A Prospect of Vengeance dda-18

by Anthony Price

  'Don't you agree?'

  dummy2

  'Back in '78-'79?' She accepted the challenge casually.

  'Whenever it was, anyway . . . Philip Masson was more influential than Audley — at least, potentially, anyway.'

  'Was he?' He let her steel rasp down his blade. Either, they had already rehearsed this for his benefit, thought Ian — or, if they hadn't, then they were manoeuvring to find out how much the other knew. 'I would have thought that was . . .

  arguable, at the least?'

  Jenny shrugged, and refilled her glass: since Tully was their employee now, at his usual rate, she was not minded to play games with him, the gesture implied. 'Philip Masson's dead and Audley's alive.'

  'A very proper conclusion.' Because he had picked up her signal, Tully agreed with her. But because he was Tully he couldn't resist talking down to her. " However, dead, in precise and gruesome detail, is of no interest, now that Mr Buller has pronounced on it.' He hardly glanced at Buller.

  'And by whomsoever dead — by whose actual hand . . . that is merely a police matter. And I think it exceedingly unlikely that they will ever put their cuffs on that particular hand . . .

  And, if they can't then we won't.' He only had eyes for Jenny now, in proclaiming his limitations. 'But it won't have been Audley, anyway.'

  'Why not?' The question came, surprisingly, from Buller —

  perhaps because the emptiness of his glass made him irritable.

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  'Why not?' This time Tully gave Buller his full attention. And although there was no surprise in his repetition of the question, there was a matching hint of irritation. 'I hope you haven't exceeded your brief, Mr Buller.'

  'Ah! My brief . . .' Buller sucked in his cheeks slightly, and gave Tully back scrutiny for scrutiny, like a man who knows his rights as well as his place. 'No, I wouldn't say that, Johnny — no.'

  'No?' Tully smiled suddenly, almost proprietorially. But then, of course, each of them knew his man, Ian reminded himself: the Tully-Buller relationship went back a long way, to the days when neither of them was engaged in his present avocation. 'Then . . . what would you say?'

  For a moment Ian was tempted to suspect that he might be a potential client treated to a piece of rehearsed dialogue, to which Buller's earlier confidences had been a mere prologue.

  But now that he'd as good as taken Jenny's hook (and theirs) such dramatics were hardly necessary; and Buller's thoughtful expression and elongated silence served to remind him of the watchers in the rain outside.

  'What exactly was your brief, Mr Buller — ' Jenny cracked first ' — your brief, Reg — ?'

  Buller kept both bloodshot eyes on Tully for another five seconds'-worth of silence before turning to her, as though the sound of her voice had had to travel across some dummy2

  unimaginable distance before it had reached him. 'Just like always, madam — Miss Fielding: I take off my boot, an' then my sock ... an' I dip my big toe in the water, to test the temperature.' He gave her his ex-policeman's smile of false encouragement. 'An' of course, I do all that behind some convenient bush, so no joker can swipe my boot when I'm not looking. As a precaution, like.'

  'I see.' Even when a client, Jenny was patient in the face of such stone-wailing. 'And how was the hot water, then — in that pond, where Philip Masson didn't drown . . . which you didn't actually see, you said — ?'

  'Warm, Miss Fielding.' Buller accepted the sharp points of her little claws approvingly, as though not being punctured would have disappointed him.

  'Warm.' Jenny had drawn blood from harder stones than Reg Buller. 'Meaning . . . warm-cooling-down? Or warm-hotting-up, Reg?'

  Buller liked that too — her acceptance of his imagery. But that, by some special alchemy, was the effect she always had, even on the most unregenerate chauvinist-pig, one way or another, sooner or later. 'It may not warm up much down there, now. It could be just the place where he finished up . . .' He shrugged. 'He didn't live there. He may not even have died there.'

  'But — ?' She picked up the vibration instantly.

  'Somebody planted him there. So somebody knew it was dummy2

  there — that's a fair bet.' Another shrug. 'All these years . . .

  that may be hard to pin down usefully. But if I was running the Incident Room I'd be waiting for that to register on the computer, anyway.' Nod. 'Because, although that isn't so very far from London there, it's still country — deep country . . .

