The Edge

by Dick Francis

  Filmer said, in a harsh croaking voice, ‘Where did you get that story?’

  As if accepting a compliment, Zak answered ‘Made it up.’

  ‘You must have got it from somewhere.’ He was positive, and angry. The Redi-Hots looked at him in surprise.

  ‘I always make them up,’ Zak said lightly. ‘Why … didn’t you enjoy it?’

  ‘Champagne, sir?’ I said to Filmer. I’d grown very bold, I thought.

  Filmer didn’t hear. Mrs Redi-Hot passed me his glass which I replenished. She passed it back. He didn’t notice.

  ‘I thought it a great story,’ she said. ‘What a wicked revolting murderer. And he was so nice all along …’

  I stepped around Zak with a glimmer of eye contact in which I gave him my devout thanks for his discretion, and he accepted them with amusement.

  At the next table Rose Young was protesting to Cumber that it had to have been a coincidence about committing suicide after getting rid of your best horse … and Ezra had sold his horse, she said, not given it away because he was being blackmailed.

  ‘How do we know he wasn’t?’ Cumber demanded.

  The Unwins were listening open-mouthed. I filled all their glasses quietly, unnoticed in their general preoccupation.

  ‘Who now has Ezra’s horses, that’s what I want to know,’ Cumber said truculently. ‘And it’ll be easy enough to find out.’ He spoke loudly: loudly enough, I thought, for Filmer to hear him, if he were listening.

  Emil had beaten me to it with the Lorrimores, but they made a remarkable picture. Mercer’s forearms rested on the table as he sat with his head bowed. Bambi, a glitter of tears in the frosty eyes, stretched out a hand, closed it over one of Mercer’s fists, and stroked his knuckles with comforting affection. Xanthe was saying anxiously, ‘What’s the matter with everybody?’ and Sheridan looked blank. Not supercilious, not arrogant, not even alarmed: a wiped blank slate.

  There were a good many people in the aisle, not only the service crew but also the actors who, still in character, were finishing off the drama in the ways they felt happy with: Walter and Mavis, for instance, agreeing that Pierre had saved Donna’s life and couldn’t be all bad, and maybe he would marry Donna … if he stopped gambling.

  Threading his way through all this came the sleeping car attendant on his way to do the bunks in the dome car. He nodded to me with a smile as he passed, and I nodded back: and I thought that my main problem would probably be that the play had been all too successful, and that the people most upset by it wouldn’t stay sitting down for dinner.

  I wandered back to the kitchen where Angus’s octopus act was reaching new heights and hoped especially that Filmer’s physical reactions wouldn’t get him restlessly to his feet and force him to leave.

  He didn’t move. The rigidity in his body very slowly relaxed. The impact of the play seemed to be lessening, and perhaps he really believed that Zak had made it all up.

  I set the two tables nearest to the kitchen: automatically folded the napkins and arranged knives and forks. The sleeping car attendant came back eventually from the dome car, and I left my place settings unfinished and followed him.

  ‘Are you sure?’ he asked over his shoulder. ‘They seem pretty busy in the dining car.’

  ‘It’s a good time,’ I assured him. ‘Fifteen minutes to dinner. How about if I start from this end, then I’ll just stop and go back if I feel guilty.’

  ‘Right,’ he said. ‘Do you remember how to fold the chairs?’

  He knocked on Filmer’s door.

  ‘The people are all along in the dining car, but knock first just in case,’ he said.

  ‘OK.’

  We went into Filmer’s room.

  ‘Fold the chair while I’m here, so I can help if you need it.’

  ‘OK.’

  I folded, a shade slowly, Julius Apollo’s armchair. The sleeping car attendant gave me a pat on the shoulder and left, saying he would start from the far end, as he usually did, and we might meet in the middle.

  ‘And thanks a lot,’ he said.

  I waved a hand. The thanks, did he but know it, were all mine. I left the door open and pulled Filmer’s bed down into the night position, smoothing the bottom sheet, folding down a corner of top sheet, as I’d been shown.

  I groped into Filmer’s wardrobe space, gripped the black crocodile briefcase and rested it on the bed.

  Zero-four-nine. One-five-one.

