Full of Money (29 page)

‘Troublesome would have been on the cards, yes,' Udolpho said. A couple of commuters had showed for papers and cigarettes. Udolpho served them. When he and Edgehill were alone again, he said, ‘Perhaps a lot of Whitsun folk got the wrong ideas from that conversation on Gideon Road.'

‘Yes.'

‘My impression is, Gordon Hodge recognizes this now.'

‘I hope so.'

‘More direct,' Udolpho said.

‘What is?'

‘These are words he used re his forthcoming schemes, which are in hand. When I say “in hand” I'm referring to beyond just thoughts and ideas. “More direct.” The kind of words I'd expect from Gordon.'

‘What does it mean, “more direct”?' Edgehill said.

‘Oh, yes, much more direct. That's my impression.'

‘How, exactly?'

‘He's not one to spell everything out.'

‘No.'

‘Sort of oblique? Many people who get things under way are like that. They talk oblique, but when they act, they go straight at it. This is a kind of superstition. They don't want to say too much in case it all just stays at saying it.'

‘Right.'

‘Also, the walls of this place, if you can call them walls. Not exactly sound proof. When Gordon talks, there's often a – there's often a security side to things. Keep it vague? But some of us can interpret.'

‘I understand.'

‘Not exactly cryptic. Indicators. But my guess?' Udolpho said. ‘Can I offer you my guess?'

‘Certainly.'

‘He's been to see them.'

‘Pellotte and Dean?'

‘Direct, as he said.'

‘He called on Pellotte at home?'

‘I underline that this is a guess only.'

‘Based on what?'

‘To what purpose, this visit, you'll ask?' Udolpho replied.

‘Well, yes.'

‘My bet is he'd speak to them along certain lines. Words of this sort: “Adrian, Dean, there's been an unfortunate, accidental lapse, in no way caused by school fees or other pressures, a simple miscalculation on my part in a business sense, a delay in payment and other snags” – there's talk of forged notes, you know, Larry – “so, Adrian, Dean, please give me some mission, some task, to handle for you. Please. This will wipe out the problematical aspects of our recent relationship, which it would grieve me to see endangered.” You'll be familiar, Larry, with the phrase
quid
pro
quo
. And, as the Bible has it, “Here am I, send me.”'

‘What kind of mission, task?'

‘This would have to be something considerable, something almost definitely hazardous, or it would not fit the bill, would it?' Wentloog-Jones said. ‘This has to be exchangeable against the very serious, very weighty, problematical aspects, which I don't know in detail, but which must be very serious and weighty or why is – was – Gordon so scared? They might not be serious and weighty in their own right, but serious and weighty as perceived. That is, as perceived by Adrian and Dean. The BMW parked right outside Gordon's house, you know. All right, it's on their way to some castle, a short cut, but just the same you have to wonder.'

It had perturbed Edgehill to hear Udolpho speculate like this. Larry felt a kind of regret, a kind of responsibility, as he'd describe it later to Esther: had he shoved Hodge into something ‘almost definitely hazardous' by a refusal to intercede – by what Hodge would regard as indifference? And which, in fact,
had
been indifference, or very close. One drink only: ‘must get along.' Contemptible? Inhuman? Yellow?

For the first time, he sensed in himself a Whitsun loyalty. Fellow feeling took hold. It linked up somehow with that excess of commitment he sometimes felt towards others, and tried to resist – did resist now and then. All right, cars and garages got savaged on Whit. So did people. All right, a lot of dog shit on the pavements. Cars and garages weren't everything though, and a degree of personal safety
was
possible if you kept alert and wily and had up-to-date door furniture. Dog shit could be stepped around, especially in daylight. Community ties existed. This Whit resident had come to another Whit resident for support and he had ignored the plea. Treachery? His relationship with Pellotte was slight to the point of skeletal, but, perhaps, after all, he could have used it to put in a word or two for Hodge. Which word, though, or two? If Hodge had been trying to defraud Pellotte, not much that Edgehill said would count. People like Pellotte ran their own judicial procedures, and Hodge might already have been condemned.