  Or, it was then. And it's amazing what long memories they have, the country-folk. Like, I told you: there was this tale about the soldier who went missing in the war . . . And not Dr David Audley's war — or even his father's war, which was the same one — the '39-'45 one. But the one before that, with all the trenches and the barbed wire . . . And that is a long memory for you.'

  'But that was a story, not a memory, Reg — ' Jenny started, razor-sharp as ever, but then caught herself. 'But . . . go on

  — ?'

  That's all. For Masson, for my money, there's still something down there. But there's no way we can get at it at this moment — not without crossing the locals, never mind whoever else is nosing around. There just aren't enough bushes you can hide behind, to drop your boot.'

  'Yes. I see.' She had what she wanted there. 'But . . . you put your toe in ... I can't say "Audley's water" without seeming indelicate, Reg . . . but you did take your boot off for him too, didn't you — yes?'

  'Took it off, aye. Didn't dip me toe, though.'

  'Why not?'

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  'Didn't need to.' Buller paused. 'Didn't want to, either.' He cocked his head slightly. 'Remember that book you and Mr Robinson did a few years back, about the Vietnam business, and all that?'

  Jenny frowned. ' The Vietnam Legacy! Yes, Reg — ?' The frown cleared slightly. 'You and John did some of the leg-work for us, of course. You covered that Chicago reunion I couldn't get to — and you traced that amazing Green Beret man who ran that mission up in the mountains, out West.'

  'That's the ticket. The Grand Tetons. Always wanted to see them, ever since I saw 'em in Shane when I was a lad.' The eye cocked at Ian. 'Didn't see 'em though, did I! Low cloud, there was, the whole time I was there — d'you recall me telling you about it?'

  'I do, Reg.' What Ian chiefly remembered was Buller's explanation that 'Grand Tetons' meant 'Big Tits'. 'But what have the. . . Grand Tetons to do with Audley, Reg?'

  'Not the Grand Tetons.' The ghost of a wink accompanied the name. 'After I'd finished with Major Kasik I had a day or two spare, so I drove up from Jackson Hole to Yellowstone, where there's this great big National Park, with all the

  "geysers" spouting and fuming. And it was autumn then, with a nip in the air, like it might start snowing any moment . . . And there are all these little pools of water, clear as crystal and fresh-looking, with lovely colours — pale blues, and greeny-blues ... In the hot summer maybe they'd look cool, but when it's colder you might reckon they'd be just dummy2

  nice an' warm, to take the chill off your fingers — or your toes.' As he spoke, Buller turned back to Jenny. 'But it 'ud do a bit more than that. Because it's bloody boiling, scalding hot, is what it is — one dip, and you're cooked to the bone.

  And no saying "Ouch! I won't do it again!" and "Next time I'll know better", and "Now I want to go home".' He flicked a glance at Tully. 'If it's Dr David Audley you're after, then it's in for a penny, in for a pound — no half-measures, Lady.'

  For a moment no one wanted to break the silence which followed this latest gypsy's warning, the truth of which Ian knew that he alone shared with Reg Buller. And, when he thought about it, the only truly curious aspect of it was that, if it was true, Buller himself had turned up at the rendezvous this morning, in spite of his own well-developed sense of self-preservation. But then, when he took the thought further, there were a lot of contradictory aspects in Buller's character and curriculum vitae.

  Then Jenny filled her glass again. 'Ian — ?' She glanced
quickly at John Tully's glass, knowing that it would still be half-full, before returning to Buller. 'Are you trying to frighten me, Reg?'

  Buller held out his empty glass. 'Would I do that, Miss Fielding?'

  'Champagne, Reg? On top of beer?' But she poured, nevertheless. ' Yes — if you thought it would do any good.'

  'Any port in a storm, madam — even fizzy rubbish.' The bulbous nose wrinkled again. 'And therefore ... no ... because dummy2

  I know you've already made up your mind.' He took another gulp, and spluttered. 'But you have been paying for a

  "reconnaissance", and that's what I have given you.'

  The emphasis on Buller's first person singular — and no one, not even John Tully, and not even Jenny herself, was a more singular first person — gave Ian his opening. 'Are you saying that we're already blown, Reg?'

