She smiled at his embarrassment, then walked away down the alley. David went upstairs and knocked on Natalia’s door. She opened it a little, peering out at him anxiously for a second before she recognized him and her face cleared. She let him in.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I didn’t ring the bell. The – Dilys let me in, she was on her way out. She knew me, she said she had pictures of us.’
Natalia nodded. ‘Yes, Dilys is important. We would not have this place but for her. She is a good friend.’
Natalia wasn’t wearing her painter’s smock tonight but a thick grey sweater that set off the paleness of her skin. ‘How are you?’ she asked, looking at him with concern.
‘There’s been a bit of a problem at work.’
‘So I understand. Don’t tell me about it, wait until Mr Jackson gets here.’ She gave her sad, wry smile. ‘That’s the way he likes to do things.’
‘I know.’
There was a charcoal sketch on her easel, a narrow cobbled street with tumbledown houses on each side, figures walking along. She came and stood beside him. ‘I started that yesterday. After our talk. It is the old Jewish Quarter in Bratislava.’
‘It looks a run-down sort of place.’
‘It was where the poorer Jews lived, shopkeepers and bootmenders, labourers.’
David said, ‘My father told me after my mother died that my Jewish grandfather was a furniture-maker, a carpenter. It’s not the sort of job you associate with a Jew somehow.’
Her wry smile again. ‘Jesus Christ was a Jewish carpenter.’
‘I suppose he was.’
‘Where did they come from? Your mother’s family?’
‘Somewhere in the old Russian Empire, I’m not sure where. Poland perhaps, Lithuania. Slovakia was part of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, wasn’t it? Before the Great War?’ He laughed self-consciously. ‘My father had an old school atlas from before 1914, I looked at it again the other night.’
‘Yes. Some called the Empire the prison-house of nations. But after the war it was worse in many ways, everyone splitting off to claim their own nationality, creating new minorities, each hating the other more and more. And all the nationalists hating the Jews as an alien people, of course. Czechoslovakia was not so bad as most, though, till Hitler destroyed it.’ She put out a hand and touched his arm quickly. ‘I’m sorry, I’m not giving you much comfort.’
He offered her a cigarette. ‘You haven’t told anyone, have you? About me?’
‘I said I would not.’ She looked at him. ‘But I still think you should.’
David laughed bitterly. ‘I really don’t feel this is the best time.’
She inclined her head and stepped away. He was making her keep a secret for him. If only she hadn’t spoken on Sunday. He asked suddenly, ‘Did the Jews in Bratislava speak Yiddish?’
‘Yes, they did. The Jews spoke Yiddish all over Eastern Europe.’ She smiled. ‘Our countries, they were such a babel of languages, everyone speaking at least a bit of three or four.’ She asked softly, ‘Did your mother speak Yiddish?’
‘She put all that behind her, became Anglo-Irish. She said something though, just before she died. Neither my father nor I understood it.’
‘Do you remember it?’
David gave an embarrassed laugh. ‘It was seventeen years ago. I don’t know, it was something like, “Ik hobdik leeb”.’ He turned away, suddenly full of emotion. He heard her repeat the words, with a different emphasis. ‘
‘I don’t know,’ she said, looking away. ‘I only knew a few phrases.’
The doorbell rang, making them both jump. Natalia went out, and David heard her light footsteps descending the stairs. She came back with Geoff. ‘Hello, old man,’ Geoff said with forced cheerfulness. ‘How are things?’
‘I think Hubbold’s questioning people.’
Geoff took off his coat and hat, gave David a tight smile though his blue eyes were anxious. ‘It’ll be all right.’
The bell rang again. Minutes later David heard Jackson’s heavy footsteps accompanying Natalia back up the stairs. He came in, grim-faced, nodding to David and Geoff without smiling. He took off his coat and hat, sat down heavily, then said to David, ‘You seem to have set some hares running, one way and another.’
David told him again what had happened to Sarah on Sunday, and about the missing file. Jackson listened, expressionless, putting in the occasional sharp question. When David had finished he sat thinking for some moments.
‘I think your wife is safe,’ he said at length. ‘We’ve managed to trace that student couple. Most of those who got away – not that there were that many, anywhere – have ended up with our people. Those Gentiles who’re willing to help them usually have some contact with us.’
‘What will happen to them?’
‘They’ll get new identities. The Jews won’t be the first people we’ve done that for, not by a long chalk. Now, is your wife quite sure nobody on this committee of hers knew that she went off with this woman who was killed?’
‘She’s certain.’
‘You’ve put us to a lot of work, tracing those two students.’ He sighed. ‘And the other matter, putting secret papers in an open file, that’s worrying.’ His hard, sharp eyes were angry now.
Geoff said, ‘David thought he was about to be caught, he had to act in a hurry.’
Jackson glanced at Geoff briefly, but did not reply. He turned back to David. ‘You say you think Carol Bennett’s been questioned?’
‘Yes, from the way she looked at lunchtime.’
‘How do you think she’ll have reacted?’
‘She won’t be pressured. She’ll say it wasn’t her, she doesn’t know how it happened. Which is true.’
‘Do you think she might make any connection between the missing papers and you?’
‘No. She’s no reason to. And her picture of me is – distorted.’
‘Try to behave normally with her. Don’t tell her about being questioned yourself, she might smell a rat if you do.’
‘I’m supposed to be going to a concert with her on Friday.’
‘I should cancel. Probably best if you and Miss Bennett aren’t seen around together.’
‘I’ll do it tomorrow.’ He sighed. ‘I’ll think of some excuse.’
‘What should David do? If he is questioned again about the papers?’ Natalia asked.
Jackson stared hard at David again. ‘Say you know nothing about it. I’ve been in the Service nearly forty years, it’s not the first time something like this has happened. They’ll go round in circles for a little while, asking everybody, then when nobody accepts responsibility for the mistake, eventually they’ll have to approach MI5 to deal with it, what’s left of them these days. Unless they can find a scapegoat, someone they don’t like who could plausibly be responsible. Possibly Miss Bennett.’ He thought for a moment. ‘We’re safe for the time being. Enough time to deal with the immediate issue, which is Frank Muncaster. Can you hold your nerve, Fitzgerald, if you’re questioned again?’
‘Yes,’ David said. ‘I just deny everything, don’t I? But sooner or later they’re going to connect it to the fact I come in at weekends.’
‘You’re not the only one. And you’ve a twelve-year record of unblemished service, being loyal and unambitious, a happy family man.’ Jackson smiled, coldly. ‘Don’t forget the importance of that. It’s why we took you on.’
‘Yes. I’m used to lying,’ David answered quietly. He looked at Natalia, who glanced away.
Jackson stood, paced up and down the room as he sometimes did, while the others stayed seated. Geoff lit his pipe. They heard two pairs of footsteps ascending the staircase outside, and the door of the prostitute’s flat door slammed shut. David heard a woman’s laugh. Jackson sat down again. He said, ‘Our friend Ben Hall at the asylum has been very nifty. They questioned him about your visit on Sunday and he said so far as he’s concerned you were strangers, old chums he’d allowed Muncaster to contact by telephone. His descriptions of you are mildly misleading.’ He shook his head, smiled coldly again. ‘They do have some steel, those Reds. Now, the danger, as it