  My fingers trembled with the compulsion for speed.

  I aligned the little wheels, fumbling where I needed precision. Zero-four-nine … press the catch.

  Click!

  One-five-one. Press the catch. Click! The latches were open.

  I laid the case flat on the bottom sheet, pushing the upper sheet back a little to accommodate it, and I lifted the lid. Heart thumping, breathing stopped.

  The first thing inside was Filmer’s passport. I looked at it briefly and then more closely, getting my suspended breath back in a jerky sort of silent laugh. The number of Filmer’s passport was H049151. Hooray for the Brigadier.

  I laid the passport on the bed, and looked through the other papers without removing them or changing their order. They were mainly a boring lot: all the bumf about the train trip, a few newspaper pages about the races, then a newspaper cutting from a Cambridge local paper about the building of a new library in one of the colleges, thanks to the generosity of Canadian philanthropist Mercer P. Lorrimore.

  My God, I thought.

  Beneath the clipping was a letter – a photocopy of a letter. I read it at breakneck speed, feeling danger creep up my spine, feeling my skin flood with heat.

  It was short. Typewritten. There was no address at the top, no date, no salutation and no signature. It said:

  As requested I examined the cadavers of the seven cats found pegged out, eviscerated and beheaded in the College gardens. I can find nothing significant except for wilful wickedness. These were not cult killings, in my opinion. The cats were killed over a period of perhaps three weeks, the last one yesterday. Each one, except the last, had been hidden under leaves, and had been attacked after death by insects and scavengers. They were all alive when they were pegged out, and during evisceration. Most, if not all, were alive at decapitation. I have disposed of the remains, as you asked.

  I could see my hand trembling. I tipped up the next few sheets of paper which were reports from stockbrokers, and then, at the very bottom, I came across a small yellow memo sticking to a foolscap-sized paper headed conveyance.

  The memo said, ‘You will have to sign this, not Ivor Horfitz, but I think we can keep it quiet.’

  I looked a shade blankly at the legal words on the deed: ‘… all that parcel of land known as SF 90155 on the west side of …’ and heard the sleeping car attendant’s voice coming nearer along the corridor.

  ‘Tommy … where are you?’

  I flicked the case shut and pushed it under the bed’s top sheet. The passport was still in view. I shoved it under the pillow, walked out of the door hastily and closed it behind me.

  ‘You’ve been ages in there,’ he said, but tolerantly. ‘Couldn’t you undo the bed?’

  ‘Managed it finally,’ I said, dry mouthed.

  ‘Right. Well, I didn’t give you any chocolates.’ He handed me a box of big silver-wrapped bonbons. ‘Put one on each pillow.’

  ‘Yes,’ I said.

  ‘Are you all right?’ he asked curiously.

  ‘Oh, yes. It was hot in the dining car.’

  ‘True.’ He went back towards his end of the car, unsuspicious. Heart still thumping I returned to Filmer’s room, retrieved his passport from under the pillow, replaced it in the briefcase, shut the locks, twirled the combination wheels, realised I hadn’t noticed where they’d been set when I came in, hoped to hell that Filmer didn’t set them deliberately, put the case back as I’d found it, straightened the bed and put the chocolate tidily where it belonged.

  I went out of the room, closed the do
or and walked two paces towards the next door along.

  ‘Hey, you,’ Filmer’s voice said angrily from close behind me. ‘What were you doing in there?’

  I turned. Looked innocent … felt stunned.

  ‘Making your bed ready for the night, sir.’

  ‘Oh.’ He shrugged, accepting it.

  I held the box of sweets towards him. ‘Would you like an extra chocolate, sir?’

  ‘No, I wouldn’t,’ he said, and went abruptly into his bedroom.

  I felt weak. I waited for him to come out exploding that I’d meddled with his belongings.

  Nothing … nothing … happened.

  I went into the room next door, folded the armchairs, lowered both beds, turned back the sheets, delivered the sweets. All automatic, with a feeling of total unreality. I’d twice come too close to discovery. I had no great taste, I found, for the risks of a spy.

  I was disturbed, in a way, by my pusillanimity. I supposed I’d never thought much about courage: had taken it for granted … physical courage, or physical endurance, anyway. I’d been in hard places in the past, but these risks were different and more difficult, at least for me.

