The Green Flash (43 page)

‘What, the Ferrari? Going to buy a loud blazer and a cap to match?'

‘When it comes I'm going to take off for a bit – rid you of my presence. It'll be a few days yet, this is just prior notice.'

She went on with her feints and ripostes.

‘Don't hurry back,' she said.

III

Inspector Chalmers was careful not to sound too pleased, but satisfaction kept breaking through. Shona, de Luxembourg, Chanel, three others. Packages, boxes, empty bottles. In the basement were large vats with hundreds of gallons of fake perfume.

This was good, but though Chalmers was willing and anxious to sort out the perfumery forgeries, he was more interested in the other stuff. My guesses had been spot on. God knows what had come out of the Far East destined to be sold as genuine, but word processors, brake linings and helicopter parts were among them. He explained patiently that legally he was on much firmer ground with these when it all came up in court. Warrants for the arrest of the six directors of BF Ltd had been issued, and in the morning early they were going to visit Best Friend Dog Foods in Hackney. I wished him luck and told him not to overlook the house next door.

On the Monday the car came. It wasn't so quiet or so good-mannered as the Jaguar, nor so well finished as the Aston Martin, but the engine and the handling were matchless, and the throaty exhaust noise stiffened the back hairs on your neck every time you started up. Erica wouldn't go in it. Not that I pressed her hard. Monday evening Shona rang to see if I was ill, as I'd not been near the firm since Friday. I said I was well enough.

She said: ‘Take a couple of weeks if you are out of sorts. You did not look well
pleased
on Friday morning – that seemed strange after your remarkable success … for which not only this firm but many others will thank you. Is there something else wrong?'

‘Life's funny,' I said, ‘but sometimes the jokes get a bit dirty.'

‘You will have to be a little more explicit than that, David.'

‘Perhaps I will, before I leave.'

‘Leave? Is Erica going with you?'

‘No.'

‘I shall be home every evening.'

On Wednesday about five as I was turning in towards the flats I met Derek coming away.

‘Oh,' he said, smiling his bookmaker smile. ‘I just called. The little wife seemed to be out, and you still at the sweat shop. I was about to give it all up and slink away.'

‘No need. Come in.'

‘That yours, that monster by the kerb?'

‘Yes. New this week.'

‘Wow-ee. What d'you feed it on?'

‘Four star. Care for a spin?'

‘Well, not actually. I came really to pick your brains on one or two little happenings …'

‘Jump in,' I said.

We took the M40 and went as far as High Wycombe.

‘It's lovely, darling,' he said, ‘ but I'd enjoy it more if my stomach could catch up.'

On the way home we did seventy, the engine coughing now and then in protest; I'd seen a police car three or four cars back in the rear mirror.

‘He's gone,' said Derek, blowing out a breath as we turned into Hyde Park. ‘I felt sure he was going to waylay us.

‘Talking of the fuzz,' he went on as we got in the lift to go up. ‘Have you been seeing anything of them lately?'

I unlocked the door. ‘Who? The fuzz? Why should I have?'

‘Because they've been to see me.'

My arm was still not right. Better to wait a couple of days more before leaving. Shifting gears seemed to make the muscle stiffen.

‘What have you been up to?'

‘I?' he said. ‘ Nothing, darling. Cross my heart and spit. But you know Vince, don't you?'

‘Vince who?'

‘Bickmaster. You met him quite
recently
at the Cellini.'

‘Oh, him, yes,' I agreed quickly. ‘What about him?'

‘He's been arrested and charged.'

‘Whatever with?'

‘They came to see me because we've done a few teensy jobs together and they found my name in his flat. Thank God I'm not
in
this, whatever it is. But them coming like that! Two great flatfeet! I mean! It put me in rather a
whirl
!'

Derek wasn't looking his best. But I was glad he was in the clear – if he was. He pretended to be too Simon-pure these days. (Never passed a bad cheque indeed! It could only have been for lack of opportunity.) But well and good, if he wasn't involved. For personal reasons – though not for the sort of personal reasons Erica pretended to think existed – I should have been sorry to shop him.

