his nails, polished some more.
    ‘I didn’t ought to have had an alibi,’ he said. ‘It’ll spoil it for you, me having an alibi. Perhaps we could work something out.’
    ‘We’ll work something out all right,’ Tallent said.
    ‘Yes, we’ll have to,’ Grey said. ‘Tuesday evening my wife and I took in a show at the Aldwych. I still have the ticket stubs somewhere. Can’t think why I held on to them.’
    ‘And that’s the big alibi?’
    ‘I’d say it was fireproof.’
    ‘You don’t know alibis, sonny,’ Tallent said. ‘That one we’ll split in twenty pieces. Went to a show with his wife, he says.’
    Grey worked on his nails. ‘So nothing,’ he said. ‘Why are you trying to hang it on me? Maybe you can make like I could have had a motive, but that’s all. I’m not sweating.’
    ‘You know a better prospect?’ Tallent said.
    ‘Plenty,’ Grey said. ‘And they’re all black.’
    ‘But names you don’t come across with,’ Tallent said.
    ‘Even names,’ Grey said. ‘Maybe.’
    He looked hard at Tallent, held out his hand. ‘This’ll be about time for that smoke,’ he said. ‘I’ve got a funny memory, Ozzie’ll tell you. I always remember better with a fag on.’
    Tallent was still for a moment, then silently flipped a cigarette to Grey. Grey reached for the matches lying on the desk, lit the cigarette. Tallent watched him.
    ‘Yes,’ Grey said. ‘It helps me think. I ought to get plenty of fags in here. Don’t mind paying for them, of course. Wouldn’t dream of being a charge on the Special Fund.’
    ‘Don’t push your luck,’ Tallent said.
    ‘I was thinking of a deal,’ Grey said. ‘There’s so much I know you’d like to know. Think of the leg-hours it could save you.’
    Tallent picked up a rule lying on the desk. He looked at it. He broke the rule in two. He laid the two halves back on the desk. He looked at Grey.
    ‘Go on,’ he said.
    Grey savoured smoke. ‘I look at it this way. That charge about the illegals isn’t going to stick. There’s nothing that ties me in with that other than records of payments from Tommy. So why go treating me like a criminal? We could make life easier for each other. A few home comforts for