Just the same, Edgehill suffered now the type of guilt Hodge via Wentloog-Jones said he shouldn't. He hated the idea that when Udolpho and Hodge spoke about these things they excused the failure by referring to his career: to his ‘media executive position'. Mr Larry Morethanmy Jobsworth Edgehill realized he felt not merely a Whit bond with Hodge. This was about something simpler, vaster: the obligation on one man, any man, to help another in distress.

It was around this spot in his morning talk with Udolpho that Edgehill began to think he'd better search for some help himself with things. He'd wondered about contacting Gerald Davidson's wife, the Detective Chief Super.

Now, in Esther's office, he didn't feel sure it was a smart decision. Had he made the dire aspect of what might happen plain enough to her? She listened but didn't seem gripped. He would have to tell her about the gun soon. That might shake her, get her concentration.

She said: ‘It's vague, isn't it?'

‘I don't know the full picture, no, but I sense something potentially very bad.'

‘There's sometimes sense in sensing. Not always.'

Esther, eager to get out of him whatever he had, acted a bit offhand, schemed to downplay the value of what he said, so as to push him into saying more, force him into exactitude, drama, tactlessness, betrayal of someone, possibly. Force him into what he'd call bravery – a snitch's bravery. These were routine tactics, well-tried interview ploys. He wouldn't recognize them, as some old career crook would. ‘When you say you “sense something potentially very bad”, where did the information come from that got you sensing like that?'

‘A good source.'

‘Yes?'

But Edgehill wouldn't name him. He trusted Udolpho, and owed him confidentiality. This morning, after Wentloog-Jones had done his ten or twelve minutes' worth, Edgehill should have gone for the train. But he needed to hear whatever else was offered even guesswork. There'd been another break while Udolpho looked after his livelihood and then: ‘Luckily, I can put him in touch with useful folk, Larry.'

‘Ah.'

‘Oh, yes. In an intermediary fashion.'

‘What kind of useful folk?'

‘You know –
really
useful folk.'

More obliqueness?
‘Really useful in which way?'

‘He's aware I have contacts. This is one reason he appeared here again. It would seem like just breezing in for an
Independent
and DIY mags, but there's more than that. Of course, he
did
buy an
Independent
and two DIY mags and he holds these prominent when he goes out to prove he'd only been here for papers. No, he'd been here for what in diplomacy they call “letters of credence” introducing, say, a new ambassador to a foreign government. Of course, I wouldn't give him letters, nothing written, for God's sake, but I'd say where to go and to let them know the introduction came from me.'

‘Contacts of what sort? Hodge an ambassador?'

‘But my contacts are not the
only
reason. Nor am I referring to the newspapers and mags. He realizes I'll be seeing you, doesn't he, and is keen for me to pass on that he's fine now, everything sorted, and he bears no grudge, not the slightest? Those kids – they'll be back at the same school next term, I'm certain.'

‘I'm glad. When he's next in, tell him I'm glad.' Just the same, Edgehill was bombarded by fears and worries.

‘In many ways, Gordon's a gent – not just because his kids are at a boarding school in that town famous for schools, or due to the interior decoration at his residence in Larch Street, but thanks to his core nature,' Udolpho said. ‘By genes a gent.'

‘I appreciate it.'

‘He insists on paying me.'

‘For his papers and so on? Yes, naturally.'

‘For his papers
and
a fixer fee.'

‘Fixing what?'

‘The intermediary aspect. I said not to bother. I told him I know these useful, decently stocked folk in the ordinary course of business, and it's as easy as easy to put him in touch, though I've never used them personally as suppliers. I've never needed that kind of thing and never will. Wouldn't know how to handle one, anyway.'

‘What kind of things?'

