Aiding and Abetting

by Muriel Spark

  “No matter,” said Jacobs, “there was a mistake. Two strong men were set to wait for Walker one night when he was returning from his walk to the Palace Paramount where he had a fine apartment for himself—my grandfather was very benevolent towards him. The men clubbed him to death, only it wasn’t Walker, it was Lucan. Such a quantity of blood, my grandfather said . . . The lords were practically identical, except that Lucan was a better teacher. Walker did not have much to teach except fear of the stars.”

  “Lucan is dead and buried, then?”

  “Lucan is dead, not buried. He was roasted and consumed by all the male children of Delihu. Some of them were rather unwell after the feast, but they are all partly little Lord Lucans now.”

  “And Walker?”

  “My grandfather discerned that Walker had been spared by unseen spirits of destiny. He has gone to Mexico. My kind grandfather paid his fare. I traveled to Kanzia myself to escort him to an airport. The tribes-people did not care for him at all. They preferred Lucan. But Walker got away. I even helped him to pack his few poor things, and I gave him some of my grandfather’s dollars to help him out.”

  “It’s good of you to come and tell me this, Dr. Jacobs.”

  “Oh, but I like you so much, Dr. Wolf. You’ve given me such courage to work here in Paris. What I especially came for was to bring you a message that Walker gave me with instructions to send it by e-mail to the German and French consuls in Chad.” He handed over to Hildegard a handwritten sheet of blue Basildon Bond writing paper. On it was written:

  Pappenheim Beate, fraudulent stigmatic of Nuremberg, year 1978 forward, is now a successful psychiatrist in Paris under the false name of Dr. Hildegard Wolf. Her sumptuous offices are in the Boulevard St. Germain.

  “You promised to send this?” said Hildegard.

  “Of course. But again, of course, I didn’t. In any case the consuls would have thought it mad.”

  Hildegard said, “I appreciate your kindness,” but she obviously meant much more.

  “Tear it up,” said Karl K. Jacobs.

  She did just that. She looked round the office. It looked cleaner than usual.

  Also by Muriel Spark

  FICTION

  * * *

  The Comforters

  Robinson

  Memento Mori

  The Ballad of Peckham Rye

  The Bachelors

  The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

  The Girls of Slender Means

  The Mandelbaum Gate

  The Public Image

  The Driver’s Seat

  Not to Disturb

  The Hothouse by the East River

  The Abbess of Crewe

  The Takeover

  Loitering with Intent

  The Only Problem

  A Far Cry from Kensington

  Symposium

  The Collected Stories of Muriel Spark

  Reality and Dreams

  AUTOBIOGRAPHY

  * * *

  Curriculum Vitae

  About the Author

  Muriel Spark was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1918. She is the author of twenty-one novels as well as collections of short stories, criticism, and poetry. Her most celebrated works include The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), The Comforters (1957), The Girls of Slender Means (1963), The Mandelbaum Gate (1965), The Driver’s Seat (1970), Memento Mori (1959), Loitering with Intent (1981), and A Far Cry from Kensington (1988). She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1993 and Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 1996. She died in 2006.

  PUBLISHED BY DOUBLEDAY

  a division of Random House, Inc.

  1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036

  DOUBLEDAY and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are trademarks of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Spark, Muriel.

  Aiding and abetting / by Muriel Spark.

  p. cm.

  1. Lucan, Richard John Bingham, Earl of, 1934—Fiction. 2. Psychotherapist and patient—Fiction. 3. Fugitives from justice—Fiction. 4. Missing persons—Fiction. 5. Uxoricide—Fiction. 6. Murderers—Fiction. I. Title.

  PR6037.P29 A74 2000

  823’.914—dc21

  00-055559

  All Rights Reserved

  Copyright © 2001 by Dame Muriel Spark

  eISBN: 978-0-385-50364-8

  v3.0_r1