I collapsed on the bench, pulled my wet coat around me and sank into hopeless dreams.
I wasn’t sure whether it was the cold in my bones, or the daylight or the sound of voices that woke me. I lay under a coarse tarpaulin. I flung it off in panic and peered round in the gloom. I was inside, in a shed of some sort, shivering in a filthy shroud and wanting to be sick. Though I lay on the ground I was surrounded by piles of folded deck chairs. I hadn’t been able to set one up and sit in it. I’d become a seaside joke. My coat was still soaking, as was my suit.
I could have fallen in the lake and come out drier. On my hands and knees I edged into the farthest recesses, and threw up. Sorry, mate, whoever you are. I don’t like your job this morning.
When some strength returned I knew I had to get out of there and dry off. If I didn’t, I’d get pneumonia. My head was pounding but I could see again. I’d live.
Just. I was desperately tired, as though I’d been on a night march. I rubbed my eyes and longed for a bath. I had a nagging sense of guilt, a sense that there was something important, something I had to remember, but there was no faithless jotter this morning. No revelations of my bloody past to wrestle with, or none I could recall. I shook my head. I had no idea how I’d got here, or where I’d been since collapsing on the boathouse bench. But I didn’t have the patience or the courage to sit and sift my dreams.
I wiped down my clothes as best I could, but even in the gloom of the shed I still looked like a tramp. My hands were sticky. I inspected them in the shaft of light. Blood. I looked down and there was blood on my trousers. Christ, what had I been up to? Then a thin memory popped up. I pulled up my left trouser leg and saw the deep cut and remembered whacking the bench last night. Harder than I thought. But at least it was my own blood.
The rain had stopped and some sun was filtering through the sickly clouds. Maybe if I walked fast I’d dry out, then I could brush off the mud. I peered through the crack in the door and saw one or two folk walking past on the opposite shore. To my left about fifty yards away was the boathouse. Some early bird was opening it up. Just in case there were any idiots wanting to sit outside on a deckchair in January, I decided it was time I was gone. I had a thought. I stepped back and picked up the tarpaulin. I folded it carefully, stuck it under my arm and pushed the door open.
Part blinded by the daylight I walked out fast and away from the shed, expecting any minute to hear cries behind me. Nothing. One piece of luck. Now what? I could hardly go home; the police would be waiting for me. Home to Scotland? The stations would be guarded. I didn’t know where Val lived or how to get in touch.
My thoughts turned to Liza. Liza Caldwell. Through my headache, nausea and shivering, came the distant pulse of anger. I was damned if I’d let Tony Caldwell and his female accomplices do this to me. I was going to find out the truth if it killed me… or them.
I crossed the bridge to the north side of the Serpentine and began hacking my way over the grass towards Bayswater. I checked my funds; I had two pounds three and sixpence on me. It would do for a couple of days. Just over one hundred pounds lay in an account at the Westminster Bank, but my savings book was in my office.
The walk was warming me up and the breeze was drying my clothes. Now I felt hungry. I hadn’t eaten since yesterday teatime. Just before I left the park at Marble Arch I found a gents toilet. I cleaned myself up as best I could. My hankie ran red time after time as I dabbed at the trousers and congealed blood on my hands and legs. I combed my hair, but my face looked like I’d drowned in the lake and been brought back to life. Almost. I needed some hot tea and grub.
There were no coppers at the gates. I was surprised, but then I hardly qualified for a full blown manhunt, did I? Or if I did, they might well have assumed I was miles away, having got on the underground last night. Abandoning the gun had been the smart thing to do: searching for a man who’d threatened you is one thing; searching for an armed intruder is another.
Paradise! A Lyons corner tea house. I pulled myself as erect as I could, tucked the tarp under my arm as if it were something all normal folk carried, and smiled my way to a corner seat. My clothes steamed gently as I slurped at two pots of tea and a full breakfast, but the girl was too polite to mention it.
Refuelled, I hopped on a bus to Oxford Circus and dived down the tube. A change at Tottenham Court Road and I was on the Northern Line to Hampstead. I was steadily drying out. It was just after nine o’clock, and I was filled with tea, toast and resolve.
