because it's different from your own stuff. I bet you've got something really brilliant tucked away in a drawer at home.'
He was about to turn this into a joke about drawers, but decided against it. He was the newcomer. 'Can we light up in here?'
'The corridor. Wouldn't say no to one myself after opening up like that. Worse than a striptease.'
After they'd both taken their first drag he said, 'Will they all read to us?'
'About half of them. Sometimes the excuses are more inventive than the stuff anyone has written. Maurice is very good at helping the timid ones pluck up the necessary. You're not timid, are you?'
'Just ask me to read and see the state of me.'
'You'll get over it.' She gave him a sudden nudge. 'Hello. Looks as if you're not the only new boy.'
Two hunks in leathers and jeans edged past and into the meeting room. They were given the welcome treatment by Maurice.
'Young and beefy,' Thomasine said. 'Nice for our Sharon. Nice for all us girls.'
To Bob's eye, they didn't look like creative writers. He watched from the doorway. Maurice had gone through his welcoming spiel and it hadn't impressed. The newcomers were doing the talking. Maurice made a sweeping movement with his hand as if to show they'd got something wrong.
'They're cops,' Bob said.
'How do you know?'
'Something about the way they're talking to him. And they work in pairs.'
'What would they want with Maurice?'
'You'll have to ask him, but I don't think you'll get the chance.' One of them had grasped Maurice's arm just above the elbow.
Maurice turned and spoke to the little woman called Dagmar.
'Our vice-chair,' Thomasine said. 'He's asking her to take over. He's leaving us.'
She was right. They steered Maurice through the door. It seemed to be voluntary, even though his face was ashen.
Thomasine went straight over to Dagmar. 'What was that about, Dag? What's going on?'
'I've no idea. Maurice asked me to take over after the break.'
Tudor said, 'I heard it all. They're CID. They want to question him about the death of Edgar Blacker.'
3
know no person so perfectly disagreeable and even dangerous as an author.
The members of the circle had clustered around Dagmar.
She said, 'Maurice is no killer. He's got nothing to do with it.'
'How do you know?'
Miss Snow said, 'Oh, come on, Tudor! Edgar Blacker was publishing his book.'
This could have got nasty, but Thomasine steered them in a more positive direction. 'What are we going to do?'
'He asked me to take the chair for the rest of this evening,' Dagmar said.
'We can't go on as if nothing's happened, reading out our work. It won't be the same at all.'
'I second that,' Anton, the cliche-spotter, said. 'It would be unseemly.'
Basil said, 'Why don't we adjourn to the bar and talk things over in a more relaxed atmosphere?'
'Good thinking.'
Jessie, the writer of the letter in
'We've got to speak up for Maurice,' Miss Snow said when they were all around the tables again. 'We can't have our chair arrested and do nothing about it.'
'He was not arrested,' Anton said.
'Of course he was arrested if they took him away by force.'
'He went of his own volition.'
'They had him by the arm.'
'They didn't caution him. If they arrest a person, they have to issue an official caution.'
Dagmar said, 'Anton is right. Maurice agreed to go with them.'
Tudor said in an ominous tone, 'We don't know what's behind this. They must have some good reason for taking him in.'
'These days there's enormous pressure to make a quick arrest,' Thomasine said.
Anton said with a click of the tongue, 'He was not arrested.'
'It's a technicality, Anton. They can still charge him.'
Zach said to Thomasine, 'You think they're fitting him up?'
'Who knows? We know he's a good man, but do they?'
'We know sod all, my dear,' Tudor said, continuing to stir things up. 'He's a friend to us, but that doesn't make him safe in the eyes of the law. In my short life I've had a few bombshells from my friends. What do any of us know about him? Is he married?' He looked around for the answer.
'Divorced or separated, I believe,' Dagmar said after a pause. 'But he lives with someone.'
Tudor seized on this as if he was leading for the prosecution. 'Does he, indeed? How many of us knew that? He's a dark horse. Before we all march off to the nick protesting his innocence, let's get the facts straight.'
Dagmar, regretting that she'd spoken, said, 'I don't see what Maurice's private life has to do with it.'
'Oh, how ridiculous!'
'What do the rest of you think? Naomi?' Tudor turned to the woman on his left.
She said with scorn, 'You're reading too much into this, as you always do, Tudor. Let's deal in facts, not speculation.'
'We don't have all the facts.'
'Exactly. So I say leave it for tonight.'
Tudor was reluctant to leave it. 'Let's have another opinion.' He looked across at the youngest member of the circle, still making elaborate patterns on her writing pad. 'Sharon, do you think we should all be rushing to Maurice's defence?'
Sharon looked up and turned a deeper shade of pink. 'Dunno.'
'You must have an opinion.'
'He's always been nice to me.'
'We've seen that for ourselves, my dear.'
'Nothing we can do, is there?'
Now it was Thomasine who spoke up. 'I'm ashamed of you all, if that's the way you think. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Maurice. He founded the circle and he runs it. The least we can do is show solidarity.'
'So right!' Dagmar said.
'But in what way?' Basil asked.
Zach said, 'If you want to take on the fuzz, count me in.'
'Please,' Anton said. 'I agree with Naomi. Let's keep this in proportion. Maurice was invited to go for questioning and he went, quite probably because he feels he has something useful to contribute. If he wants our support I'm sure we'll give it, but let's not rush our fences.' He raised his hand at once. 'All right. A cliche. But you