10. Mr White

A Chapter by Peter Rogerson

Jerry and the DI make plane...

Jerry thought it would be in order for him to share a piece of news with detective Inspector Florence Winthorpe. Via a tenuous chain of authority in the branch of the service that he was part of his task was keeping a wary eye on a cell that had been registered as potentially dangerous and called themselves Gloopies. Thus he had managed to get his hands on a photograph of the staff in Jonny’s school in the town of Brumpton which was out of his area even though he knew it well. And there at one end of the second row was Mr White. He’d shown the picture to Jonny who had confirmed his suspicion. Mr White, or Chalky to Jonny, was there.

There was very little familiar about him but he did sport an odd and rather pointed beard, and in his hand he was holding what looked like a smoker’s pipe. And, it being the school holidays, it crossed Jerry’s mind that it wasn’t impossible for him to have made his way to Midcomfort and turned his hand to mischief here.

“I want some background info on this man,” he told Florence. “I know it’s unlikely, but I’ve always been a believer in crossing all the t’s and dotting all the i’s in an investigation.”

“I’ll get in touch with an old friend of mine,” replied the DI, “we were at uni together and she happens to be at Brumpton, or so I believe, and it’s about time we had a reunion. She might have some inside info on this rather drab looking Mr White. Hang on and I’ll ring her. If, that is, she still has the same mobile number.”

Florence took out her phone and grinned at Jerry. “My dad was a copper,” she said, “and he would have given the fortune he never had to have one of these! He used to moan about needing a phone and not having to use the pilice issue mobile.” She nodded thoughtfully, and then she consulted her contacts and pressed for one of them.

The phone was answered almost immediately, and she switched speakerphone on so that Jerry could hear.

“Penny? Good to hear your voice after, how long is it? A very long time!”

“Florrie!” replied what sounded like an excited Penny at the other end, “I was only thinking of you earlier. In fact, I got close to ringing you myself! We’ve got an issue concerning a Junior school teacher and it might have implications in your neck of the woods.”

“Great minds, then, Penny. Don’t say it’s Mr White?”

“Florrie, are you a mind reader or what? But yes, that’s the fellow’s name and it seems he’s joined one of those nasty little groups who reckon the world would be better if everything happened according to their dreams. They’re semi-political but up to all sorts of nasty little tricks, and his headmistress is worried that it might impact on his work at school.”

”This is sounding very interesting,” breathed Florence, glancing at Jerry and barely loud enough for her friend to hear, “because we also have a Mr White and he might be up to some very unpleasant mischief too.”

“That gives me some food for thought, Florrie. And what you might not be aware of is it seems he has a twin brother. An identical twin at that, and when they were at college they played their similarity up by substituting for each other. Our Mr White, Christian name Sebastian, though, has some very unsavoury friends.”

“Have you been keeping tabs on him this last few days, Pen?” asked Florence.

“Not especially, though he is on our ‘to be watched’ list replied Penny.

“I’ll have to start one of those and put our Mr White at the top of it!” Florence told her.

“Then let me give you a bit of info I gleaned about your White twin,” said Penny, “he studied at the same college as our Mr White, passed his course and qualified as a teacher, but didn’t last long in the classroom. Apparently the kids were able to suss out his every weakness and took advantage of it just like kids can. So instead he hung his mortar board up and joined the same semi-fascist group his brother hovers about with, and makes a living of sorts making documentaries for schools to use, about wildlife, specifically birds of the UK.”

“Now that is helpful, Pen, and it tallies with our intelligence. I’ll be in your debt for ever and a day! I tell you what, we’ll have to have a get-together some time soon, and if you chance to come this way I’ll take you to a pub where they purvey the most excellent red Italian wine!”

“You’re on then, Flo!”

And the conversation came to an end and Florence closed her phone and looked meaningfully at Jerry.

“That’s quite helpful,” she said, “did you catch any of it? I did put it on speakerphone so that you could.”

“I did, and what I heard was very interesting indeed. When I’ve finished with our little conflab I’m going to put my nose into the Gloopy lot. Your friend his the nail on the head when he called them semi-fascists, but from what I’ve seen that’s exactly what they are. Hitler would have shaken them by hand and maybe even kissed them! But at the moment they’re keeping themselves out of the public eye, so to speak. Seriously, though, you’ve got what I would call an attempted murder to solve and I’ve got to help keep a lid on Barney and his antisocial activities.”

“Them, Jerry, we’ll keep at it and continue to clandestinely share whatever we learn until peace reigns. Let me know how you get on with Barney, though. I might need to update his file.”

“You can depend on me, Florence. We’re not in the same club but we don’t half seem to make quite a useful team.”