Woman in the Fifth

‘And for you, it was … ?’

‘The one thing I had in my life that I looked forward to.’

‘Don’t you think I also looked forward to it? We didn’t just fuck in this room, Harry — and you know it. We talked. We told each other our stories. We found some comfort in that. I certainly grew to like it … and to need it. I mightn’t have always shown it. I might have discouraged you from getting closer … but you still did. You needed me — this — as much as I did you.’

‘Well, if you think I’m going to keep coming back here, slipping into this little twilight zone you’ve set up here—’

‘You can’t leave now,’ she said, her voice quiet, flat.

‘Yes, I can … and I will. Because this is now dead. As dead as you.’

‘No, it’s not. Now that you know about me … now that you come into this place with me twice a week … now that I am the person who watches your back … this is not ending.’

‘Fuck you,’ I said, walking toward the door.

‘A stupid response, Harry. But, I suppose, understandable. You will need time to accept—’

‘I am accepting nothing. Got that? Nothing. You’re never seeing me again.’

‘Yes, I am. And you’ll want to see me … or, at least, call out to me at some moment when you’re in a situation from which you can’t extricate yourself.’

‘Don’t count on that. Stay away from me.’

‘No, Harry … the real question here is: Can you stay away from me?’

‘That won’t be hard to do,’ I said and walked fast toward the door.

‘See you in three days,’ she said as the door closed behind me.

I raced downstairs. Once I had crossed the courtyard I stopped for a moment outside the concierge’s lodge. He was still sitting there, comatose to the world. I reached the main door. I hit the button to release the lock. This time it opened with a telltale click. I stepped out into the street. Automotive sounds filled my ears as cars drove by. I looked both ways. There were pedestrians on the rue Linne. The old guy in the corner shop was sitting behind his small counter, looking bored. Life was, per usual, going on around me. I returned to the front door of Margit’s apartment. Less than a minute had evaporated since I had crossed back into the quotidian world. I punched in the code. I stepped back inside the courtyard. I turned toward the concierge’s lodge. He was no longer in an inanimate state. On the contrary, as soon as he saw me he was on his feet, grabbing a large two-by-four by his desk, then stepping just outside the lodge and brandishing this club.

‘You again? I told you to stay away. You go. Now.’

I did as requested, hightailing it back out into the street. I walked quickly toward the Jussieu metro station. Halfway there I got a bad case of the shakes. Is she with me right now? Does she shadow my every move?

I ducked into a cafe. I bought a double whisky. Even when added to all the other Scotch that Margit had poured into me, it still did little to dampen down my anxiety, my growing belief that I had lost all reason. I put my fingers to my nose, the same fingers that Margit had pushed into herself. Her smell was still there. I touched the bandage on my hand. She’s dead … and she bandaged that hand. I ordered another whisky. Think, think. No, don’t think. Just run. Go back to the hotel. Get your bag. Hop a cab to the Gard du Nord. Buy a ticket on the last train out tonight to London. But what about the novel? Fuck the novel. Run.

And then what? Without the novel I have nothing to show for my time here … nothing to do when I get to England. At least if I have the disk I can pick up the narrative again. I can give the day some shape by punching out my quota of words. I can tell myself, You are trying to accomplish something. So go back to the office and get the disk. There’s now nothing to fear. The place has been raided. Sezer and Mr Tough Guy are locked up in some commissariat de police, and the cops are no longer interested in the place. Get the disk. You’ll be in and out of there in less than a minute. Then make a beeline for the Gare du Nord and slam the door on this entire deranged episode …

By the time I had left the cafe I had decided that a better strategy would be to go back to the office in the middle of the night … preferably right before dawn. If anyone was lying in wait for me — doubtful, but I was still paranoid — they would most likely give up an all-night stakeout by six. More importantly, I could sleep until five thirty — sleep now being a major need.

I forced myself out of the cafe and took the metro to the Gare du Nord where I booked a ticket on the 07h35 Eurostar to London the next morning. I paid cash. As I counted out the notes, I again wondered if she was watching me buy the ticket. I jumped Line 4 back to Chateau d’Eau and walked into one of the many long-distance phone shops that lined the boulevard de Sebastopol. The place I entered looked like a fly-by- night operation — and was crowded with men trying to get through to relatives in Yaounde and Dakar and Benin and other West African cities. I bought a phone card and took my place at a crude plywood booth and made a call I was dreading, but couldn’t avoid. I checked my watch: 8.05 p.m. in Paris … 2.05 p.m. in Ohio. Susan answered on the second ring.

‘Hi there,’ I said.

‘Harry?’ she asked quietly.

‘That’s right. How are you doing?’

‘How am I doing? Terribly, that’s how. But you must know that already, otherwise why would you be calling after all this time.’

The angry tone was the one she always used with me during the final years of our marriage — when I never seemed to be able to do anything right, and when she seemed to have so completely fallen out of love with me.

‘The only reason I haven’t called is because you barred me from—’

‘I know, I know. Rub it in, why don’t you. Especially in light of—’

‘Susan, I just called to see how you were. That’s all.’

A pause. I could hear her stifling a sob.

‘He hanged himself this morning.’

Oh fuck.

‘Robson killed himself ?’ I said.

‘His name was Gardner — and yes, he hanged himself with a bedsheet in his cell early this morning. I just found out. Some asshole reporter from Fox News who called me and asked me for a comment. Can you imagine that?’

I said nothing. She continued, ‘Over the past week, I have lost everything. Everything. My job, my career. Now that it’s been revealed I was fucking the Dean of the Faculty, no one’s going to be hiring me in a hurry. Then there’s the little discovery that Gardner had a thing for naked seven-year-old girls and boys. I just can’t tell you how horrible it was to …’

Another stifled sob.

‘Is there anything I can do?’ I asked.

‘Stop trying to sound magnanimous … when I know you must be gloating now that your nemesis …’

She broke off, crying. I said, ‘Susan, I want to talk to Megan.’

‘Megan’s very upset right now. The news about Gardner’s crime … it was everywhere. All the kids at her school … well, you know how horrible children can be.’

‘Will you tell her I want to speak to her?’

‘All right.’

‘Please ask her to send me an email if she wants me to phone her back. And if you need money or anything …’

‘Are you still in Paris?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Working?’

‘Not at the moment.’

‘Then how can you have money?’

‘I did have a job … nothing much … but I’ve saved a bit. So if things get tight …’

‘I can’t deal with this … you … right now.’