‘That machine,' he said. ‘
Infernal
, isn't it? Positively. But it fair turns you on. What speed were we doing on the way out?'

I began to tidy up some magazines that Erica had left sprawling.

‘What's Bickmaster been up to anyway?'

‘Dunno, mate. He's charged with some quite horrendous crime – conspiracy to defraud, I think they call it. Remember Gervase Ltd in your golden youth?'

‘That lot that turned out the porn magazines?'

‘Yes. They were raided too.'

I picked my way carefully over the rocks. ‘Who else was raided?'

‘Oh, some factory in Essex. So the fuzz said, but you never know whether to believe 'em. Have you been to see the Gervase set-up lately?'

‘Not since the year I got out of the nick. Why?'

‘I was wondering …'

‘What are they doing now? Shouldn't think the girlie magazine trade was quite so brisk.'

‘Oh, you'd be surprised. Videos are the in things, of course. They've changed their name, by the way.'

‘Who have?'

‘Gervase. You won't find them in the book any longer. Forget what the new name is.'

I yawned. ‘I've been out of it all for the last few years. Don't say you haven't noticed?'

‘Yes, I suppose … I put you on the transfer list soon after you joined La Shona.'

‘Have a drink,' I said.

‘Thanks.'

We chatted about Erica and the Olympics. I could see he wanted to get back to the object of his visit, but I kept heading him off.

In the end he said: ‘There're other jolly comrades struggling in the mire, David. There was a piece in the
Telegraph
. Didn't you see it, dear?'

‘No. When was that?'

‘Monday. D'you remember asking me about Maurice Laval?'

‘Who? Oh, the de Luxembourg chap. Ex. What about him?'

‘You asked me about him more than once. You can't have forgotten.'

‘Did I? Oh, yes.' It wouldn't do to be too innocent. ‘Has he got another job?'

‘No, he's been copped too. All the shareholders of Best Friend.'

‘What's that?'

‘Didn't I tell you? That's the new name. It just escaped me –'

I helped him to a second drink.

‘I wondered,' he said. ‘It seemed to me …'

‘What?'

‘Well, you remember you asked me all those questions when we met at the Cellini?'

‘About? … Oh yes.'

‘Well, you said you'd take my advice and leave it all alone. You remember I said it wouldn't be popular with some of the characters if you pressed on regardless.'

I stared. ‘I remember. But I
gave
it up. That's what you told me to do, wasn't it?'

‘Yes. Oh yes. Glad to know it. Very glad indeed to know it. So … this is nothing at all to do with you?'

‘I don't know what
this
is. If it's to do with forgery, the answer's no.' Might as well be hung for a big sheep as a small.

He rubbed his knees, a sure sign he was uncomfortable. ‘I thought maybe if the fuzz had been to see you and grilled you as they grilled me, some incautious words might have slipped out.'

‘You can't let slip what you haven't got,' I said. ‘I know no more than you. If your pals have become involved in nefarious doings and are in trouble it's their worry, not mine.'

He looked at me curiously, and I wondered if I'd washed my hands too obviously. If I knew nothing about it, wouldn't I be more keen to hear the details?

However, at that moment Erica arrived with two young men called Houseman and Crary. As Steve and Tony they ran an interior-decorating establishment in Beauchamp Place, and were of course of Derek's persuasion. But while I liked Derek, these two got in my hair, and I suspect Erica knew it. Anyway she was in the over-merry mood she seemed to favour these days. It was usually the product of four vodka tonics.

We had a noisy session for about half an hour before they all left to go out to dinner, Derek included. I was saved the effort of refusing by not being asked. It occurred to me after they left that my efforts to put Derek (and presumably his friends) off the track could very well be wasted, since Erica knew I hadn't given up the forgery enquiries; it only needed a remark from her and the cat was out.

It occurred to me that I didn't care. I went to see Shona.