  'What?' John Tully was bristling, before he spoke. 'You said ... we were "already" in for a pound . . . having spent some of our pennies, Reg.' He drew Buller's attention, overriding Tully. 'Does that mean someone is on to us —

  already?'

  Buller concealed any gratitude he might have behind another gulp, and another hiccup. 'Well . . . maybe you've been up to something I don't know about, Mr Robinson — like having some young lady in your bedroom, and a jealous husband . . .

  like it would have been in the old days.' He grinned, and then nodded at the typescript on the table. 'But with the book you're writing ... I don't see the National Union of Teachers

  — or the Department of Education, and that Mr Baker —

  hiring anyone to watch this place, to see who comes in, an'

  goes out, of a wet Sunday morning, anyway.' He carried on the nod towards the window, out of which only well-bred, or well-heeled, or otherwise upwardly-mobile local Hampstead residents might be observed at such times, down Holly Row.

  'But someone is watching you, and that's a fact.'

  To their credit, nobody moved to verify this information; at dummy2

  least, neither Jenny nor John Tully moved — and then Ian realized that, since he ought to be less professional as well as equally shattered by this news, he ought to move —

  ' Ian — ! ' Jenny admonished him sharply. ' Don't look!'

  Ian halted, fixing her first, almost accusingly; and then John Tully, almost angrily; and finally Reg himself, with a mixture of emotions which he couldn't control, but which only Reg himself could guess at.

  'There's one at the back, too.' Buller agreed with all the confusion cheerfully. 'They've got you nicely bracketed . . .

  unless you've got another exit, up over the roof, an' down through someone else's back garden — have you?'

  'John — ?' Jenny cut through Buller's cackle decisively. 'You said no one was on to us — ?'

  Tully stared at her, and then clear through her, as he computed the possibilities, one after another, trying to pin a probability among them. But then he frowned. 'I don't understand it, Miss Fielding. Because ... I do know a little —

  a very little — about Audley. So I was damned careful with him: only the people I can really trust, I asked — ' His face closed up tight round his mouth ' — only the people who owe me.'

  'Well, it wasn't me.' Buller knew he'd be next. 'Unless anyone who appears anywhere near Masson sparks 'em off — that's maybe it. But I was careful, too. And they didn't follow me here, either — you can depend on that: they were here dummy2

  already: I spotted them, they didn't spot me — you can depend on that, too.'

  But that was a hard one, thought Ian — estimating the known Buller against the unknown Audley. Because his confidence was only one step away from pride. And pride was always inches away from a fall, remembering Beirut —

  'It might have been me.' Jenny's total honesty was one of her greatest strengths. 'I've asked one or two questions, just recently. And I can't vouch for everyone whom I've asked — '

  She embraced Tully with that admission, binding him to her even more securely with it ' — and then they'd come to Ian, of course ... So it might be me, I'm afraid.'

  'Well, it doesn't matter who it was, Miss Fielding.' Delivered from all responsibility for failure, Tully became loyal again, as an employee. 'The question is ... who is on to us?' He looked at Buller. 'Not Fleet Street — ?'

  'Sod Fleet Street.' Buller almost looked sad. 'I remember a chap on the old Star . . . and one or two more, on the heavyweights . . . who'd have had us by now, the way we've blundered around . . . But they're all into management, and new technology, and colour supplements — the good ones.

  Or the little magazines . . . and writing books — ' The blood-orange eyes took in Ian for half a second ' — sod Fleet Street!'

  'So that would make it official — ?' Tully wasn't quite certain.

  'Even after Spycatcher — Peter Wright?' Neither was Jenny certain.

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  Buller's mouth twisted. 'There's still a few reporters I rate.'

  He held out his glass. 'If one of them was loose, then I'd be worrying. But I'd also be happy, too.' He pushed at the neck of the bottle as Jenny poured, until the champagne frothed over the top of the glass and the bottle emptied into it. 'But I ain't seen one of 'em on this lark yet.'

  'So it's official?' Tully persisted, patiently.

  'Oh yes.' Buller sniffed disparagingly. 'What we've got, out there in the wet, is civil servants. The only question is . . . are they ours ... or are they someone else's, who can park their cars, an' claim "diplomatic immunity", and not worry about paying the fine — eh?'

