apple trees, he has two extending ladders in an open shed there. I laboriously carried one to the house and climbed to an upstairs window. Anybody can get in modern catch windows. Within minutes I was blundering about downstairs in the darkness and on the phone.
I dialed Margaret. Mercifully she was in.
'Thank God!'
'What's He done to earn gratitude?' I snapped. 'Look. Have you your car?'
'Yes. Did you know—?' she began.
'I know. I'm still in it.'
'Come and get me, please.' I rang off.
I'd cleared away any trace of my trespass in the house as best I could and was back in the shelter of my own hedge by the time her Morris approached. Funny how bright the headlights seemed.
'Lovejoy?' Her voice was almost a scream as she slithered to a halt on the gravel. The cottage really did look like something from a nightmare.
'Here.'
I stepped from the hedge and she really did scream before I could calm her.
'It's only me, Margaret.'
'My God! Are you—?'
'Sorry about the fancy dress,' I said wearily. 'Calm down.'
'What's happened to you? The police phoned me. I came around. We've looked everywhere. The fire brigade was here. It was terrible. Somebody said you'd gone off with—'
'Turn the headlights off, there's a good girl.'
With her help I got in and leaned back feeling almost safe. She slid behind the wheel. I could see her white face in the dashboard's glow.
'Shouldn't I phone Geoffrey, or—'
'Disturb him at this hour?' She didn't miss the bitterness.
'I'll take you around to the doctor's.'
'No,' I snapped. 'Are you on your own at home?' She nodded. 'Then can I come there, to clean up?'
'Yes.' She started the engine and backed us down to the lane. 'Did you manage to save anything?'
'One thing.' I said, lying back, eyes closed. 'Me.'
Bathed and in some clothes Margaret happened to have handy—perhaps from the estranged husband—I examined myself in the bathroom mirror. I'd have been wiser to stay filthy. My face was cut in a dozen places. An enormous bruise protruded from my temple. My left eye was black, a beautiful shiner. I'd lost a tooth. My hands were blistered balloons.
She gave me a razor to shave with, a messy job with more blood than whiskers.
'Your husband's?' I asked.
'Mind your own business,' she said.
She made a light meal and I went to sleep on her couch with the television on. I couldn't get enough of normality. She sat in an armchair close by to watch the play.
'Let me take that.'
I hugged the Nock close and refused to give it to her. 'I'm, trying to make the pair,' I said, a standard antique dealer's joke.
She didn't smile.
Chapter 17
The day dawned bright and brittle. For an hour I could hardly move a joint and tottered about Margaret's house like a kitten. A bath loosened me up. I felt relatively fresh after that. Just as well, I thought, as it was going to be a hard week.
The telephone rang about eleven, Tinker Dill asking if I'd been located. I told Margaret to say I'd gone to London for a couple of days with a friend. She didn't like this but went along with it. The story was that the post girl had seen the cottage afire. She'd called the police, the fire brigade, and an ambulance —a thorough girl. I made Margaret ring Dandy Jack to say she wouldn't be in to the arcade for a few days and to let prospective customers know she'd be back soon.
I also got her to ring Muriel and say there'd been an accident of some description. She told her about the cottage and what she'd heard over the phone. Muriel seemed dismayed, Margaret reported to me. Real tears, as far as one could judge.
'Well, some people love me anyway,' I cracked, leering with my gappy grin.
'God knows why,' she said.
They gave me a column and a picture—of the burned cottage, not me—in the local paper on Tuesday evening. Police, it said, were making inquiries. Arson could not be ruled out. My own whereabouts were not known, but speculation was that, in the throes of a depressive illness, I had accidentally started a fire and died, or else I was staying with friends. It was made to sound fifty-fifty, and who cared anyway. Too bloody casual by far. The ruins were being searched for clues. It was widely known that I was mentally disturbed after the unfortunate accidental
