Part 23 (1/2)
”What time?”
”It must have been around eleven. Lucy was still doing her homework. I won't let her work after eleven as a rule but she was doing a French mock O-level. He was in a phone box.”
”Cash?”
”Yes.”
”Where?”
”He didn't say. He just said, 'Rick's dead. I wish we'd had a child.
”That all?”
”He said he'd always hated himself for marrying me. Now he was reconciled. He understood himself. And he loved me for trying so hard. Thanks.”
”That all?”
”'Thanks. Thanks for everything. And please forgive the bad parts.' Then he rang off.”
”Did you tell Nigel this?”
”Why do you keep asking me that? I didn't think it was Nigel's business. I didn't want to say he was being drunk and sentimental on the phone late at night just at the time when they were considering him for promotion. Serves him right for deceiving me.”
”What else did Nigel ask you?”
”Just character stuff. Had I ever had any reason to suppose Magnus might have had Communist sympathies. I said Oxford. Nigel said they knew about that. I said I didn't think university politics meant much anyway. Nigel agreed. Had he ever been erratic in any way? Unstable--alcoholic-- depressive? I said no again. I didn't reckon one drunken phone call const.i.tuted drunkenness, but if it did I wasn't going to tell four of Magnus's colleagues about it. I felt protective of him.”
”They ought to have known you better, Belinda,” said Brotherhood. ”Would you have given him the job yourself, by the way?”
”What job? You said there wasn't one.” She was being sharp with him, belatedly suspecting him too of duplicity.
”I meant suppose there had been a job. A high-level, responsible job. Would you give it to him?”
She smiled. Very prettily. ”I did, didn't I? I married him.”
”You're wiser now. Would you give it to him today?”
She was biting her forefinger, frowning angrily. She could change moods in moments. Brotherhood waited but nothing came so he asked her another question: ”Did they ask you about his time in Graz, by any chance?”
”Graz? You mean his army time? Good heavens, they didn't go back that far.”
Brotherhood shook his head as if to say he would never be equal to the wicked ways of the world. ”Graz is where they're trying to say it all started, Bel,” he said. ”They've got some grand theory he fell among thieves while he was doing his National Service there. What do you make of that?”
”They're absurd,” she said.
”Why are you so sure?”
”He was happy there. When he came back to England he was a new man. 'I'm complete,' he kept saying. 'I've done it, Bel. I've got my other half together.' He was proud he'd done such good work.”
”Did he describe the work?”
”He couldn't. It was too secret and too dangerous. He just said I would be proud of him if I knew.”
”Did he tell you the name of any of the operations he was mixed up in?”
”No.”
”Did he tell you the names of any of his Joes?”
”Don't be absurd. He wouldn't do that.”
”Did he mention his C.O.?”
”He said he was brilliant. Everyone was brilliant for Magnus when they were new.”
”If I said 'Greensleeves' to you in a loud voice, would that ring any bells?”
”It would mean English traditional music.”
”Ever hear of a girl called Sabina?”
She shook her head. ”He told me I was his first,” she said.
”Did you believe him?”
”It's hard to tell when it's the first for you too.”
With Belinda, he remembered, the quiet was always good. If her charges into the lists had something comic about them, there was always dignity to the calm between.
”So Nigel and his friends went away happy,” he suggested. ”Did you?”
Her face against the window was in silhouette. He waited for it to lift or turn to him, but it didn't.
”Where would you look for him?” he said. ”If you were me?”
Still she did not move or speak.
”Some place by the sea somewhere? He had these fantasies, you know. He chopped them up and gave a bit to each person. Did he ever give a version to you? Scotland?
Canada? The migration of the reindeer? Some kind lady who'd take him in? I need to know, Belinda. I really do.”
”I won't talk to you any more, Jack. Paul's right. I don't have to.”
”Not whatever he's done? Not to save him perhaps?”
”I don't trust you. Specially when you're being nice. You invented him, Jack. He'd have done whatever you told him. Who to be. Who to marry. Who to divorce. If he's done wrong it's as much your fault as his. It was easy to get rid of me--he just gave me the latch key and went to a lawyer. How was he supposed to get rid of you?”
Brotherhood moved towards the door.
”If you find him, tell him not to ring again. And Jack?” Brotherhood paused. Her face was soft again, and hopeful. ”Did he write that book he was always on about?”