He stared at Maggie, wondering what she might say next, feeling her hostile bitterness almost tangibly in the room; but she suddenly smiled at him with the extreme sweetness she always seemed able to summon out of somewhere and said, ‘Sorry, James. I didn’t mean to be cross. Ah Janine, come in, dear. Would you like a glass of wine?’
For ten, fifteen minutes they talked, argued, read and reread the letter, propounded theories as to how it had got there (paper boys, post office messengers, passing strangers), debated calling the police, the hospital, the Bergins, examined the silent afternoon behind them now for sounds of footsteps, car engines, even bicycles. ‘Well, I do think we have to tell the police,’ said James finally. ‘We can’t not, really. They’re looking for Cressida, and this is a clue. Of a sort. I’ll go and ring them now, tell them – Good Lord, Merlin, where have you sprung from?’
Merlin walked into the kitchen with his quick, light tread, smiling sweetly at them all. He had discarded his morning coat and was wearing a khaki safari shirt and a long white cricket cardigan over his shorts.
‘Been for a walk. Felt a bit restless. Got a drink for me, Harriet? Something long, if you don’t mind. A beer perhaps. That lovely creature Tilly gave me some beer in the car, and I’ve been dreaming of another ever since. Find the note, did you? I dropped it off on my way. I thought you’d see it if I left it on the table.’
‘Merlin, did you put that note there?’ said Harriet. She looked almost angry, James thought, ready to explode.
‘Yes, well I couldn’t find any of you. Knew you’d be back.’
‘Merlin, it’s from Cressida.’
‘Yes, I realized that,’ said Merlin impatiently. ‘Know her writing perfectly well. Better than yours, Harriet, look like unravelled knitting your letters do –’
‘And you just left it on the table. Merlin, how could you?’
‘Harriet, calm down,’ said James. ‘Merlin, where did you get it from? Who gave it to you?’
‘Nobody gave it to me,’ said Merlin. ‘I found it.’
‘Yes, but where? Where was it?’
‘In the lavatory,’ said Merlin. He spoke as if it was the most natural place in the world to find a letter. ‘Fallen on the floor, behind the cistern. Only noticed it because I dropped my compass. Can’t think why I brought it today, but still. Force of habit I suppose. Anyway, just as well, wasn’t it? Otherwise –’
‘Yes, yes, Merlin, which lavatory?’
‘The one down here,’ said Merlin. ‘Does it matter? Suppose the silly girl left it there on her way out. Forgot it. This is jolly good beer, Jamie. Pay a lot for it, did you?’
‘Quite a bit, yes,’ said James.
‘Let me come with you next time. See if I can beat them down a bit. Now then –’
‘Merlin,’ said Maggie, her voice slightly shaky, ‘I really think we have more important things to discuss than the price of beer.’
‘Sorry,’ said Merlin cheerfully. ‘Any other news is there?’
‘No, I’m afraid not,’ said James. ‘We were debating whether we should give that note to the police. We thought it had just arrived you see. But –’
‘It must have been there all day,’ said Harriet. ‘She must have left it there when she went. Early. It does seem odd though –’
‘Yes, but I told you, she was unwell,’ said Janine. ‘I heard her vomiting. The pauvre petite.’
‘Well, there you are,’ said Merlin. ‘Takes it out of you, that sort of thing. Tends to happen in a rush, doesn’t it? Suppose she parked the letter on the cistern while she –’
‘Yes, I suppose so,’ said Harriet hastily. They were all patently trying not to think too hard about the sequence of events that led to Cressida leaving her letter behind. Poor child, thought James, vomiting repeatedly, exhausted, frightened; no doubt she heard someone moving upstairs, thought she wouldn’t get away and just fled. He sighed. ‘Poor child,’ he said aloud. ‘Poor little thing.’
‘I still do think,’ said Susie, ‘that all this points to her being under some kind of intolerable strain. That there was something she was running away from. Some kind of trouble. Incidentally, has anyone phoned her flat lately?’