‘They'll look after him,' Wentloog-Jones replied. ‘But he says the labourer is worthy of his hire – again from the Bible, or similar. And he makes it a very elegant fee, I have to say. Not in proportion, actually – the fixer fee nearly half of what he'll pay for the item itself. But, once more, he won't be talked out of it. These things have come down in price with a real . . . Joke! . . . I was going to say with a real bang! Have come down in price with an absolute slide. It's well known. Ammo, too. Still a flow from Eastern Europe, perhaps even more than when the Wall first tumbled.'

‘You're talking weaponry – handguns?' Edgehill said.

‘Why I said a mission.'

‘A mission with a handgun?'

‘Oh, yes, as I said – beyond the thinking and ideas stage. He's readying himself in a systematic, careful fashion. Confident. That's why I mentioned his morale is up. It's often the case: get a plan and the world simplifies itself.'

‘He's preparing to kill someone?'

‘I gave him three, as it were, letters of credence,' Udolpho replied. ‘He could make his own choice. I'm not going to point him – aim him! – at any particular one, am I? Udolpho is not a controlling person. This is just general information. I don't want anything coming back on me if there's a cock-up, do I? I've got a business to cherish, a newspaper business. But he says the fact he can mention to any of them – any one of the three – that Wentloog-Jones sent him smooths everything out, and they'll be careful not to sell him anything a bit faulty and jammable or traceable. That's why the go-between fee is so meaty.'

‘You know armourers?' Edgehill replied.

‘A lot of people come in here. I get told what some of them do. All right, it might be rumour only, it might be wrong. I give Hodgy the names and where they're at, and he can check for himself. It's not like lining up in the army to draw a rifle. That's why I said three. What we all know, don't we, is that there are obtainables around on Whitsun and it's just a matter of finding who's flogging them and who's reliable in all the reliabilities required? Price? Not really so important. It's the reliability people are after. I'm sure there's nothing worse than being in a dire spot with something in your hand to help, but it can't or won't help because it's jammed.'

Four customers had come in more or less at once. Might one of them be an armourer? Edgehill examined some of those home improvement journal covers on a shelf. Hodge was house proud? The last of the four went. Edgehill said: ‘For clarity now, you're referring to—?'

‘Look at it like this: the Gladstone Milo Naunton death.'

‘Of course, I've heard of that. A territory scrap, wasn't it? Is – was – Hodge involved?'

‘This is more guesswork by me, Larry.'

‘Involved how?'

‘Suppose he
got
himself involved.'

‘How? It's a while ago, surely?'

‘Right. Dead right.'

‘So how—?'

‘He goes retrospective, maybe. It's a while ago, as you point out, and nobody on Temperate knocked over for it. Nor any attempt, to my knowledge.'

‘Maybe Pellotte has come to see vengeance as foolish.'

‘He's not entitled to.'

‘Not entitled?'

‘He's part of a culture. Head of a culture. There are expectations. Extremely undodgable. Think of the Queen. She has to read that speech every year saying what the government will do. She's the head of state and top of the pile, but, because of this, she's got no option about turning up.'

‘The death is unpunished?'

‘So we ask, who's looking slow and weak because of that?'

‘The police?' Edgehill replied. ‘A street murder, with firearms.'

‘The police! Do the police care which bit of lowlife shoots another bit of lowlife? They cheer. They shout, “Congrats!” They'd issue AK-47s if they could, as long as they knew the weapons wouldn't be turned on
them
. A killing wipes out a nuisance for the police. And then, if there's a tit-for-tat op – what's known in the community as a “requital sortie”, meaning answer-back slaughter – if there's a requital sortie, perhaps another nuisance gets removed, or more than one. Officers lay on a champagne celebration party. Next thing will be they recommend gang leaders for knighthoods.'

‘You're saying Pellotte should have acted?'

‘You heard of
noblesse oblige
at all? Yes, such as the Pope: if you're boss you've got duties as well as perks. You know the Bible parable of the ninety and nine that were safely laid in the shelter of the fold? But one was missing, and the Good Shepherd had to search for who terminated that one, and wipe the fucker out.'