Hansom’s generosity was rather strained when it came to congratulating Gently a second time. In his private opinion, Gently was an exponent of art for art’s sake. There had been no need to take things further than Fisher… they had ended there very neatly. If Fisher wasn’t exactly responsible for Huysmann’s death, he was as near to it as made no difference, and to go on after that was untidy and a little precious… especially with so little in the way of evidence. But he was a nice type really, was Hansom. At parting, he gave Gently one of his best cigars.
The super said snappishly: ‘I can’t think why the devil you went after him alone, when you might have taken the entire City Police with you. Surely you realized he might be tempted to add you to his other victims?’
Gently shook his head in his wooden way. ‘I had to give him enough rope. If we’d simply pulled him in he’d still have had a pretty good case to argue… he had to be made to do something silly. Of course, I didn’t know he’d got a gun.’
‘Oh! So you didn’t know he’d got a gun! And would it have made any difference if you had known?’
‘No… not really.’
‘Well, it would have done to me — I can tell you that!’ The super sniffed in an aggrieved sort of way. ‘I’ve given up trying to understand you people,’ he said. ‘As far as I can see, you’re either born to homicide or you aren’t, and if you aren’t, you might just as well keep your big mouth shut and pretend your corpses aren’t there. When did you start suspecting Leaming?’
Gently applied a light to his waning pipe. ‘I didn’t suspect anyone. I just kept finding things out till I’d got a pattern.’
‘And why didn’t the pattern fit Fisher?’
‘Oh… I don’t know. He wasn’t clever enough. If he’d done murder and stolen forty thousand he’d have run off with it, not hung around.’
‘And Peter Huysmann?’
‘I saw him riding the Wall of Death… I knew he hadn’t done it.’
‘How about the girl Gretchen — and the maid?’
‘Gretchen wasn’t strong enough to strike the blow that killed Huysmann, and as for the maid-!’ Gently smiled lazily. ‘I had my fun, too… I took Susan to the pictures one night.’
The super’s eyes glinted. ‘That wasn’t professional of you, Gently!’
Gently sighed, and knocked out his pipe.