‘We do it every hour, on the hour,’ said Maggie. ‘There’s just no answer. I think maybe someone ought to go up there, perhaps Rufus or maybe Mungo – it seems crazy not just to check she’s not there. None of us have been there for ages, anyway, you never know what clues we might find there. I know we haven’t got a key, but – oh, if only she’d had a flatmate, it would have been such a help. I always said she should and now –’
‘Yes, well, she could hardly have been expected to get a flatmate simply to be helpful to us in the event of her possible disappearance off the earth,’ said James. He could hear the exasperation in his own voice, but he couldn’t help it.
‘Jamie, don’t be difficult,’ said Susie. ‘Maggie’s right, we should check the flat out. I’ll ask Rufus if you like.’
‘Thank you. Anyway, I don’t know about strain, Susie, she seemed so happy, so calm last night. There was no sign –’
‘She was a bloody good actress,’ said Merlin. ‘Never saw anyone turn on the tap like Cressida could.’
‘Merlin!’ said Maggie. ‘Please!’
‘Well, why not? Jolly useful attribute. I’ll have another of these beers, if you don’t mind, Harriet. Got her out of trouble plenty of times, I expect. And it got her things. Remember that business with the shrunken head, Harriet?’
‘Merlin, not now,’ said James heavily.
‘Yes,’ said Harriet quietly. Everyone looked at her. ‘Yes, of course I do.’
‘What was that?’ asked Susie. She sounded genuinely interested.
‘Merlin –’
‘Oh, what’s it matter now, James? I brought back a shrunken head for Harriet once. Knew she’d like it. Swapped it for a little transistor radio in some village in the bush. She was thrilled. Said she was going to start a collection. Only I hadn’t got anything for Cressida. Well, I never saw the sort of things she liked, national dolls and all that nonsense. She didn’t seem to mind too much, until her mother came in. Then she was off, weeping and wailing. Put Garbo to shame. Said I was always forgetting her, that I never brought her anything, and she wanted the head. Don’t you remember, Maggie?’
‘No, not really,’ said Maggie. She sounded very tense. ‘Merlin, do we have to –’
‘Surprised. You made a bit of a scene. Told me to give her the head. Said I always brought Harriet things, and that hurt Cressida. Anyway, a week later she gave it to the dog. We saw her, didn’t we, Harriet? And when she realized we’d seen her she was off again, never seen anything like it, great tears, it was giving her nightmares, she hadn’t known what to do. You had to admire her. I wouldn’t have minded, only it was a damn fine head.’
‘I don’t think this is getting us anywhere at all,’ said Maggie coldly.
‘No, of course it isn’t. I was just saying she was a fine actress, that’s all.’
‘I think,’ said Maggie glaring at him, ‘I think Susie’s right. It’s the only explanation really. That she was feeling so under pressure that the only way out was – escape. Poor darling,’ she added. Her voice was low and slightly shaky; she looked very pale.
‘Well – none of this has got us any further. Do we tell the police about the note or not?’ said James. His head was aching horribly; he felt sick.
‘I think we should,’ said Maggie. ‘I really do. And – well, maybe try the hospitals again. Especially if she was ill. She might be in terrible trouble by now.’
‘I think we should talk to Oliver first,’ said Harriet. ‘I really don’t believe he didn’t even suspect there was something wrong. Can’t we get him over? Or go there?’
‘He was off for a walk with Tilly earlier,’ said James. He tried to sound relaxed, natural, but he hated even saying the name; it made him feel uneasy.
‘Well, I expect they’re back now. Let’s phone the hotel.�
��
‘Tell you what,’ said Merlin suddenly. ‘I don’t trust that mother of his. I think she might know something about it all.’
They all stared at him.
‘Julia! Merlin, why?’ Harriet sounded astounded, almost shocked.
‘Don’t like her. Damn silly fool of a woman. Always talking rubbish in that absurd language of hers.’
‘Merlin, American is the same language as ours,’ said Susie laughing.
‘Rubbish. Ever listened to them properly? Babbling on about prioritization and fitness programmes and being in touch with themselves and all that poppycock. Do you know, she once asked me if I felt diminished as a person by never marrying. Diminished! Bloody nerve! I told her I’d be a lot more diminished if I had married, and lost my freedom and spent all my money on some bloody silly girl.’
