When the Sally-Anne was back at her mooring, they sat around the table in the saloon with mugs of tea. Dougal and Amanda sat on one berth and Hanbury on the other. It was rather like an interview, Dougal decided, though he wasn’t sure who was interviewing whom. He noticed, with a flicker of surliness which he tried to suppress, that his hands were bluer and his clothes were wetter than the others’.
Hanbury had removed his beard on the way back to the creek and borrowed some face cream from Amanda to expunge his weather-beaten complexion. His plump, unlined face beamed across the table at them, looking as prosperous and as vaguely distinguished as it had done when Dougal had last seen it, in Lamb’s Conduit Street.
‘Well,’ he said. ‘I think that just about wraps up this phase of the operations. Certainly there’s nothing else to worry about – Lee was as close as Delhi in the hot season. Only Tanner knew something of what he was after, and of course he’s no longer a problem. Jolly good.’
Hanbury’s tone, Dougal thought, was that of a commanding officer commending the actions of two promising subalterns at the close of a tricky campaign. The gentlemanly Machiavelli of the Lamb had changed into the equally well-bred colonel on active service. Or, to be more precise, the actor had changed roles. Hanbury wasn’t like a real colonel, but like the public image of one, as publicized by hundreds of war films.
The clipped voice continued.
‘We’ve got some mopping up to do, but we can safely leave that till later. We should take the Lancia up to London, I think, rather than have it found down in Suffolk. And we’ll have to wait until daylight to tidy up the last traces of this afternoon’s fracas.’
Dougal nodded. ‘Yes. We’d anticipated that.’
‘Now—’ Hanbury glanced down at the table, as if he expected to find a neatly typed agenda awaiting his eyes ‘—your story or mine?’
‘Yours,’ said Amanda firmly. ‘We’re more in the dark than you are. Besides, you’re dying to tell it to us.’
Hanbury chuckled and inclined his head towards Amanda, acknowledging the hit. Dougal suddenly wondered if women found him sexually attractive. He had the assurance and charm of a well-preserved chameleon which managed to imply, rightly or wrongly, a mysterious inner identity. Perhaps Hanbury appealed only to curious women.
‘It has been something of a coup, I suppose. Though I can only claim part of the credit. Some of it must go to you two. And we’ve all been very lucky. Can I assume that Miss Jackson—’
‘Amanda. Please.’ They smiled at one another in the yellow lamp light.
‘—Amanda knows the details of our previous meeting and my letter to you, William?’
‘Yes. She knew everything from the beginning, actually.’
‘Good. Well, I wrote that letter in perfect good faith. I left the hotel that evening in a taxi, but I must have been followed. They caught up with me when I was on foot – Tanner and another one of Lee’s creatures whose name I don’t know. It was the old technique – make it look like a mugging – the work of amateurs who went too far. They damaged me rather severely, rifled my pockets and left me for dead. I suspect they must have heard somebody coming – Lee’s subordinates didn’t make that sort of mistake usually. I was merely concussed and rather picturesquely damaged.’ The skin around Hanbury’s left eye was still slightly discoloured, Dougal noticed.
‘Some good Samaritan called an ambulance and in the morning I woke up with a severe headache, swaddled in bandages.
‘I lay in hospital for most of the day. I gave a false name and discharged myself in the evening. The hospital authorities weren’t terribly happy about it – for one thing I hadn’t been seen by the police, quite apart from my physical condition. But of course there was nothing they could do.
‘That day in hospital was very valuable – it gave me time to assess my position. The important thing was that Lee must assume me to be dead. His two hooligans were probably pretty sure they’d killed me, and they certainly wouldn’t have allowed Lee to think there was a chance they might have failed.’
‘How could you be so sure?’ Amanda asked.
‘I wasn’t, at the time. It was just a reasonable assumption based on what I knew of the people concerned. And it happened to be right.
