Handsome Brute: The True Story of a Ladykiller Read Online Free

holding hands and though she seemed very attentive to Heath, he appeared ‘slightly indifferent’ to her. Birch later recalled: ‘All the time she stood at the bar she appeared to be trying to promote [Heath’s] interest, so rather obviously that I thought that she did it deliberately to annoy Peter Bailey.’ 13
    Margery then ran into another friend of hers, Iris Humphrey, a civil servant who lived in Earls Court Square. She had known Margery for about eight or nine years. 14 They had been very friendly before the war, but had lost touch during it when Iris had been evacuated to Bath. Since Iris had moved back to London in April 1946, the two women had met in various pubs around Earls Court. Iris was sitting in the club room by the dance floor with her friend John Le Mee Power when Margery entered with Heath. Margery called ‘hallo’ over to their table. When Iris and Le Mee Power got up to dance, Iris went over to the table that Margery had sat down at with her handsome companion.
    ‘Would you mind looking after my things whilst we have a dance?’
    ‘Of course,’ said Margery.
    She took Iris’ handbag and copy of Vogue and put it on the table in front of her. Iris and Le Mee Power went off to the dance floor before Margery could introduce them to Heath. After a short while, Heath and Margery got up to dance themselves. Iris and Le Mee Power left the dance floor and went to collect her bag and magazine. For the next hour, Iris observed Margery and Heath sitting at their table, holding each other’s hands, smoking and drinking – with Heath rubbing his hand against Margery’s leg. At the time, Iris commented to Le Mee Power that she thought that Margery’s companion looked ‘dissipated’, with big bags under his eyes. She remarked, with terrible prescience, that ‘Margery was in for a bad time’ that night. 15
    Phyllis, the waitress, first noticed Heath and Margery at about 11 p.m. when she checked to see that nobody was drinking alcohol without a meal, in accordance with their licence. Phyllis had seen both Heath and Margery at the club before, hanging around with what she called the ‘Chelsea Crowd’, led by Peter Tilley Bailey. Heath pulled at Phyllis’ apron string, which caused her apron to fall loose. Phyllis turned round and he said ‘Repeat the order’, so she went to get them some more drinks. When Phyllis arrived with the drinks, the couple were getting up to dance again and this time Margery told her ‘Repeat the order’. When Phyllis came back for the money (6s.), Heath said, ‘I owe you for the last one. Aren’t I honest?’ 16 According to Phyllis, the couple sat on their own table all night and didn’t speak to anyone else. Iris Humphrey and Le Mee Power left about 11.30, leaving Margery at the club with Heath. The band stopped playing at midnight but members had twenty minutes drinking-up time. Peter Tilley Bailey and Catherine Hardie left the club about ten minutes after midnight, but couldn’t see Margery to say ‘goodbye’. Perhaps smarting from Peter’s date with a younger woman, at some point during the evening, Margery consented to go back to Heath’s hotel – possibly for a nightcap – just as he had suggested to Pauline Brees in February.
    Outside the Panama Club, Harold Harter was driving his taxi eastwards along Old Brompton Road in the direction of South Kensington tube station. 17 About 12.20 a.m., Heath was leaving the entrance to the Panama Club, talking with Margery. He saw Harter’s cab and started to walk along the pavement to the corner of Thurloe Street, with his hand up, hailing it. Harter stopped on the opposite side of the obelisk in the middle of the road. The couple walked across the road, Heath holding Margery’s hand as she dragged slightly behind him. 18
    According to Harter, Heath asked Margery where a particular address was, but she didn’t seem to know. She was currently living in Bramham Gardens in Earls Court, less than ten minutes’ walk