‘Merlin,’ said Harriet, looking more cheerful suddenly, ‘I love you. And I’d love to diminish you. But I can’t see any of that is grounds for her knowing where Cressida is.’
‘I didn’t say that. You don’t listen, Harriet. Never did. I said she might know something about it all. Someone should question her.’
James looked at Janine, remembering what she had said earlier, about not liking, not trusting Julia. It was interesting that, but they could scarcely start cross-questioning her on that basis.
‘I agree with Harriet, that we should tell Oliver about the letter,’ he said, ‘and perhaps we should ask all the Bergins over here. It seems almost discourteous not to. Maggie, can you cope with that?’
‘I suppose so,’ said Maggie. Her voice was heavy, dull, but she smiled at him again, her good-wife smile. ‘Yes, of course I can.’
He decided to change again; his clothes felt frowsty, over-worn. While he was upstairs the phone rang: ‘James? Tony Bacon. Sorry, heavy day.’
Yes, thought James, very heavy, on the golf course. ‘That’s OK.’
‘What can I do for you? His voice was carefully cheerful, expressionless; he knew then.
‘Tell me something, Tony, if you will.’
‘Will if I can.’
‘Look, I’m sure you’ve heard. Cressida’s disappeared. Early this morning.’
‘Yes, James, I had. I’m sorry. No news of her then?’
‘No, not yet. The police are being very helpful. But –’
‘Hell of a worry for you.’
‘Yes, it is rather. Look, I know this is classified information, but the circumstances are exceptional and it would help a lot if we knew. Has there been any undue activity in her bank account recently?’
‘Wish there had, old boy. Yes, of course I’ll tell you. It’s been a bit – moribund lately. Ever since she cleared her overdraft.’
‘Her overdraft?’ said James. ‘I didn’t know she had one.’
‘Well I rather assumed you didn’t. It was quite big, you know, last year, bigger than I should have let her have actually, but you know how it is, you weren’t going to run away, and she’s always been a bit of a favourite of mine, ever since she used to come in with her pocket money every week and pay in five bob.’
‘Er – how big is big?’ asked James. ‘A few hundred?’
‘Well – rather more than that. In the end I had to take a charge on her flat. I’d actually asked her to come and have a chat. It wasn’t just the overdraft, her credit card borrowing was very high, and she sold her shares as well –’
‘When was this?’ asked James. ‘Exactly? Christ, I wish I’d known.’
‘Oh – last summer. Right up to Christmas actually. Then she cleared it completely, and closed the account altogether for a while. That was when she had her windfall, came into that money –’
‘What money?’ said James sharply. ‘I don’t know anything about money –’
‘You didn’t? How extraordinary. Her great-aunt, leaving her all that money …’
‘She – hasn’t got a great-aunt,’ said James. ‘Look, Tony, I’m sorry, but I really didn’t –’
‘Ah,’ said Tony Bacon. He was clearly embarrassed. ‘Ah, I see. Well, someone must have died, or she must have broken the bank at Monte Carlo or something. A hundred thousand pounds was wired to us, on a CHAPS payment, from some solicitor. Only at the time she didn’t have an account here, so we returned it to the solicitor.’
‘Look,’ said James, ‘can we just go over that again, Tony? Someone paid Cressida a hundred thousand pounds into your bank and you returned it?’
‘Yes, that’s right. Because she’d just closed her bank account with us. A few weeks later she opened it again, with a small deposit, and she’s hardly used it since.’
‘And you have no idea where this money came from?’
‘Well, I told you, she said it was a legacy. She specifically – although quite casually – asked me not to mention it since it was a bit of a sore point in the family. Her getting it, I mean.’
‘It might have been,’ said James, ‘if we’d known about it. How extraordinary. How absolutely extraordinary. When was this, Tony? Around Christmas, you said?’
‘No, a bit later than that. February, early February.’
‘I see. And – and since then, nothing untoward at all?’
‘No, not at all. I was slightly anxious when she came back to us, to be honest, because I thought the borrowing might start again. But it hasn’t. Look, I do hope you get some news soon, and I hope I haven’t made things worse.’