‘Anyway, I decided to vanish. I have a little pied-à-terre in Acton – rather a squalid little bedsitter, as a matter of fact – which I maintain for just such emergencies as this. From there, I inserted a notice of my death in The Times and the Telegraph. (Did you know Lee took the Telegraph? One would have expected the Sun or the Cork Examiner. It just shows how complicated people’s characters can be, doesn’t it?) I must confess, I rather enjoyed seeing my name there. If Lee had any lingering doubts about my death, that must have settled it. Printing something makes it sound so authoritative, doesn’t it?’
‘It does,’ said Dougal wryly. ‘It certainly came as a shock to me.’
‘I’m sure it did.’ Hanbury was as bland as a glass of hot milk. ‘Whereas it merely confirmed what Lee was disposed to believe already. I was gambling on that – that he wouldn’t investigate any further.
‘I knew Lee would try to trace Vernon-Jones’s . . . bequests more openly than before, and I calculated it would be safe to follow him. He wouldn’t be expecting me, for obvious reasons. Also—’ for a moment Hanbury looked almost embarrassed, like a man caught playing with his son’s toy soldiers ‘—I knew I could disguise myself quite competently – when I was at Oxford I was a member of O.U.D.S. and became fascinated by the art.’ He coughed modestly. ‘I was the elderly clergyman at the Crossed Keys.’
Dougal and Amanda gawked at him for a second, and then laughed. Hanbury looked mildly affronted. ‘I don’t see why—’
Dougal interrupted. ‘You were perfect. We never had any idea . . . we called you the Church Dormant as a matter of fact.’ He fell silent, trying to trace, in Hanbury’s solid and regular features, the benign vacuity and shabby antiquity which had characterized their fellow guest.
‘It’s a matter of thinking oneself into the part,’ explained Hanbury. ‘Crockford’s supplied me with a real name and a past, just in case anyone became inquisitive. The uniform helped, of course – the clerical suit and dog collar. People tend to notice a uniform rather than the person inside it, whether you’re dressed as a traffic warden or wearing a white coat in a hospital. You slot into a category immediately, you see, which satisfies most people’s curiosity at first glance.
‘I came to Rosington on Thursday, the day before you did. As I expected, Lee was there already. I thought you would probably turn up that weekend, if you came at all.’
‘Why didn’t you contact me before? To let me know you were alive. We could have all worked together.’
Hanbury delicately answered the unspoken question which Dougal had asked. ‘It wasn’t because I didn’t trust you – simply that I didn’t know you well enough. I couldn’t be sure how you would react to that letter. Also, to be candid, it was safest for me that no one should have the faintest suspicion that I was alive.’ Hanbury’s face suddenly crumpled into an expression of mischief; in an instant his features had rearranged themselves into the mask which they usually wore. When he spoke, he might have been talking to himself: ‘It was a wonderful position, really. Lee believing he was the only contender left in the field; you two, my unwitting agents, able to operate without him knowing; and myself on the sidelines, an anonymous spectator with the ability to intervene when necessary. There are so many advantages in being technically nonexistent . . .’
Dougal felt a stillness creeping over him. He and Amanda had been fooled, right from the beginning. The entire painful charade had been set up for the benefit – and the amusement – of James Hanbury. And where did that leave them? He remembered the Emperor of China who played chess with condemned men as the pieces. What happened to those who were left on the board, in the courtyard, at the end of the game – were they shunted into a place of darkness until the next time that an imperial whim su
ggested a little intellectual diversion?
Dougal was aware that Hanbury was looking at him. He shivered, for he knew with irrational certainty that the older man would realize the general trend of his thoughts. That, after all, was the central characteristic of the man – the power to insinuate himself into the workings of other people’s minds. And to adapt himself to what he found there.
‘Look,’ said Hanbury, his face alive with intelligent concern, ‘I know it must seem strange to you both – you probably think I was being criminally callous.’ He paused and looked steadily at them. ‘And, of course, I was – I won’t deny it. But it paid off. You’ve had a few upsets and excitements, and so have I. We also have the happy ending: we’re all richer than before and no bones broken. Dammit, it worked.’
Dougal stared into his empty mug, rotating it gently on the table. The last few drops of tea ran sluggishly among a black archipelago of bloated tea leaves. No bones broken: true enough. Gumper garotted, Cedric decomposing in a cellar; Tanner impaled with a rusty scythe; and Lee with a bullet in his head. Four people who had every right to be angry.
