She, well groomed and pretty in a nylon dressing gown, sat in her kitchen watching Craig eat grilled bacon and scrambled eggs, which she had herself superbly prepared.
Tessa was thinking, to her immense astonishment, that she loved this man. Last night she had watched him fight with one of Nature's prime bastards, and hurt him where he, of all people, deserved to be hurt. Tessa knew he had done it for himself, not knowing or caring that she was there, but even so she loved him. He was dangerous and self-sufficient and almost certainly a criminal. None of it mattered. Soon, perhaps very soon, he would leave her because she was not clever enough or beautiful enough to hold him, and because he lived so secretly, as hunted men must. That mattered terribly, but it couldn't stop her from loving him. Nothing could do that. She had seen him fight, watched the terrible energy he had released, a cunning craft of destruction. Wherever he went, Craig carried danger with him like a bomb, but as long as he would let her, she would go too.
Craig finished his breakfast, and offered her a cigarette. 'That was fine, Tessa,' he said. 'The best meal I've had in weeks.'
She smiled her gratitude, but his eyes were cold still, and wary. Already she knew that he was considering how best to leave her, to get away.
'I want to help you. I want you to stay here,' she said.
Even last night, she was thinking, when he was drunk, in that cautious, controlled sort of way, even then, when I thought he was an accountant or something, I couldn't leave him alone, I had to go after him, even with poor Mike Diamond sitting there, and Mike's spent an awful lot on me, and I quite like him really. But I just ignored him. This man filled my world.
'They'll trace me,' Craig said. 'They'll try to kill me.'
Not for a moment did she doubt what he said.
'Who will?'
'Some people who didn't like the business I was in.'
'You mean a gang, don't you?' she asked.
'No,' he said. 'Not a gang. Just killers. The best killers alive. They should be. They've had the most practice.'
'But they can't possibly know you're here,' she said.
'The police may find out,' he said. 'All they have to do is follow the police.'
'Nobody saw you come in,' she said. 'People come and go here all the time. You'll be safe here, darling. I've got money-'
'So have I,' he said. 'I'm a rich man, Tessa. I've got ten thousand quid with me now.'
'You could go away then,' she said. 'Anywhere in the world.'
He shrugged.
'I'm supposed to be dead already,' he said. 'But I don't know if they believe it or not. If I run now, and the police get on to me, they'll find me too.' The inquest, he thought. If they identify Charlie, if poor Alice recovers and tells the police that he was driving the car and I was in the orchard, they'll come for me again. But they may know already that they failed this time. They may be looking for me now. I daren't run away.
She saw how overwhelmingly tired Craig was, as he went on:
'You'd better not get mixed up in it. They'd kill you too, you know, to get at me. I mean it. The last time they tried for me, somebody else died.'
He put his hand out to her, his ringers strong on her smooth, warm skin. There was desire in his hands, but there was friendship too, and kindness, and farewell, not just to this one girl, but to all the warmth and tenderness of a life he couldn't have.
'I wish I could stay,' he said.
She kissed him then, clinging to him, willing him to love her, until at last he responded to her with an urgency that matched her own. When the doorbell rang, they still held tight to each other, trying to deny its sound, but it went on and on until she felt the hand at her shoulders move, tilting back her chin, so that she was looking into his eyes, wary again, and brutal.
'No,' she whispered. 'No. Believe me. I wouldn't-'
At last: 'I believe you,' he said. 'Find out who it is.' As she called out, he moved quickly, silently, stacking plates in the sink, hiding his suitcases among hers. When she came back, he was holding the Luger automatic.
'It's the police,' she said. 'I'll have to let them in.'
He nodded. 'All right. Try and keep them in the sitting room. And for God's sake look indignant. You've paid your taxes.'
He went back to the kitchen, as the bell rang again, and she opened the door. Grierson's lazy charm buckled under the weight of her anger.
'What the hell do you want?' she asked. 'I've just got out of bed.'
'Mrs. Harling?' Linton asked.
'Yes,' said Tessa. 'Who are you?'
Linton introduced himself and Grierson.
'May we come in?' he asked.
'Must you?'
'It's important. Very important-for you,' said Linton. 'All right,' she said. 'In here.'
They went into the sitting room, and Tessa willed herself not to look at the kitchen door.
Linton said at once, 'You saw a fight last night.' 'Did I?'
'Oh, come off it,' Grierson said, and offered her a cigarette. She shook her head.
'Everyone in the Lucky Seven saw you,' Grierson continued. 'You went out with a man called Lishman and two of his boys who thought they were tough. Another man went with you too. A Mr.-' he snapped his fingers. 'Do you remember bis name?'
'Yes,' she said. 'And so do you. It was Reynolds.'
'You saw what he did to the other three?'
'All right. All right. I saw what he did.'
'Where did you go after that?'
'I came back here.'
'With Mr. Reynolds?'
'You're joking,' she said. 'After what he did to Eddy Lishman? Suppose he did it to me?'
'Why should he?' Grierson asked. 'You don't look like Eddy.'
'No. And I don't fight like him either.'
'People say he went with you,' Linton said. She was sure she heard a tiny sound at the door of her flat, but the two men, alert as they were, didn't move.
'People say anything,' said Tessa. 'We went up to Tottenham Court Road together, then he left me.'
'He didn't like you?'
'He can't have, can he?'
'Then why did he fight Lishman?'
'Men like that don't have to have a reason.'
'Men like what?'
'Madmen,' said Tessa.
'You think he was mad?'
'He must have been. You know why he did-that?' Grierson shook his head.
'Because Lishman wanted him to go to a party, and he wanted to go home. Half-killed the three of them. He must be mad.'
'Home?' Linton asked.
Tessa willed herself to be more careful.
'That's what he said.'
'You mean he lives in London?'
'He didn't say so,' Tessa said.
'But he must, mustn't he? Or at any rate it looks as if he's staying here.' Tessa said nothing. 'Did he say what he was?' 'An accountant,' she said.
'An accountant?' Grierson yelled. 'He just about crippled Lishman and those two bodyguards of his.'