IV

I spoke into the box and the buzzer went. But she was a while opening the door of her flat; I suppose she spent a couple of minutes on a hasty refit; she was in a shortish yellow frock with dark stockings and yellow mules; her hair had been disciplined.

‘Ah, David. This is good. Please make yourself at home. Have you eaten?'

‘No. But I'm not here for food.'

‘A drink?' I shook my head. ‘You are still not yourself, eh? We have missed you this week, but no matter. Leo has been rallying round. When are you going away?'

‘Soon.'

‘And where are you going? To Scotland?'

‘Maybe. I shall spend a few days there anyhow.'

‘Things are not well between you and Erica?'

‘Things are not well between myself and mostly everybody.'

‘Including me?'

‘Including you.'

‘What have I done?'

‘What have you done? Nothing, I suppose. Nothing that a fair-minded man could complain of.'

‘Well, tell me. You spoke like this over the telephone.'

‘First of all, I'm leaving Erica.'

She drew in a slow breath. ‘I am sorry. It has not worked out? Is it to be permanent?'

‘I think so. Second, I'm leaving you.'

Her mouth tightened. ‘ So? Do you mean the firm?'

‘What else?'

‘Indeed,' she said bitterly. ‘What else? … But why? You are on top of your work. We are a financially prosperous and distinguished company. You have just pulled off a noted coup, for which Chanel, I know, and other companies wish to thank you personally. You have never been in a better position, and your salary comes up for review next month. You should be very proud of yourself.'

‘I'm very sick,' I said, ‘of the company I keep.'

There was a pause. She took out a canary-coloured handkerchief and dabbed her lips.

‘Well, thank you, David. Once again I must say that I do not know what has made you feel this. Of course, always, you have tended to despise the profession –'

‘D'you remember,' I said, ‘it was you who first suggested I should marry Erica?'

‘Yes, of course. And now you blame me –'

‘D'you remember when we were in Scotland you suggested we should marry, you and I, and I said with more truth than tact that you could never give me a son?'

‘Of course I remember. I was a stupid woman, forgetting my age. I thought we might have been happy, using your strange inheritance as a place to get away to, from the artificialities of our London world.' She shrugged. ‘Perhaps a little like Barbados … You were – abrupt. It would have been more comfortable to my conceit to have come to realize your feelings more gradually. But there it was.'

‘Any man,' I said, ‘ who accepts his rejected mistress' recommendation whom he shall marry must rate high among the feeble-minded invertebrates of this world, so I take most of the flak as self-inflicted. I decided to marry Erica and she agreed. But why the recommendation in the first place?'

She hesitated. ‘ I thought you might suit each other.'

‘So did I. We don't. But that's beside the point. The point is that, having been turned down yourself because you couldn't give me a child, was there not a certain satisfaction in commending me to a girl who couldn't have children either?' It was crude but it simply had to come out that way.

She blinked at me a couple of times with her fine Russian eyes. ‘What are you saying?'

‘Erica tells me that in her affair with Edward Cromer she got pregnant.'

‘Of course. I knew about it. Before you came between us, Erica and I were very close.'

‘And she had an abortion.'

‘Yes. It was not quite legal but it was easy to arrange. She was very upset at the time, being much attached to the Cromer man, who let her down.'

‘And then?'

‘And then what?'

‘It went wrong, I gather. So she tells me. She couldn't have children now even if she wanted them.'

Shona went across to the windows, drew the curtains. ‘ She told you this?'

‘Who else?'

‘She never told me.'

‘D'you expect me to believe that?'

She turned. ‘What evil worm is
working
in you, David? My
God
, what is
wrong
with you? This is poison that you are thinking.'

‘It's not poison that I put there.'

‘Who, then?'

‘Erica said, ask Shona, she knows all about it.'

She came back, lit a cigarette, puffed away furiously. Her face looked suddenly small and bitter.

‘David, knowing me so long as you have done, do you suppose I would do this to you?'

‘Erica said, ask Shona, she knows all about it.'

‘Perhaps she was drunk. Perhaps she was jealous. Women say strange things when they are jealous.'