  I did the third bedroom, by which time the sleeping car attendant, much faster, had almost finished the rest.

  ‘Thanks a lot,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Appreciate it.’

  ‘Any time.’

  ‘Did you do your scene?’ he asked.

  I nodded. ‘It went fine.’

  Filmer came out of his room and called, ‘Hey, you.’

  The sleeping car attendant went towards him. ‘Yes, sir?’

  Filmer spoke to him, his voice obliterated, as far as I was concerned, by rail noise, and went back into his room.

  ‘He’s not feeling well,’ the sleeping car attendant reported, going back towards his own roomette. ‘He asked for something to settle his stomach.’

  ‘Do you have things like that?’

  ‘Antacids, sure. A few simple things.’

  I left him to his mission and went back to the dining car, where Emil greeted me with raised eyebrows and thrust into my hands a trayful of small plates, each bearing a square of pâté de foie gras with a thin slice of black truffle on top.

  ‘We missed you. You’re needed,’ Emil said. ‘The crackers for the pâté are on the tables.’

  ‘Right.’

  I went ahead with the delivery, going to the Redi-Hots’ table first. I asked Mrs Redi-Hot if Mr Filmer would be coming back: should we put his pâté in his place?

  She looked a little bewildered. ‘He didn’t say if he was coming back. He went out in a hurry … he trampled on my feet.’

  ‘Leave the pâté,’ Mr Redi-Hot said. ‘If he doesn’t come back, I’ll eat it.’

  With a smile I put some pâté in Filmer’s place and went on to the Youngs’ table, where Cumber had stopped talking about Ezra Gideon but looked dour and preoccupied. Rose received her pâté with a smile and made attempts not to let Cumber’s moroseness spoil the occasion for the Unwins.

  Cathy had taken pâté to the Lorrimores who sat in glum silence except for Xanthe who could be heard saying exasperatedly, ‘This is supposed to be a party, for God’s sakes.’

  For the rest of the passengers, that was true. The faces were bright, the smiles came easily, the euphoria of the whole journey bonded them in pleasure. It was the last night on the train and they were determined to make it a good one.

  Nell was moving down the aisle handing out mementos: silver bracelets made of tiny gleaming railway carriages for the women, onyx paperweights set with miniature engines for the men. Charming gifts, received with delight. Xanthe clipped on her bracelet immediately and forgot to look sullen.

  Emil and I collected the wrapping paper debris. ‘Miss Richmond might have waited until after dinner,’ Emil said.

  We served and cleared the rest of the banquet: a salad of sliced yellow tomatoes and fresh basil, a scoop of champagne sorbet, rare roast rib of beef with julienned vegetables and finally apple snowballs appearing to float on raspberry purée. About six people, including Rose Young, asked how to make the apple snowballs, so I enquired of Angus.

  He was looking languid and exhausted, but obliging. ‘Tell them it’s sieved apple purée, sugar, whipped cream, whipped white of egg. Combine at the last minute. Very simple.’

  ‘Delicious,’ Rose said, when I relayed the information. ‘Do bring out the chef for us to congratulate him.’

  Emil brought out and introduced Angus to prolonged applause. Simone sulked determinedly in the kitchen. Rose Young said they should all thank the rest of the dining car crew who had worked so hard throughout. Everyone clapped: all most affecting.

  Xanthe clapped, I noticed. I had great hopes for Xanthe.

  I managed to stop beside Nell’s ear.

  ‘Xanthe’s longing to have a good time,’ I said. ‘Couldn’t you rescue her?’

  ‘What’s the matter with the others?’ she asked, frowning.

  ‘Xanthe might tell you, if she knows.’

  Nell flashed me an acutely perceptive glance. ‘And you want me to tell you?’

  ‘Yes, please, since you ask.’

  ‘One day you’ll explain all this.’

  ‘One day soon.’

  I went back to the kitchen with the others to tackle the mountainous dishwashing and to eat anything left over, which wasn’t much. Angus produced a bottle of scotch from a cupboard and drank from it deeply without troubling a glass. Apart from Simone, who had disappeared altogether, there was very good feeling in the kitchen. I wouldn’t have missed it, I thought, for a fieldful of mushrooms.

