‘I didn’t come here to hear this,’ Gentle said.
‘No, I realize that. It’s just necessary for me to express how very precious she was to me. I count the years I had with her as the best of my life. But of course the best can’t go on forever, can they, or how are they the best?’ He drank again. ‘You know, she never talked about you,’ he said. ‘I tried to provoke her into doing so, but she said she’d put you out of her mind completely - she’d forgotten you, she said - which is nonsense of course - ‘
‘I believe it.’
‘Don’t,’ Estabrook said quickly. ‘You were her guilty secret.’
‘Why are you trying to flatter me?’
‘It’s the truth. She still loved you, all through the time she was with me. That’s why we’re talking now. Because I know it, and I think you do too.’
Not once so far had they mentioned her by name, almost as though from some superstition. She was she, her, the woman; an absolute and invisible power. Her men seemed to have their feet on solid ground, but in truth they drifted like the kites, tethered to reality only by the memory of her.
‘I’ve done a terrible thing, John,’ Estabrook said. The flask was at his lips again. He took several gulps before sealing it and pocketing it. ‘And I regret it bitterly.’
‘What?’
‘May we walk a little way?’ Estabrook said, glancing towards the kite-fliers, who were both too distant and too involved in their sport to be eavesdropping. But he was not comfortable with sharing his secret until he’d put twice the distance between his confession and their ears. When he had, he made it simply and plainly. ‘I don’t know what kind of madness overtook me,’ he said, ‘but a little time ago I made a contract with somebody to have her killed.’
‘You did what?’
‘Does it appal you?’
‘What do you think? Of course it appals me.’
‘It’s the highest form of devotion, you know, to want to end somebody’s existence rather than let them live on without you. It’s love of the highest order.’
‘It’s a fucking obscenity.’
‘Oh yes, it’s that too. But I couldn’t bear … just couldn’t bear … the idea of her being alive and me not being with her…’ His delivery was now deteriorating; the words becoming tears. ‘… She was so dear to me …’
Gentle’s thoughts were of his last exchange with Judith. The half-drowned telephone call from New York, which had ended with nothing said. Had she known then that her life was in jeopardy? If not, did she now? My God, was she even alive? He took hold of Estabrook’s lapel with the same force that the fear took hold of him.
‘You haven’t brought me here to tell me she’s dead.’
‘No. No,’ he protested, making no attempt to disengage Gentle’s hold. ‘I hired this man, and I want to call him off-’
‘So do it,’ Gentle said, letting the coat go.
‘I can’t.’
Estabrook reached into his pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper. To judge by its crumpled state it had been thrown away then reclaimed.
‘This came from the man who found me the assassin,’ he went on. ‘It was delivered to my home two nights ago. He was obviously drunk or drugged when he wrote it, but it indicates that he expects to be dead by the time I read it. I’m assuming he’s correct. He hasn’t made contact. He was my only route to the assassin.’
‘Where did you meet with this man?’
‘He found me.’
‘And the assassin?’
‘I met him somewhere south of the river, I don’t know where. It was dark. I was lost. Besides, he won’t be there. He’s gone after her.’
‘So warn her.’
‘I’ve tried. She won’t accept my calls. She’s got another lover now. He’s being covetous the way I was. My letters, my telegrams, they’re all sent back unopened. But he won’t be able to save her. This man I hired, his name’s Pie-’
‘What’s that, some kind of code?’
‘I don’t know,’ Estabrook said. ‘I don’t know anything except I’ve done something unforgivable and you have to help me undo it. You have to. This man Pie is lethal.’
‘What makes you think she’ll see me when she won’t see you?’
‘There’s no guarantee. But you’re a younger, fitter man, and you’ve had some … experience of the criminal mind. You’ve a better chance of coming between her and Pie than I have. I’ll give you money for the assassin. You can pay him off. And I’ll pay whatever you ask. I’m rich. Just warn her, Zacharias, and get her to come home. I can’t have her death on my conscience.’
‘It’s a little late to think about that.’
‘I’m making what amends I can. Do we have a deal?’
He took off his leather glove in preparation for shaking Gentle’s hand.
‘I’d like the letter from your contact,’ Gentle said.
‘It barely makes any sense,’ Estabrook said.
‘If he is dead, and she dies too, that letter’s evidence whether it makes sense or not. Hand it over, or no deal.’
Estabrook reached into his inside pocket, as if to pull out the letter, but with his fingers upon it he hesitated. Despite all his talk about having a clear conscience, about Gentle being the man to save her, he was deeply reluctant to hand the letter over.
‘I thought so,’ Gentle said. ‘You want to make sure I look like the guilty party if anything goes wrong. Well, go fuck yourself.’
He turned from Estabrook and started down the hill. Estabrook came after him, calling his name, but Gentle didn’t slow his pace. He let the man run.
‘All right!’ he heard behind him. ‘All right, have it! Have it!’
Gentle slowed but didn’t stop. Grey with exertion, Estabrook caught up with him.
‘The letter’s yours,’ he said.
Gentle took it, pocketing it without unfolding it. There’d be plenty of time to study it on the flight.
1
Chant’s body was discovered the following day by 93-year-old Albert Burke, who found it while looking for his errant mongrel, Kipper. The animal had sniffed from the street what its owner had only begun to nose as he climbed the stairs, whistling for his hound between curses: the rotting tissue at the top. In the autumn of 1916 Albert had fought for his country at the Somme, sharing trenches with dead companions for days at a time. The sights and smells of death didn’t much distress him. Indeed his sanguine response to his discovery lent colour to the story when it reached the evening news, and assured it of greater coverage than it might otherwise have merited, that focus in turn bringing a penetrating eye to bear on the identity of the dead man. Within a day a portrait of the deceased as he might have looked in life had been produced, and by Wednesday a woman living on a council estate south of the river had identified him as her next-door neighbour, Mr Chant.
An examination of his flat turned up a second picture, not of Chant’s flesh this time, but of his life. It was the conclusion of the police that the dead man