Hampstead was its sunny best for me, and I felt the now familiar air of being on holiday, which in the circumstances was pretty daft. As I neared Liza’s house, I curbed my instinct to walk up to her door and demand answers. Instead I plunged into the woodland paths I’d grown to know and let the air and sun dry me. I took a circuitous route round to the copse above her street. Just as well; the big grey Riley was parked outside her door. I made a hide behind a tight mass of broom, spread my tarpaulin out on the leaves and grass, and settled down to wait.
I waited throughout the long day, falling in and out of exhausted sleep. I was awake enough to see Liza come and go twice, both times with Kate, arm in arm. It became clear Kate was guarding her. From me. But where was Tony? I slipped down into the village and bought some grub – marge, bread, corned beef – enough for another day. Outside the store was a crate for empty screw-necks. I nicked a couple and filled them with water at the horse trough. I caught sight of myself in a shop window. My growing dishevelment was making me stand out in this otherwise genteel corner of London. In the city proper, men like me – unshaven and unkempt – were commonplace, jettisoned by the war’s end on to the streets, wandering around in army greatcoats begging for help from the people they fought for, and not always getting it.
I returned to my hide, in time to see a police car draw up and figures get out.
I wished I’d had my binocs with me but they weren’t needed to identify Wilson’s black bulk. Liza let him in and he was there for some time. When he came out, he stopped before getting into the car and spoke to a uniformed policeman. Then Wilson’s eyes swept the street and up into the woods; I froze, feeling his gaze brush over me like a searchlight. He got in the car and it eased off in a cloud of smoke leaving the copper on guard. I had no doubt that all this was my doing.
It was a rough cold night. I slept fitfully, continually pulling the tarpaulin tight round me to try to trap body heat. I shivered and tossed till dawn, then got up, ate some bread and tinned corned beef and went for a walk to warm up. I used the bushes like an animal, and with my roughening face and leaf-encrusted clothes I began to feel like one of Pan’s mates.
Occasionally, through the trees or when I stumbled on a path, I’d see other people; men with dogs, or taking shortcuts or simply out for a walk. I fled from them, like a squirrel. But I thanked the gods for the temperate weather; I’d heard Glasgow was under six inches of snow two days ago. The lucky south of England was basking in temperatures well above freezing. It still wasn’t balmy enough to be sleeping in the woods without a tent or fire. I’d have given anything for a hot fish supper.
I returned to my vigil, determined that this was my last day. If I couldn’t break through to get some answers from Liza I’d have to rethink my plans entirely. Maybe go west down to Devon, and lie low for a couple of weeks. But the money was running out; dare I sneak back to my office for my savings book?
I found myself shivering even in the watery sun that filtered through the naked trees. This wasn’t good. The soaking I’d got the other night, the continuing lack of sleep and accumulation of cold and pressure were taking their toll. The Riley was there again today, and the copper still stood sentry. This was beginning to make little sense, and was getting to the point where I couldn’t think straight. Though my body felt cold my head felt feverish. Not good. I needed to get warm. I needed hot food and shelter.
I kept slipping in and out of sleep throughout the day, not sure if I was dreaming and not sure where I was when I woke up. What a stubborn spark flickers inside us, insisting that our petty lives are worth fighting for. At times I thought I was back in the camp, cold and hurting and wishing for death. Whatever I’d remembered two days ago in my fugue was fighting to surface. But I had no notes to trigger the memories. Nor did I want to. I was especially scared of this one for some reason.
As the evening drew in, I dragged myself upright, ate the last of the bread and the canned meat, vowing if I survived, that I’d never eat the damned stuff again. Then I stumbled into the village.
It felt like I was coming down with flu. I spotted a pharmacy and got some Beechams powders. I was in time to get some hot tea and a scone at the cafй on the high street. I swilled the powder down with the tea. I got pitying looks from the waitress and scowls from the supervisor, so I didn’t stay long. But it gave me a little new energy and my head was clearing. I was good for an hour or two, but where could I lay my shattered body out of the cold? I walked on down the hill; walking up was too much effort. Then I saw it.
The Rosslyn Hill Chapel sits back from the street in its own grounds. Its squat arches look welcoming enough,
