Death and the Princess Read Free Page B

much as mind his jemmy. He had firm principles about mixing politics and crime — especially their politics. We’ve been chewing it over, and I’ve had a bit of a natter with the Commissioner, and we’ve come to the conclusion that it’s something else. In other words, it’s got to be something much closer to Snobby’s line of country.’
    I relaxed a bit in my chair again. ‘Well, at least that takes the heat off us a bit, doesn’t it? If it’s not a question of a death threat.’
    ‘I didn’t quite say that.’
    ‘Oh God. You mean I’m there to prevent someone being killed?’
    ‘I think someone may already have been.’
    I sighed. ‘OK, give me the gen.’
    But Joe didn’t seem to want to come straight out with the story. He settled himself over his desk in a Buddha-like pose, not looking too happy, like most Buddhas. ‘In good time, Perry. But first of all, what’s your impression of the little lady herself?’
    ‘Come off it, Joe. I only saw her for a quarter of an hour or so. She read me her speech for Save the Senile, or some such bunch of do-gooders. What sort of impression of Her Madge do you get when you see her reading the Speech from the Throne?’
    ‘Knowing you, Perry, you formed a judgement, snap or otherwise. What was it?’
    I shrugged. ‘Gorgeous to look at. Gorgeous body. Knows it. Probably uses it. Do you know a word that theFrench have, or used to have: “une cocktease”?’
    ‘Does that mean what it sounds like?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Is that what you think she is?’
    ‘Yes. Whether wittingly or unwittingly I wouldn’t like to say.’
    ‘Would you think she sleeps around?’
    I considered. ‘Well, hazarding a guess, I’d say no. Sleeps with, now and again, yes. But sleeps around, no. She’s got a fair sense of her position. Why don’t you ask McPhail?’
    ‘You’re not suggesting — ?’
    ‘No, of course not. That would have been offering rump steak to a vegetarian. I merely meant he ought to know.’
    ‘Well, I did ask. In so far as I got anything out of him at all, he agreed with you. Now and again, without a doubt, and perhaps fairly regularly with one or two, but certainly no nympho. Still, the fact is, she’s got any number of young men sniffing round her skirts.’
    ‘So the newspapers imply.’
    ‘If she had been sleeping regularly with any one of them, that might have been as good a point of departure for us as any. Blackmail, sensational serials in the Sunday Gutter — you know the kind of stuff. Then we might conceivably have found some kind of criminal connection that led us back to Snobby Driscoll. But the fact is, we can’t pick on any one of them. It’s a nightmare, because there are so many. As far as collecting casual companions is concerned, the young lady is not discriminating. In fact, she’s bloody unwise.’
    ‘Oh? Who is there, then?’
    ‘Well, for a start, there’s an MP.’
    ‘That shouldn’t matter, surely, provided he’s of the right party?’
    ‘He’s of the wrong party. And he’s way to the left ofit — used to be a cheer-leader for Wedgwood-Benn, now branching out with ambitions of his own. Even worse, the man used to be a card-carrying Communist.’
    I never understand why to people of Joe’s generation Communists are always card-carrying. Do they go around with them clutched in their little hot hands?
    ‘When was that?’ I asked.
    ‘At Oxford.’
    ‘Everyone at Oxford joins the Communist Party. I believe you sign up when you join the Oxford Union. Denis Healey was a Communist at Oxford. If it had been Cambridge we might have got worried.’
    Joe grunted. ‘Then there’s another of her escorts, if that’s the word, who’s an actor. Name of Jeremy Styles.’
    ‘I know him. Of him, at least. Opened in the new Simeon Black play last week.’
    ‘That’s the boy. Done a lot of television work as well — used in those classic serials because he looks well in costume. But not, as far as we can see, safe. And then