Episode 15 - Socks

Dorothy had agreed to go to Cleo’s the office before going to Silver’s showroom to take up her job. Cleo had offered to drive her there in the sparkling new car, but instead she would have to tell her that her job at the car showroom was cancelled and why.

***

Colin had rung to say that he was going to take the showroom secretary, a Miss Brenda Bee, out that evening. Silver, the proprietor of the car showroom, was apparently away on a short business trip. Since observation of any goings-on between Silver and Miss Bee was therefore not possible, Colin had been out on a short test run in a car well beyond his means to make his visit more authentic. He thought he would enjoy the date with Brenda Bee. She was very chatty.

Cleo was disappointed when Colin phoned to say Silver was not there. She needed the right sort of evidence so that Mrs Silver could get a satisfactory divorce settlement. Cleo knew from Delilah about Mrs Silver's eagerness to get her divorce through and was certain that the man Mrs Silver met at the bistro could not be her husband. Cleo was not morally responsible for what her clients got up to, however. If she took on a case, she was duty bound to conduct it in the interests of that client and not make judgments. Any defence lawyer would do that. It was the judge’s job to judge. Though Cleo did not support criminal activities, she could hardly give up a case because of what Delilah called ‘a bit of slap and tickle’. Ethics aside, the Hartley Agency had to make money. She informed Colin about Mrs Silver’s affair. Colin had reacted as she thought he would. It was six of one and half a dozen of the other. Entertaining Miss Bee would be even more amusing when he asked her about Silver’s marriage.

***

Cleo was still weighing up the pros and cons of Mrs Silver's case when Dorothy Price slipped in quietly and sat down on the clients' chair opposite.

"Penny for your thoughts!" said Dorothy.

"Wow! You startled me."

"You didn't see me come in. I think you should keep your door locked even if you are expecting someone, Cleo. I could have been a gangster, or a lover."

"You're right, Dorothy. I'll lock it now though I’m not expecting a lover.”

They both laughed as Cleo dropped the latch on her door. Dorothy glanced at the camera jammed into the corner of the office.

"No point in having video security if you're going to leave your door unlocked."

"It's a fake, Dorothy. It doesn't actually take pictures."

"That’s even worse. It should, Cleo."

"You're right, and I won't forget to lock the door from now on. Have you seen the paper this morning?”

“No time, Cleo.”

“So you don’t know that Magda Kelly was killed in a car crash.”

“No. That’s terrible.”

“It’s was probably an accident. Mr Kelly is in the hospital. What do you want to tell me, Dorothy?”

"My neighbour, Jane Barker, phoned to tell me that the Wellness Centre was broken into last night. Someone broke the glass and stole all the snacks and candy bars from that tall fridge spender, ate them and slept there."

"How do they know he slept there?"

"He forgot his socks."

Cleo laughed.

“I don’t think it’s funny!” said Dorothy. "People usually shed their socks before going to bed. There was an ashtray full of cigarette ends, too."

"Were the police called in?"

"I suppose so."

"Gary hasn't mentioned it."

"Gary doesn't smoke and as far as I know he still has a home to go to!" said Dorothy

"I don’t think he slept there, Dorothy, but one of his investigators might have.”

“You don’t seriously think that, do you Cleo?”

“I don’t know, Dorothy. But what if…"

“… Jay Salerno dossed down there?” said Dorothy. “That occurred to me immediately.”

"For heaven’s sake, don't wish him on me."

“He could have got in here like I did, Cleo. That’s another reason for locking your door.”

“You are so right, Dorothy!”

"Of course, it could have been anyone who was hungry, smokes heavily and takes his socks off at night."

“I should think at least the sock removal covers nearly everyone, even someone looking for somewhere to sleep, and prepared to break in get a into a bed, get a good night’s sleep, and forget his socks. Anyway, if Jay Salerno is looking for me, why did he go to the Wellness Centre at dead of night?"

"He might have noticed that there are police around. He won’t show his hand until he has to, Cleo."

"You've been watching too many gangster movies, Dorothy."

"Nearly all the gangsters who break jail go back to their roots and blackmail or kill people."

"Jay Salerno's roots aren't in Upper Grumpsfield."

"No, but you are."

"He's more likely to have gone to Mexico."

“Mexico?”

“Gloria’s thinks that. You can get across that border more easily than boarding a plane somewhere.”

"Well, that's a relief. So why I can’t I take up that new cleaning job?"

"Colin's on Silver's trail. Gary told me the car saloon has a bad reputation for steal cars and smuggling them out, so there are possibly bad characters around who could want to silence you, Dorothy.”

“I would not even notice!”

“They don’t know that, do they? Anyhow, Colin is more likely to get quick results. He’s attractive, pretends to be rich,  and he’s taking Silver’s secretary out tonight."

"Goodness. He moves fast."

"And so does the girl, presumably. They still think you are taking up that job, if you want to go there, by the way."

“No, I’d rather not. Can you phone them and tell them I’ve broken my arm?”

“I’d better make it a leg, Dorothy. The other cleaner has a broken arm.”

There was a short pause while Cleo cleared that little matter up.

***

"So what about Burton, Cleo?"

"Gary was taken off the case then reinstated."

“Are you going to tell me why?”

“I’m not sure that I know. Gary was rather cut up about it and didn’t say much.”