But there were other reasons why he was angry with Hanbury. First, he blamed him, irrationally perhaps, for the shocks and fears of the last few days – for the fact that he, Dougal, had been transported to the ultimate boundary of life, the frontier between living and dying. He had been forced to understand that he wasn’t immortal.
Secondly, he had been made to discover that he was capable of killing people himself. He couldn’t go back to being the Dougal of two weeks ago; he was stuck with this uncomfortably new, unwanted self.
Instead of saying: You’ve turned me into someone else, you bastard, Dougal remarked in a level voice that he was upset because he and Amanda had nearly been killed. It was just a temporary reaction. Silly, wasn’t it?
Hanbury bowed his head. ‘I accept that.’ Dougal suspected that he accepted a good deal more. ‘And, as I like you both, I apologize.’ There was silence in the little saloon, except for the slap of water against the hull of the Sally-Anne.
Dougal’s anger evaporated, leaving the dregs of tiredness behind. Amanda put her hand on his and smiled at them both.
‘James is right, William. No bones broken.’
Dougal was aware that they were soothing him like a fraught child. Suddenly, he laughed. Anger was a luxury he couldn’t at present afford.
‘Okay, tantrum over. Let’s get on with your story, James. You’d reached Rosington.’
‘Ah. Yes.’ Hanbury pulled out his cigarettes and offered them round. The action seemed to jolt his memory. ‘I ran into a series of problems which I should have foreseen. Superannuated clergymen don’t smoke Gauloises. In fact, they don’t do very much at all, which made it difficult for me to monitor what you two and Lee and Tanner were doing. I couldn’t allow myself to walk rapidly or go into pubs and so forth. Mrs Livabed was unbearably solicitous – she would keep offering me cups of tea and hot-water bottles at the most inconvenient times.
‘In some ways, it was a blessing in disguise – inaction on my part was essential. I could only hope to intervene once. I had to trust to your intelligence and Lee’s cupidity. My faith in both was amply justified.’
Amanda frowned. ‘Surely you must have found some way to know what we were all doing. Otherwise—’
‘Only partially, I’m afraid. I overheard a certain amount. All of you were astonishingly careless in that respect.’
‘There must be more to it than that,’ said Dougal firmly. ‘How did you know where to come this afternoon, let alone the right time?’
Hanbury deposited the coil of ash from the end of his cigarette on to the precise centre of the saucer which served as an ashtray.
‘You may find it a little strange, but, as a matter of fact, that unfortunate man Tanner was for the last few days of his life working for me.’
22
‘It was all rather unfortunate.’ Hanbury stopped, leaving his mouth wide open. Sweat gleamed on his forehead. Dougal was momentarily reminded of a large, surprised fish. The man was genuinely embarrassed: events had slipped out of his control for an instant; the immaculate surface of his authority had received a minor dent.
Most unfortunate.
Amanda was the first to speak. ‘That’s ridiculous, James. Do you mean we needn’t have killed him?’ Her voice was sharp with strain.
‘In theory, no; in practice, yes.’ Hanbury smoothly regained the initiative. ‘Let me explain.
‘By Saturday evening I was getting desperate for information, so I took the rather drastic step of visiting your room . . . I assure you, I don’t like prying into people’s private lives, but I could think of no safe alternative.
‘I slipped the lock while you were in the bar after dinner. To my consternation, I found Tanner there, conducting a rather inefficient search of your belongings. Not an easy situation to handle. I realized at once that my cover was exploded – and Tanner, once he started actually looking at me rather than my clothes, might conceivably recognize me. It was a simple choice, really – either he had to be silenced or persuaded to change his allegiance. The former would have been inconvenient – it wasn’t the time or the place for stray bodies – so I decided to convert him instead.’
‘It must have been one hell of a risk. How could you be sure that Tanner wouldn’t change his mind?’ Dougal was beginning to feel dazed. The gap between Hanbury’s actions and the laws of probability was increasing. His left shoulder, which had been severely wrenched at some point during the tussle with Lee, was aching with dull persistence.
