the tape-recording machine as if to make sure everything was all right with it.
‘So you had a relation with Mrs Jansen.’
‘Yes.’
‘Your sister-in-law and wife of your friend.’
‘Yes, I grew fond of Ruth. I was particularly taken by the baby. Of course, by this time Ruth and Edward had parted.’
‘Things happen fast in your set.’
‘Well, I suppose the parting had been working up for a long time. Is there any point in all these questions?’
‘Not much. We want to check, you see, against the statements made in England by the people concerned. Did Ruth seem surprised when she heard that Effie was involved in the terrorist attacks?’
What were these statements of Ruth, of Edward, of others? Harvey said firmly, even as he felt his way, ‘She was very much afraid of the police, coming into our lives as they did. It was quite unforeseen. She could no more blame her sister for it than she could blame her for an earthquake. I feel the same, myself.’
‘She did not defend her sister?’
‘She had no need to defend Effie to me. It isn’t I who accuse Effie of being a terrorist. I say there is a mistake.’
‘Now, Nathan Fox,’ said the officer, reaching for a new file. ‘What do you know about him?’
‘Not very much. He made himself useful to Ruth and Edward when they were living in London. He’s a graduate but can’t find a job. He came to my house, here, to visit Ruth and the baby for Christmas.’
‘He is a friend of your wife?’
‘Well, he knows her, of course.
‘He is a weak character?’
‘No, in fact I think it shows a certain strength of character in him to have turned his hand to domestic work since he can’t find anything else to do. He graduated at an English university, I have no idea which one.
‘What about his friends? Girls or boys?’
‘I know nothing about that.’
‘Why did he disappear from your house?’
‘I don’t know. He just left. Young people do.’
‘He had a telephone call and left overnight without saying good-bye.’
‘I believe so,’ said Harvey.
‘He said the telephone call was from London. It wasn’t.’
‘So I understand. I was working in my cottage that night. You must understand I’m very occupied, and all these questions of yours, and all these files, have nothing whatever to do with me. I’ve agreed to come here simply to help you to eliminate a suspect, my wife.’
‘But you have no idea why he should say he got a phone call from London, when he didn’t. It must have been an internal call.’
‘Perhaps some girl of his turned up in France; maybe in Paris, and called him. And he skipped.’
‘Some girl or some boy?’
‘Your question is beyond me. If I hear from him I’ll ask him to get in touch with you. Perhaps he’s come down with influenza.’
Pomfret now spoke: ‘Why do you suggest that?’ He was decidedly less friendly in French.
‘Because people do come down with ‘flu. They stay in bed. This time of year is rather the time for colds. Perhaps he’s gone back to England to start a window-cleaning business. I believe I heard him speculating on the idea. There’s always a need for window-cleaners.’
‘Anything else?’ said Chatelain.
‘The possibilities of Nathan Fox’s whereabouts are such that I could go on all night and still not exhaust them.’
‘Would he go to join your wife if she asked him?’ Harvey considered. ‘That’s also a possibility; one among millions.’ ‘What are his political views?’
‘I don’t know. He never spoke of politics to me. ‘Did he ask you for money?’
‘After Christmas he asked me for his pay. I told him that Ruth had the housekeeping money, and kept the accounts.’
‘Then Mrs Jansen did give him money?’
‘I only suppose,’ said Harvey, ‘that she paid him for his help. I really don’t know.’
‘Do you think Ruth Jansen is a calculating woman? She left her husband, came to join you with the baby, induced you to buy the chateau —’
‘She wanted the chateau because of a tree outside the house with a certain bird — how do you say “woodpecker”?’ — Harvey put the word to Pomfret in English.