"What about Mr Kelly?"

"He's a free man."

"But he might have killed Burton and his wife."

"Gary says he has no concrete evidence. What’s more, the Kellys were released from custody without Gary's knowledge. That's how Magda came to be in that car in the first place.”

“Of course, it’s logical that you can't keep on taking people into custody without good reason," said Dorothy.  “Those gangster films…”

“… are about prohibition and were a phenomenon of the age, Dorothy. That sort of lawlessness no longer exists.”

" Let’s beg to differ on that!” said Dorothy. “As I see it, there's only Hatherton left as a suspect."

"He has an alibi and a is friend of Roger Stone.”

“That explains why Gary is being messed about.”

“That’s what Gary thinks, too,” Said Cleo. “I used to watch spy films and think they were fiction, but now I know that there’s no end to what even apparently innocuous people get up to. There is very little to go on in the Burton case. I’m sure he wasn’t a spy. According to Kelly, Burton didn’t go anywhere and had very few visitors."

“Kelly was saving his skin. I expect he has told quite a few tall stories in his time,” said Dorothy, who remembered the bad eggs Kelly smuggled in among the good ones. She preferred supermarket eggs these days. They were cheaper and had a collection date stamp on them.

“So what about Burton’s women friends, Cleo? No Mata Hari among them?"

"I don’t think they’d target a scruffy stone grinder, Dorothy. Only one thing seems certain: There's something crazy going on at a Police Headquarters where the guy in charge of a case is removed from it for no apparent reason, even if he is later reinstated."

"It sounds more like fictional cloak and dagger stuff."

"Gary is now trying to find out if Hatherton or Burton was working for the Foreign Office or some other government body. It seems certain that Roger Stone is."

"Goodness, how exciting."

"It cost Burton his life. Whoever we are dealing with is licensed to kill."

"Like in James Bond," said Dorothy.

Cleo could not top that remark. She went into the utility room and presently came out with mugs of steaming hot coffee.

"One thing I must tell you, Dorothy, and that is that Gary suspects Shirley Temple of leading a double life."

"But she's such a nice person and I thought they were having an affair."

"Nice people sometimes do nasty things. We know nothing about her and Gary hinted that the affair a figment of the imagination, though Shirley had acted as though they were in the throes."

“I thought he wanted you,” said Dorothy.

“He does, but I’m with Robert, Dorothy.”

“Miss Temple was a social worker for a short time."

"That could be true,” said Dorothy.

“But it’s what she’s up to now that interests Gary,” said Cleo. “You must watch what you say to her if she turns up, especially if she asks leading questions. Don't talk shop with her."

"I won’t, but I don’t think she’ll turn up at my cottage and I'm rather at a loose end, now Nora has gone into hiding. Isn't there anything I could look into for you?"

"Have you still got the list of women in Laura's chorus?"

"At home. It’s hidden in Book I of Beethoven Sonatas."

"I'd like to compare it with a list Gary is sending me by e-mail."

"No problem. Shall I go and get my list now?"

"No. Come to tea at my cottage later this afternoon. I'm not going to work at the office today. I'll explain the reason for the list when we've compared it with Gary’s."

"There were a few really awful women in that chorus. Poor Laura must have had a trying time with them."

"And they with her, Dorothy."

***

Comparing the lists later, Cleo and Dorothy established that two of the wives of senior HQ employees had sung in the chorus, but neither had been connected with the mobbing. The four responsible for the worst behaviour had been named on Dorothy’s list and were not known to be connected with anyone at HQ; two were shop assistants and one was a female door-keeper at a gay club. The fourth was a hanger-on. Dorothy did not think she could have killed a fly, let alone a person. The wives of the top brass at Police Headquarters were either totally innocent of anything at all, or mistresses of subterfuge, they decided.

"Let's face it, Cleo, we're out of our depth. It's time to forget Laura Finch and anything connected with her. It’s no longer relevant."

Before going home, however, Dorothy dropped an intuitive bombshell that set Cleo thinking hard.

"What if any of those posh women was in a relationship with Burton?” she said. “Wouldn't that support the idea of it being a jealous husband taking revenge?"

“Of course, many of those marriages are now only on paper. Those husbands would be glad that their wives were being kept amused,” said Dorothy.

Cleo was sure that Kelly would be deleted from the list of suspects. He was not possessive enough about Magda to kill someone like Burton. He could have kicked the guy out of the barn, warned him off, or resorted to some other ruse without having to kill him. Kelly had encouraged Magda to ply her old trade, and you don't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Kelly is not an assassin. An assassin does not end up in the intensive ward of a hospital for being in the same car as the person he is trying to kill.

Notwithstanding Dorothy’s enthusiasm, Cleo decided to keep their ideas on the back burner for the time being. Gary was quite capable of discarding an idea he hadn't had first, though he had been mistaken more than once.

“On reflection, Burton would not have been a suitable playboy for the wives of high police functionaries, would he?” said Dorothy.

“I just have a feeling that the shooting need not have been a man’s work. The gun had a small calibre. I was probably a small pistol that would fit into a handbag.”

“So someone like Shirley could have shot Burton, Cleo. I wonder if she knew him?”

“She is on the career ladder, Dorothy. I doubt if Burton could have had anything interesting to offer.”

Dorothy departed saying she was going to watch some movies and think about things.