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I was eager to continue but Holms cut me short. “Wilson, I am trying to ascertain the habits of Jimmy Henderson, not the problems of Mr McCusker.”
“But it's so interesting, Holms. Were you a player when you came out as a pooftah, McCusker?”
“Wilson!” Holms barked sharply.
“It's okay, Mr Holms,” McCusker interjected, “Lots of people are interested in the homosexual lifestyle.”
“I'm not interested,” I protested, “Not in the sense that I’m thinking of enrolling. I’m enquiring from medical, sociological, interest.”
“To return to my questions …” Holms continued but was interrupted himself by Mrs Houston entering with the tea tray.
“Strange,” Holms mused, after she’d left.
“What's that?” I asked.
“Mrs Houston claims to be 'mad for the United' yet she did not react to Mr McCusker sitting here.”
“I’m not one of the big stars,” the young player confessed.
“Ah, that'll be it,” Holms agreed, “Now, Jimmy Henderson, apart from this Janine, you never saw him in conversation or approaching an older
woman?”
“No.”
“I see. And did Jimmy have a wandering eye where any other women were concerned?”
“No, he seemed quite happy with Cynthia.”
“He did not find the endless purchasing of handbags to be onerous?”
“Didn't bother him, he was a generous guy. God, we’re talking about him in the past tense, as if he was dead.”
Holms would not be sidetracked. “Did he ever talk of an older woman? An aunt perhaps, or a schoolteacher?”
“Listen,” McCusker explained, “Jimmy got enough ribbing from the other guys because he let it slip to the Sun that he fancied older women. He wasn't going to blow it up by talking about them. Footballers can be vicious when they spot a weakness.”
“Did he indicate which particular woman to the Sun?”
“No, there was a bunch of them, Jane Fonda, Jenny Agutter, Joanna Lumley, all class.”
“Indeed, sophisticated, not the type one would commonly associate with footballers.”
I’d spotted something and immediately threw in my tuppence worth. “And their first names all begin with J.”
“ That does not serve us, Wilson. Do you know how many Janes there are in Manchester?”
“Well, it narrows it down. We could run an advertisement in a lonely hearts column, 'Sophisticated, older, lady wanted, must have initial J.'”
“But our sophisticated, older, lady already has a partner, Wilson, our absent friend, Jimmy Henderson.”
“Oh yes. But isn't there some way we could use this information to flush her out?”