  That was combining the frightening with the more frightening, rather than the absurd with the ridiculous, thought Ian: whatever heated up the water in his Yellowstone pond it was already on the boil.

  'But . . . we're not safe in any case — any more.' Jenny overtook him, as she always did; and, as it always did, the degree of difficulty and danger only encouraged her, setting her on to go further. 'Is that what you mean, Reg?'

  'Yes. That is just about what I mean, I suppose.' Duller gave Ian a belated guilty look. 'Except . . . you could do a book, between you, about something else — like about Colonel Rabuka, and the Fiji Islands, maybe? And Mr Tully and I could go out there . . . and you could call it The Imperial Legacy — ? And we could maybe take in the French nuclear programme as well, that you've always wanted to do, which dummy2

  no one else has done properly — right from the Sahara trials, in the old days, when they had those Germans working for them on the rockets . . . the ones they wouldn't talk about?'

  Buller tossed his head. 'Either road, we'd be a bloody long way from here for a few months, anyway, Miss Fielding. An'

  out of the rain, too.'

  Jenny had long waited to do that. But Ian had always been against it because he was scared of the French; and, after the sinking of the Greenpeace ship, they had both been right and wrong; and Buller knew it too. But he also knew more than that, unfortunately — both about Jenny and about David Audley, so it seemed.

  'Yes. That would certainly be agreeable, Reg — you're right.'

  She smiled at him. But then she smiled at Ian. 'But . . . the French will wait for us, darling, I think. And David Audley obviously won't wait, will he — ?'

  The sort of time-span she was thinking about would produce an indifferent book, he thought — even if it would also divvy up a hefty newspaper fee, for pre-publication of extracts, as well as a whopping advance, and a good transatlantic deal.

  And, as she was always reminding him, they were only in the business of 'non-fictional ephemera', anyway.

  'So do you want to go ahead — in spite of Reg?' Tully wasn't chicken: either for honest financial reasons (to keep his children in their private school, and his wife at that standard of living to which she was accustomed), or for the noble freedom-of-information, freedom-of-publication, freedom-to-dummy2

  fcrtow reasons, John Tully was a fearless investigator. 'Right, Miss Fielding — Mr Robinson?'

  'No.' Ia
n saw the ground opening up before him. What he couldn't bring himself to admit straight off (or not quite yet) was that whatever John Tully might be, Ian Robinson was no longer at heart a journalist, nor at any time a fearless one.

  And, of course, they all knew that (they hadn't even bothered to ask him whether it might be anything that he'd done which had alerted someone: they knew him better than that, by heaven!).

  'Yes, darling — ?' Jenny checked herself suddenly, substituting patience for enthusiasm. For a guess, she was reminding herself that she needed him just as much as he needed her — and never more so than now, when they had to work fast if they were to stay ahead of the pack. And there was the rub.

  But he still couldn't admit to his fear of what the rub meant, not openly. 'We don't know who they are.'

  'No, Ian. We don't.' Her patience stretched. 'But that doesn't matter. Mr Tully ... or Mr Buller . . . will take care of that.'

  She smiled at him reassuringly, as to a Bear of Very Little Brain whose special skill was limited to assessing the different varieties of honey she delivered to him. 'The point is, darling, that they're there. And that means ... we really are on to something. So we've all got to get our skates on now.'

  He had delayed too long. 'I'm not sure I want to get my dummy2

  skates on, Jen. It's been a long time since ... I did this sort of thing. I'm a bit rusty.'

  She couldn't conceal the flicker of contempt which he had hoped he wasn't going to see. 'Ian — ' Then the flicker clouded, as she remembered Beirut, and couldn't reconcile past experience with present observation ' — you're not scared, are you — ?'

  Tully coughed. 'Mr Robinson hasn't been . . . out much, these last two or three years, Miss Fielding. You have rather kept him chained to his word-processor.' He drank the last of his sherry fastidiously. 'And to good effect, if I may say so.

  But . . . one does get rusty, you know.'

  That was surprising loyalty (or male solidarity, equally surprising), coming from John Tully, thought Ian. Or, it might just be that he, unlike everyone else, had not misunderstood the Beirut episode.