Gently Go Man Read Online Free PDF

bungalows on each side of the road and this one at the bottom, backing straight on the Chase. The Chase at this spot had thirty-year pines with a screen of birches in front of them. The leaves of the birches had turned pale yellow. They trembled. They caught the last of the afternoon sun. The bungalow in front of them was composed of units with flat, shed-like roofs, and was built of glass and varnished wood and painted wood and a little brick. It had a semicircular concrete driveway and the driveway had no gates. In the arc of the driveway was a goldfish pool and a rockery and a small grass plot. There was a sign staked in the grass plot, a varnished section of a tree trunk. It said Treeways. To the right of the driveway was a tradesman’s entrance with an iron gate.
    ‘She’s all right. Got money,’ Setters was saying as they parked. ‘Lister was one of the architects here. Coronary occlusion, about a year ago. But he left her well-off, it’s all tied up in these houses. She’s got a couple of younger kids. Good-looking. Probably marry again.’
    ‘Living alone?’ Gently asked.
    ‘Till last week,’ Setters replied. ‘She’s got her mother here now to tide her over for a bit.’
    They left the car on the road and walked up the driveway. The main door was plain wood painted white and had an iron bell-pull. It rang some chimes. An elderly woman came. She looked sharply at Gently. Setters addressed her as Mrs Clarkson and did his introduction again.
    ‘Jennifer’s dressing,’ said Mrs Clarkson. ‘You’d better come in, and I’ll tell her. But I hope you’re not going to be here for long. I’m fetching the children from school shortly.’
    ‘Not for long,’ Gently said. ‘We could come back tomorrow.’
    ‘It isn’t that, but she really isn’t fit to talk to people,’ said Mrs Clarkson.
    She ushered them in through a square hall with a polished parquet floor and into a three-sided, slant-ceilinged room of which the fourth side was a glassed-in veranda. She left them. Setters sat down. Gently moved about the room. The slant-ceiling gave it spaciousness. The furniture was unpolished in a grey-toned wood. The upholstery of the furniture was in off-white and lemon and the carpet was off-white with flecks of black.The walls were papered in a trellis design. There was a piano. There was a record player.
    ‘What makes a kid from a home like this run riot?’ Setters inquired. ‘I wish I’d been a kid here. I wish I owned a place like it.’
    ‘When did Lister leave school?’ Gently asked.
    ‘That’s a point,’ Setters said. ‘It’d be a year ago, wouldn’t it, about the time his old man went. Since when he’s been working as a plumber’s mate for the firm his father was connected with. Starting at the bottom, more than likely. Not a question of money here.’
    ‘Did Elton work for that firm?’ Gently asked.
    ‘Yes,’ Setters said. ‘Hailey and Lincon’s. They’re a local firm here in Latchford. They brought in Lister for the overspill project.’
    The door from the hall opened. Mrs Lister came in. She was a woman above middle height with a slender waist and wide hips. She had straight-cut gold-brown hair and green eyes and wide cheekbones and under the eyes were blued patches, and the cheeks were pale and a little sagged. She wore a charcoal dress with a bushed skirt. It had a belt. She wore a thin gold chain. She came forward.
    ‘You wanted to see me again?’ she asked. She held her hand out to Gently.
    ‘Just a recapitulation,’ Gently said. ‘I’m fresh here, and it always helps.’
    ‘I want to help you,’ said Mrs Lister. ‘I keep thinking I haven’t helped enough. If Les had been here …’ She stopped. ‘I want to help you all I can,’ she said.
    She sat down on a wing armchair, crossing her calvesand swinging them slantwise. She laid her hands in her lap. She made a small, hesitant smile for them.
    ‘I keep hoping it was an accident after all,’ she said. ‘I