Subsubsection: Friday 20 June 1930 Up Section: Soho Subsubsection: Saturday 21 June 1930 

4 January 2017 (a burglary and a deduction)

Audrey goes to the bank on her own. The senior manager who first meets her is polite enough, but soon passes her off to a younger man, who’s clearly working above his usual level of responsibility and is glad to get the chance.
There’s a ribbon-draped photograph of Wigson in a corner, though it’s not particularly obvious.
Audrey gets what seems like good advice about how to set up the company, including the ongoing costs. When she prompts the man, he looks around and is apparently willing to gossip; he didn’t know Wigson well himself, but has the impression he was moving in a fairly fast set (and is faintly jealous of this). The police came to the bank and talked to people, but didn’t arrest anyone. Audrey isn’t the best at perceiving human mannerisms, so if there’s anything else he’s hinting at she doesn’t catch it. She ends up taking away a bundle of paperwork.
Given that they’ll have to break in through a window that overlooks the street, Lin Tan and Bessie decide to go into the flat that night. One of Gertrude’s sons is willing to show Bessie the basics of removing windows quietly; he’s not a teacher, but is good enough at the task itself that she can pick up the routine.
With some basic tools obtained (pliers, hammer, putty, large black bags), the pair waits for darkness, then heads back into the block; there’s a different policeman on duty. They get into the loft, then out through the skylight; Bessie pays out the rope, and climbs over the roof and down to the window.
Getting the glass out takes a while, but Bessie does it successfully, gets the window open, and is confronted by a heavy blackout curtain; moving that aside, she finds herself in a small laboratory or, more probably, darkroom.
Lin Tan joins her, and they get the red safelight on. This space is partitioned off from a larger room, and seems to be set up for cine film processing; there are three small reels of film, which appears from quick inspection to be street scenes, but nothing otherwise remarkable.
Lin Tan moves out into the rest of the sitting room; it’s set up for showing films, with a projector at one end and a rolled-up screen at the other. She puts a draught excluder at the front door of the flat to block any light; she just catches the sound of gentle snoring from outside the front door.
There are several films, professionally duplicated:
They do appear, going by the censor’s imprint, to be what they claim to be. Paperwork at the writing-desk suggests that he’s been importing many more films, and re-selling them at a profit. There’s no diary or address book.
Bessie reckons there’s been more than one person moving around in here since it stopped being cleaned, but can’t be more specific.
A quick search of the rest of the place suggests he’s been importing and selling pornographic films too, but not keeping any significant amount of paperwork. A roll of fivers and some large-denomination coinage finds its way into Bessie’s pocket.
There aren’t many books; some photographic reference materials, some articles about German film. Nothing in his wardrobe seems out of the ordinary.
The professional films seem to have “bands” of shine on them; it wasn’t obvious at first, but there seem to be concentric circular bands, presumably individual lengths of film. There’s more of this on the later reels of each film, and the last reel of Nosferatu has most; that goes in Lin Tan’s bag.
The pair get out again, replacing the window and passing the policeman.
Meanwhile Gertrude has been fortune-telling round some pubs in Soho; she eventually finds someone who remembers Wigson, someone who works at AFI and remembers Wigson ordering in some German films.
 Subsubsection: Friday 20 June 1930 Up Section: Soho Subsubsection: Saturday 21 June 1930