Hanbury solemnly waggled his index finger. ‘The point you haven’t grasped is Tanner’s state of mind. He was a person of low intelligence – Lee used him because he was reliably vicious – and he was totally confused. First, he had been sent to search your room, which must have upset him. It wasn’t his kind of job at all – I presume Lee thought he couldn’t be trusted to keep you downstairs. Then he was interrupted by the last person he expected to see. And then he discovered that the old clergyman was someone he thought he had killed. It would have worried a greater mind than his.
‘He became more distressed – and more biddable – as I pointed out the implications to him. Tanner wasn’t so much scared of me, as terrified of what Lee would do to him when he found out that I wasn’t dead. Lee was not a forgiving man. He controlled his subordinates by fear and they of course repaid him with hate. So all I had to do was persuade Tanner that working for me would be pleasanter and much more profitable. And it gave me a vital source of information.
‘For one thing, he had the reference which Vernon-Jones had given Lee. Lee had thrown the card away after looking up the verse. Tanner grabbed it – he knew it was important in some way, that was all. When he produced it, I decided to swap it for your card – partly to alert you to the fact your room had been searched, and partly to – um, pool our knowledge.
‘I knew at the time that the alliance with Tanner was a stopgap measure. If he had survived this afternoon, we should have had to kill him, you know. Don’t look so shocked – he couldn’t have been trusted to keep his mouth shut and, once the crisis was over, he would have become greedy. We wouldn’t have been safe and nor would our profits. I do dislike not being able to trust people, but in this case it would have been rather like expecting Attila the Hun to join the Salvation Army.’
‘Do you think Lee had any suspicion of this?’ Dougal was rapidly reshuffling his memories.
‘No. Definitely not. If that had been the case, Lee would have killed Tanner and come down here in a far less casual frame of mind. He would have believed we were knowingly working together, and taken a great many more precautions. All along, he thought you two were insignificant – he felt he didn’t have to concentrate as much as usual. He categorized people too rigidly, which is fatal. One should be ready to recognize new talent when it appears.’ He smiled at Amanda. ‘I knew right away when I met William that he had potential, and so have you. On
e needs to chip away a couple of layers – inexperience and outmoded, secondhand morality – before one can fully realize it. But I think you’ve both done that.’
Oh, God, thought Dougal, I think we have.
Amanda steered Hanbury gently away from the delights of generalizations. ‘What happened after that on Saturday?’
‘Not much.’ Hanbury had left Tanner on the landing, on guard, and had searched their possessions without finding anything of interest – ‘Except, of course, confirmation that the manuscript pointed to Rosington.’ Then Tanner had warned him that the three of them downstairs were moving; he had hardly had enough time to get safely away from the room.
‘Sunday was undoubtedly my worst day. Tanner told me that you and Lee had vanished and that he’d been left here to look for some tramp or other who was acting as an informer and keeping an eye on Bleeders Hall. The man hadn’t reported back on Saturday night – I don’t suppose you had anything to do with that?’
Dougal looked modest and said, ‘Later. Do go on.’ He wasn’t certain whether it would be wise to mention the Cedric episode to Hanbury.
Hanbury, compelled to be inactive by his geriatric appearance and lack of information, had spent most of the day (apart from a necessary interval at divine service in the cathedral) in the hotel lounge. ‘At last, in the evening, Lee turned up and I could tell at once that he was in a foul temper. When he was really angry, he didn’t walk, he prowled. I can’t tell you how relieved I was – I’d been imagining all sorts of unpleasant scenarios. Later on, Tanner told me what little he knew – that you’d pulled a fast one on Lee in a village somewhere south of Rosington and vanished. At this point I had no idea whether or not you’d got the diamonds – I rather thought not, I must confess.
‘I spent Sunday night in the belief I’d lost control over the whole business – frankly, I’d no idea what to do next.’
But on Monday morning, Hanbury’s luck had changed. Mrs Livabed had told everyone in the dining room that Mr Massey had telephoned Mr Lee, and Tanner had reported the substance of the call soon after breakfast.
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