Bond wondered to them if that Argo stuff would be valuable to anyone. ‘Might someone want to sabotage your thriving little business? Did you have stuff you mailed to yourself from Prague, for instance, about Jack Sussoms’ claims?’
‘Absolutely no to all of that,’ Alex told him. ‘Come on, Sam. Do you really think they’d send someone all the way from Prague to find out?’
‘Such a job is nothing if the stakes are high enough,’ the policeman said carefully. ‘And our thieves just might figure now that you’ve brought what they’re after back with you. Stuff you could publish, Blarns.
‘You be watchful, my man,’ Bond advised. ‘You’ve got my mobile phone number. The slightest thing that’s suspect, or you remember, call me straight away. Any time. Right?’
‘Okay,’ said Blarney. ‘I’d better recharge our damned mobile phone.’
Alex silently drank her coffee as the men ate cake from the party. Bond told them he had heard of two Stanley residents with reasons to damage their business. One was Lotsa Pride, Janet’s husband. ‘He says Argo is fucking up his marriage. Pardon, Alex, but that’s what he says at the pub.’
‘You’ve been talking to Hava-chat, eh?’ Pike grinned. Eddie, aka Hava-chat, Corcoran was the wizened barman at the Stanley Hotel, that Pike’s father once ran. Hava had been the town gossip for thirty years; a continual, uncensored news service.
Bond said, ‘The other one is the young wife of another keen member of your team. Her husband egged her into joining Argo with him against her wishes. She’s shy.
‘He pestered her until she rang some of her friends to invite them to an Argo meeting at their home. She messed it up time and again. She mentioned Argo to one of them. When she heard that name, the friend turned her down. You train them to avoid mentioning the name Argo, I gather?’
The couple looked uncomfortable. ‘Sort of,’ Pike admitted, glancing at Alex. ‘I think I know who you’re talking about. I’ll deal with it.’
‘Good,’ said the policeman. ‘The husband is Harry, er, Clucker, Duckworth. You’ll know there’s a ruder version of that. Now Harry is trying to force her to show the, ah, the pitch, is it?’
‘That’s terrible!’ Alex said, looking questioningly at her husband. ‘Sam, you and Sadie must be the only ones in town who haven’t been invited to hear a pitch.’
‘I’d like to hear one. Purely as part of my investigations, mind.’
‘Well, how about seeing the pitch in Irishtown, Monday night?’ Alex said brightly. ‘Blarn is showing it at Sean and Mary O’Hallorans’ farm.’
Bond agreed to attend. He departed with muted cheerfulness In the light of Janet Pride’s disturbing gossip, Pike wryly wondered to himself if he should recommend that the policeman wear combat gear. He anxiously wanted to free Alex from any possible danger. He wondered how he could induce her to leave Stanley for a while.
He took her in his arms. Smouldering Alex asked him, ‘What can we say to the O’Hallorans about Plodder attending? That he’s a candidate for joining Argo?’
‘That’s for tomorrow,’ he said. ‘The Pike Argo network is now in recess, my sexy darling.’
They made love, hungrily, on a rug in the lounge room. Afterwards they clung together as one. The cats and the spaniel fussed over them as he told her how he had missed her last night.
He told her more about the dinner at Wrest Point, Richard’s demands for tedious reports. They retired hand in hand to the bed and made love again, slowly. The angst and tiredness vanished from Pike’s body. He idolised his wife in a lyrically grateful way he had never dreamed was possible. She wanted to have a child with him.
He marvelled that lovely, brilliant Alex had chosen him, so ravaged and virtually unemployed then. Incredibly, somehow she loved him now more completely than ever.
Alex said the Stanley robbery had made her more angry than fearful as she nuzzled into his neck. ‘Are you going to tell me what Sam said up at the back fence?’
Pike swallowed. ‘He showed me the footprints, of course.’
‘You’re a frightful liar, Blarn. Don’t tell me you spent all that time looking at footprints. Or organising a fishing trip.’
He partly relented and told her Plodder now knew about the Palmovka robbery.
His right arm cradled her head. He recalled balefully the pair of them joining Sussoms for a chat at the hotel bar a couple of days before his death. Jack, ever expansive, had branded her the belle of the whole goddam team.
‘Blarney, I’m frightened,’ she declared. ‘And bloody, bloody furious. I want you to get out your gun. Load it and keep it handy. I can shoot, too, you know.’
‘There’s no need—’
‘Now!’ she demanded.
He tumbled from the bed, heading for the locked cabinet where he stored his .22 Remington magnum hunting rifle, with a ’scope. And the Purdy shotgun, a prized inheritance from his father.
Pike stopped and turned to his wife. ‘The rifle or the shot gun? We’re out of armalites, Kalashnikovs and bazookas at the moment, madam.’
‘Don’t be a smart arse. The shotgun.’
His wife was right, the gun was the better weapon for close-quarters combat. Like a naked butler, he loaded the gun, broke the breach and placed it on the floor on his side of the bed beside a box of 12-bore cartridges.
He saw tears in Alex’s eyes. He embraced her. ‘They can’t hurt us, my darling. I love you so much.’
‘I love you so much—you big, scarred hero—so much that it hurts,’ Alex replied; calmer now. ‘That gun stays there at the ready. Get the rifle.’
He loaded the semi-automatic, which he propped on Alex’s side of the bed. His habit of composing headlines struck again: Hotshot Housewife Massacres Mafiosi.
If ever they were threatened here, he swore to himself, he would attack, maybe kill, the attackers with practised efficiency. With or without a gun. He knew a lot more now about close combat than when he was a kid in the boxing ring. More than Alex would ever know, he hoped.
Blarney returned to the bed, to be joined soon after by the cats. He had, he thought, a flash of timely inspiration. He pressed her head to his neck, no longer having to contend with her inquisitorial eyes. Alex purred, and he pounced.
‘Now hear me out, darling. There are a lot of good reasons for you to go away from Stanley for a while. If the thugs fear exposure, they’d have to get both of us. And two targets, in different places, are harder than one. I’d have more peace of mind, too. School can wait… I know you’ll want to ignore this bit, but you, my love, would be safe.’
He removed a strand of her hair which had caught on his tongue. ‘Take Magda and Josef to the East Coast. I know you’re dying to see Wineglass Bay.’ He paused for breath. ‘Please say yes, love.’
‘Finished?’ said a gentle voice from under his chin. He nodded. ‘Absobloodylutely, no,’ she said. ‘Forget it. No way.’
‘Well, think about it.’
Alex kissed his neck. ‘I have. I don’t want to discuss that any more.’
Pike lay in dashed silence.
By unspoken agreement, they talked no more about the robbery. Alex had smelled cigarettes and the gentle stench of rum from his pores. She assumed he had had a few drinks at Ross. She knew fearfully that her husband’s demon, Ned, was always lurking. Sometimes Blarn would groan in his sleep and rant like a drunk, then quieten in her arms. She was proud that he