  When everything was scoured, polished and put away, we left Angus unbelievably beginning to make breads for breakfast. I stood in the lobby for a while, watching the dining car slowly clear as everyone drifted off to the dome car lounge for laughter and music. The Lorri-mores had all gone, and so had Nell and the Unwins and the Youngs. Out of habit I began to collect, with Oliver, the used napkins and tablecloths, ready to put out clean ones for breakfast, and presently Nell came back and sat down wearily where I was working.

  ‘For what it’s worth,’ she said, ‘Xanthe doesn’t know what has thrown her parents into such a tizzy. She says it can’t have been something Mr Filmer said in the lounge before cocktails because it sounded so silly.’

  ‘Did she tell you what he said?’

  Nell nodded. ‘Xanthe said Mr Filmer asked her father if he would let him have Voting Right, and her father said he wouldn’t part with the horse for anything, and they were both smiling, Xanthe said. Then Mr Filmer, still smiling, said, “We’ll have to have a little talk about cats.” And that was all. Mr Filmer went into the dining car. Xanthe said she asked her father what Mr Filmer meant, and he said, “Don’t bother me, darling.’ ” Nell shook her head in puzzlement. ‘So anyway, Xanthe is now having a good time in the dome car lounge and the rest of the family have gone off into their own car, and I’m deadly tired, if you want to know.’

  ‘Go to bed, then.’

  ‘The actors are all along in the lounge having their photos taken,’ she said, dismissing my suggestion as frivolous. ‘They came up trumps tonight, didn’t they?’

  ‘Brilliant,’ I said.

  ‘Someone was asking Zak who had tried to kidnap which horse at Toronto station.’

  ‘What did he say?’ I asked, amused. It was the loosest of the loose ends.

  ‘He said it had seemed a good idea at the time.’ She laughed. ‘He said they’d had to change the script because the actor who was supposed to play the part of the kidnapper had broken his arm and couldn’t appear. Everyone seemed to be satisfied. They’re all very happy with the way it ended. People are kissing Donna and Mavis. Mavis is wearing the jewels!’ She yawned and reflected. ‘Mr Filmer didn’t have any dinner, did he? Perhaps I’d better go and see if he’s all right.’

  I dissuaded her. Antacids were taking care of it, I said. What one could give a man for a sick soul was another ma
tter.

  From his point of view, he had made his move a fraction too early, I thought. If he hadn’t already made the threat, the play wouldn’t have had such a cataclysmic effect either on him or on Mercer. Mercer might have been warned, as I’d intended, might have been made to think: but I couldn’t have foreseen that it would happen the way it had, even though Filmer’s smirk and Mercer’s gloom had made me wonder. Just as well, perhaps, that I hadn’t known about the cats when I invented the theft of the jewels. I might have been terribly tempted to hit even closer to home. Tortured horses, perhaps?

  ‘What are you hatching now?’ Nell demanded. ‘You’ve got that distant look.’

  ‘I haven’t done a thing,’ I said.

  ‘I’m not so sure.’ She stood up. She was wearing, in honour of the banquet, a boat-necked black lace blouse above the full black skirt, a pearl choker round her neck. Her fair hair was held back high in a comb, but not plaited, falling instead in informal curls. I thought with unnerving intensity that I didn’t want to lose her, that for me it was no longer a game. I had known her for a week and a day. Reason said it wasn’t long enough. Instinct said it was.

  ‘Where are you staying in Vancouver?’ I asked.

  ‘At the Four Seasons Hotel, with all the passengers.’

  She gave me a small smile and went off towards the action. Oliver had finished clearing the cloths and was laying clean ones, to leave the place looking tidy, he said. I left him to finish and made my way up the train to talk to George Burley, passing Filmer’s closed door on the way.

  The sleeping car attendant was sitting in his roomette with the door open. I poked my head in and asked how the passenger was, who’d asked for the antacid.

  ‘He went up the train a while ago, and came back. He didn’t say anything, just walked past. He must be all right, I guess.’

  I nodded and went on, and came to George sitting at his table with his endless forms.