and reminded the boy he should be discreet when talking about club matters with non-members.'
Joe nodded and said, 'Rowe came into the car park to make a call from his car phone while Chip was changing the wheel. Went off with him later. That could explain why Chip got so uptight with Eloise about me coming to the Hole.'
'Good! You do have a brain as well as… other things. So someone, probably this Rowe, passed all this on to King Rat and he thought, This guy's a no-hoper but better not to take chances, let's get him out of town for a few days. So he calls you in and makes you an offer you couldn't refuse. And if Jurassic George hadn't got the wrong idea about you and that Eloise-it was the wrong idea, wasn't it, Joe…?'
Her grip tightened on a part of his body which put him in mind of Hardman's assault that morning.
'Yeah, definitely wrong.'
'Good. But if George hadn't got so jealous, you'd have been sipping pina coladas in sunny Spain with that Mimi this moment, and Christian would be facing them Four Just Men with no help pending.'
'Oh yeah. Jesus, the poor bastard. I said I'd see him at the club before the meeting… but what can I tell him, Beryl?'
Now she did give a painful tug and said, 'Joe Six- smith, don't you listen? You ask questions about this kid, Waring. You've no idea why you're asking questions, but they don't know how stupid you are. So they decided to ship you off to Spain. Only you don't go. Instead you go round to Waring's lodgings and ask questions there…'
'Hold on. How they know that?'
'You said this Rowe's car was pulling away as you arrived. That old tank of yours is going to get you recognized, isn't it?'
Joe was hurt by old tank, but couldn't fault her logic.
'Yeah, right.'
'So now they decide to break your legs or something. Only George gets in the way again. Look, it's obvious. This is what's bothering them. You being interested in Steve Waring!'
'Yeah, yeah, I've got that,' said Joe. 'But what I haven't got is why? You're so clever, tell me that, why don't you?'
This was less gracious than a man in his position who'd just received such favors both physical and detective ought to have been, but the playful twist she'd given him had been more painful than she realized. And besides, for all her admittedly clever analysis he didn't feel any further forward.
She said, 'Way I see it from what you told me, Waring must have seen something.'
'Like what?'
'Maybe he'd been working round there somewhere and heard Christian's ball clatter among the trees. Goes to look for it and next thing he sees this Rowe guy placing a ball nice and handy on the edge of the fairway.'
'Wouldn't he have said something?'
'To one member helping another out? None of his business. He'd tiptoe away and forget all about it till later he hears that his friend Mr. Porphyry has been accused of cheating on that selfsame hole. Now he's interested. He buttonholes Rowe and asks him what's going on. Rowe realizes the whole scheme could unravel completely if Waring starts talking to anyone else. He doesn't know what to do. So he tells Waring to hang around a couple of minutes and he'll explain everything. Then he goes off and rings King Rat.'
'Who says what?'
'What do you think? This is the Rat we're talking about. Everyone's got his price. Bribe him. Rowe says it may not work, he knows how much Waring respects Porphyry. So Rowe goes to plan B. If money doesn't get what you want, add a bit of sheer bloody terror. But he knows that's probably beyond Rowe so he sends reinforcements.'
'Hardman.'
'I'd bet on it. Rowe offers young Steve a ride home. Somewhere en route, this hard case Stephen is standing by the roadside. Rowe pulls over to give him a lift. Young Steve's probably already made it clear he's not interested in money. One look at Stephen tells him that this is something else and he decides that getting things out in the open is the safest option so he tries to ring Christian. When the hard man realizes what he's doing he takes the phone off him.'
'And then?'
'I don't know, do I?' said Beryl. 'I'm just making up a story here. Maybe they really did make young Steve an offer he couldn't refuse. He's just a kid, right. OK, he wasn't about to accept money to keep quiet about something that would affect Christian, but when the hard man made it clear that the alternative was several months in traction, he thought, What the hell. Grab the money and run. So next morning that's what he did: got up, ate his breakfast, and took off. Didn't need to take anything with him 'cos he had enough money coming to buy him all he needed brand new.' 'Couldn't buy his Frank Lampard picture,' said Joe. 'Sorry?' 'Doesn't matter. Beryl, I gotta go. Thanks a bundle. You've been a great help.' 'That what you call the best lay you've ever had, a great help?' said Beryl, pouting. Pouting lips are made to be kissed and Joe obliged. 'You know what I mean. As for the other, some things go way beyond thanks.' 'Tell me about it,' she said invitingly. 'Oh, I will, I will. But not now.' He dressed quickly before he could change his mind. As he left, she called after him, 'Joe, don't know what you're going to do, but it will be the right thing. Be sure you come back and tell me about that too.' His heart was singing as he drove away. Suddenly he had a feeling it was all going to be all right.
24
A Saving Bell
Joe's joy slowly evaporated as he drove into Upleck.
It wasn't a bad suburb as suburbs go. The houses were spick and span, the well-tended gardens brandished a rich variety of bold colored summer flowers at the sun, the streets were relatively litter free, and in daylight at least it looked like a place where a man could go for a stroll and expect to come back with his pocket and his person intact.
But the cord of memory that linked him to Beryl's lovely body stretched more and more tautly till finally it snapped as he turned into Lock-keeper's Lane.
As he approached No. 15, he recalled his visit this morning when the silver Audi 8 had pulled out ahead of him and he'd gratefully turned into the vacated space.
Now most of the parked cars had gone and there was ample room to stop. But he drove on past 15, following the route the Audi must have taken that morning.
Soon the houses had petered out and the road grew narrower as it ran into an area of scrubby countryside. A couple of lane ends made him slow down but they were so overgrown that it was plain no vehicle had forced a way through there recently, and in any case the brambles would have left their mark on the silver paintwork.
Finally the road came to the end promised by the sign two miles back which read No Thoroughfare, but he kept going after the tarmac ran out, following a track that at first was broad and not too rough, but gradually became muddy and bumpy as it ran into a copse of sun-stealing alder and willow where eventually further progress was barred by a high rusting metal fence. This was the area known as Leck's Bottom. In The Lost Traveller's Guide (the best-selling series devoted to places you were unlikely to visit on purpose) it merited a single paragraph. Leck's Bottom is a stretch of boggy land covering approximately five hectares and acting as a sink for all the waste moisture of the surrounding area. Its unattractive ambience and noisome effluvia did not, however, daunt the Victorian engineers creating the Luton-Bedford Canal and for a while this useful waterway ran through the Bottom. Indeed, one of its most important locks was situated here. But such a situation required high maintenance and once the canal had outlived its usefulness the Bottom rapidly reverted to what it had been, or perhaps, because of the unsavory traces of man's interference, something rather worse. A man would have to be a psychopath or a social historian to want to linger here. Certainly to find an example of the non-picturesque rural ruin more dreary and depressing than the old lock would be difficult, even in central Iraq.
Joe got out of the Morris. It was clear now where the mud on the Audi's tires and Rowe's shoes had come from. Not even the week-long heatwave had been able to suck all the moisture out of this ground, and though the