‘Yes,’ said James absently. ‘Yes, thank you. I mean, no, no, of course you haven’t.’
He put the phone down and sat down heavily on the bed, staring at the telephone. How in God’s name, he wondered, had Cressida got hold of £100,000 and what if anything did it have to do with her disappearance? He felt suddenly and sharply as if the Cressida he had known and loved and lived with for twenty-seven years had entirely ceased to exist, had been replaced by a total stranger.
The Bergins’ car pulled into the drive thirty minutes later. Oliver was driving it, with Tilly beside him. ‘I thought I’d come and see Harry,’ she said by way of explanation as she walked in. ‘I hope that’s OK.’ James looked at her and felt absurdly nervous. Pull yourself together, Forrest. What can she do to you now?
‘Hi, Tilly,’ said Harriet, giving her a hug. ‘I’m not sure if you’ve met my father …’
‘Yeah, we’ve met,’ said Tilly, smiling rather coolly at James. ‘A couple of times actually.’
‘Dad’s still walking with Theo,’ said Oliver into the slightly tense silence, ‘and mother is resting. They may be over later. But thanks for inviting them.’
He looked terrible, pale and wild-eyed; he refused the drink Harriet offered, asked for tea. She filled one of the maxi-sized teacups that she kept for herself and gave it to him. ‘I thought it was only the British who wanted tea in a crisis,’ she said.
‘I’m a Brit by marriage,’ said Oliver. ‘Or at least I thought I was.’
‘You will be,’ said Harriet cheerfully.
James led them all into the drawing room; he felt he had spent too many traumatic hours in the kitchen that day. He told Oliver about Cressida’s letter, about where Merlin had found it. Oliver’s reaction was dull, almost uninterested. He was clearly exhausted, unable to cope with anything more. ‘It doesn’t get us anywhere, does it?’ was all he could say.
‘Well – at least it means she wasn’t abducted or has met with some horrible accident,’ said Harriet. ‘We found it kind of faintly comforting. The thing is, Oliver, do you think we should tell the police?’
‘Oh – I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Whatever you think.’ He put his head in his hands, pushing them through his hair; Harriet went over to him, put her arms round his shoulders.
‘Oliver darling, you mustn’t despair. I know she’ll turn up. She’ll be all right. She’ll just walk in here and laugh and say “you’re never going to believe this” and it will all make sense.’
Oliver shook his head; he looked up at her and there was a darkness, a bleakness in his
eyes that reached out to them all.
‘I don’t think so,’ he said.
Harriet looked rather uncertainly at Tilly; she was sitting in the depths of the huge sofa, her endless legs wrapped round one another, her huge almond eyes calmly, almost lazily absorbing the scene. She was an amazing creature, James thought; quite unlike anyone he had ever known. Well, that was absurd: how many – what were they called? – Super-models? – had he known anyway? But she had a tranquillity about her, an easiness that was highly engaging. He tried to remember her mother; she had certainly not been tranquil. But then the circumstances under which they had met had hardly been tranquil, nor the ensuing ones either. Well, she had certainly made a good job of Tilly. In the most difficult of conditions. On her own, no money. James crushed determinedly the thought of what some financial damages for the loss of Rosemary Mills’s other baby might have done to make things easier for her, and smiled at Tilly rather awkwardly. She looked levelly back at him, her arched eyebrows just slightly higher. What the hell did she have in mind for him, and how was he going to handle her? Christ Almighty, what a day.
As if in response to his thoughts, Tilly suddenly stood up and walked over to him. ‘I’m very interested in gardens, in growing things, Mr Forrest,’ she said. ‘Would you like to show me yours?’
They all looked up, startled: Maggie especially. Susie’s eyes were wary, watchful. She half stood up herself. Jamie shook his head at her imperceptibly, smiled his careful consultant’s smile at Tilly, trying to equate this glorious creature with the tiny scrawny baby he had laid so exhaustedly and thankfully on her mother’s breast. And who now, it seemed, might quite possibly become his daughter-in-law – albeit unofficially. How the hell was he going to deal with it all?
Another Woman (9781468300178) Page 27
