Gently Sinking by Alan Hunter

to Gently. ‘Maybe you’s weighing us up, Sarah and me. You’s getting ready with the fast ones.’
    ‘Are you expecting fast ones?’ Gently asked.
    ‘All round the wicket,’ Sharkey said. ‘Seamers, googlies, loose ones, fast ones. Like you’s Laker and Trueman put together.’
    ‘You’re fond of cricket?’ Gently said.
    ‘I didn’t miss a Test yet,’ Sharkey said.
    ‘Back in Kingston,’ Gently said.
    ‘Oh yes, you bet. Back in Kingston.’
    ‘With your kid brother,’ Gently said. ‘He was fond of cricket too?’
    Sharkey’s eyes squeezed shut.
    ‘Man,’ he said thickly. ‘You got through me with that one.’
    Gently took the Immigration Department list from his wallet, unfolded it, handed it to Sharkey. Sarah Sunshine glided behind her husband, read over his shoulder with frightened eyes. She moaned, hid her face in his shoulder. Sharkey’s mouth trembled, twitched.
    ‘Yeh man,’ he said at last. ‘That’s mighty official.’
    He handed the list back to Gently.
    * * *
    ‘Of course, you wouldn’t have seen him,’ Gently said, ‘since you left Jamaica. How old was he then? About fifteen?’
    Sharkey shook off his wife. He sat down. Sarah Sunshine slunk behind the table.
    ‘He’d perhaps have left school,’ Gently said. ‘Be running wild. Down at the harbour. On the beaches. He’d be a swimmer.’
    ‘Oh Christ,’ Sharkey said. ‘Don’t man, don’t. You worse than Mr Tallent. Why cain’t you hit me?’
    ‘Was he a swimmer?’ Gently said.
    Sharkey jammed his fists into his eyes.
    ‘Was he?’ Gently continued.
    Sharkey groaned. ‘Yeh. A good swimmer. He’d keep swimming.’
    ‘If he had a chance,’ Gently said. ‘The ship going down might suck him under.’
    Sharkey sobbed.
    ‘Perhaps it would be the better way,’ Gently said. ‘Quicker. Better than him swimming around, not giving up.’
    ‘Oh you devil, you devil,’ Sharkey sobbed.
    ‘Not that you cared very much, did you?’ Gently said.
    ‘You ain’t safe, man,’ Sharkey sobbed. ‘I’ll kill you.’
    ‘Yes,’ Gently said. ‘But Blackburn was responsible.’
    He folded the list and put it away. Sharkey was staring with sodden eyes. His hands were upturned, the fingers hooked. He was drawing breath through his mouth.
    ‘Did you pay for Sonny’s trip?’ Gently said. ‘Or did Blackburn give him a free passage?’
    Sharkey didn’t seem to hear him, went on staring, breathing roughly.
    ‘Perhaps the guitar lessons squared it.’
    ‘You let my man be!’ Sarah Sunshine screamed.
    She had the sandwich-knife in her hand, was holding it waveringly, point upwards.
    ‘Yeh, woman, you quiet,’ Sharkey said.
    He closed his hands, let them drop.
    ‘You’s a devilman,’ he said to Gently. ‘It ain’t no good with you, is it?’
    Gently shrugged and drank a little coffee.
    ‘You’d no cause to love Blackburn,’ he said. ‘You couldn’t get rid of him because he owned you. But what he’d done to you, you couldn’t forget.’
    Sharkey glared at him.
    ‘In fact, you hated Blackburn. He was bleeding you dry in any case. He’d seduced your sister. Then he drowned your brother. He was a King of the Barbareens.’
    ‘Police man, you’s fixing me,’ Sharkey said.
    ‘Why did your sister run?’ Gently said. ‘Not because she killed him, but because you killed him, and because she didn’t want to answer questions.’
    ‘You better take me in,’ Sharkey said. ‘You better put the chains on me, man. The way you tell it I’m done for, ain’t no use me putting my word in.’
    ‘You deny hating Blackburn?’ Gently said.
    Sharkey’s eyes smouldered. ‘No,’ he said. ‘You’s about right. I never loved Tommy too much to begin with, and I sure finished up hoping he’d drop deado.’
    ‘He owned this place?’
    ‘Yeh, he owned it. There ain’t no papers, nothing legal, that sort. He put up the dough, I was paying him off. But man, I’d be paying him off at doomsday. About Sadie and him, that’s