‘You were shouting something like, Go away and leave me alone! What was that all about?’
‘Drank too much,’ I lied. ‘Need to go and sleep it off.’
‘I’ll walk with you,’ said Elaine.
She was taller than me and prettier . . . and when she linked her arm through mine it was well above my elbow. On the way down to the old dispersal hut I occasionally slept in I realized that this could be the last time I’d wake up in it. I asked Elaine, ‘What about Terry, and that godson of mine?’ Her hubby and son.
‘Visiting his mum in Beaconsfield: they won’t be back until Friday. What were you shouting about?’
It was chill. Elaine tucked in close alongside me. The narrow cement path to the Nissen hut was pale in the moonlight.
‘Sometimes I see dead people, love. People I know.’
Elaine was smoking a long tipped fag. I wondered if Doris had subbed her a packet. She exhaled a lungful of smoke into the night air above us.
‘Oh, that,’ she said, and paused before saying, ‘Yeah. It happens sometimes.’
‘I thought it was only me.’
‘No, darling. You’re just like the rest of us . . . Join the club.’
Old Man Halton’s club was tucked away behind a large walled garden off Regent’s Park Road. I’d only been invited there twice before, and it was always when he was buttering me up for something. He knew that I knew that: I think it amused both of us. The fish dish was exquisite. We didn’t really talk again until we were halfway through a rack of lamb.
He suddenly observed, ‘When you were recalled as a reservist about three years ago we picked up three nice contracts from the War Office. Did you know that?’
‘You scratched their backs, and they scratched yours.’
‘Something like that.’
‘I got shot at.’
‘That was your own fault, wasn’t it? Someone from your murky past.’
‘My past was never meant to be murky, boss. It was meant to be serene. Nice house in the suburbs, friendly wife, three kids and a car. Golf on Saturdays.’
‘Do you play golf?’
‘No, of course not. It’s infantile.’
He smiled and said, ‘Good. That kind of life would have bored you to death. What do you make of the wine?’ I’ve never understood the poncey language that wine buffs speak – I suspect that they don’t either.
‘I could drink buckets of it, if that’s what you mean. Have you been offered another contract for Halton Air, provided I go out to play with your pals at the Foreign Office for a couple of months?’
He looked shifty, and began to cough. It was a bit of a grand opera once it got going, but they were used to him at his club, so nobody took any notice. I raised my hand to the waiter who came over with a large glass of water. Halton finished the opening salvoes, and had a couple of gulps of the water. He said, ‘Thank you, Charlie.’
‘Thank the waiter – he brought it. You were saying . . . ?’ I prompted. He probably hoped I had forgotten.
‘Yes. The government will give us a leg-up again.’
‘Is it important, sir?’
‘It would set us up for fully the next ten years.’
With Old Man Halton it was always best to cut to the chase.
‘What would be in it for me?’
‘I’ll make you a co-director of the company, and give you a fifth share.’
For a moment I didn’t know what to say. If you’d come from the labouring classes, like me, neither would you.
‘There must be a snag – you don’t mind my saying that, do you?’
‘Of course not, Charlie, and yes, there is – the third director will be Frieda, and once I’m gone she’ll fight you tooth and nail . . . over everything.’ I digested that.
‘Why?’
‘Because she probably loved you a little once upon a time. Women never forgive you for that.’ Frieda was his ward: the daughter of a German woman he had brought to the UK just before the war. She was going to marry me until she found someone taller, and jumped ship. I thought I’d behaved rather well at the time, but I could be mistaken. Halton added, ‘I’ve no son, and the business will need a man who knows what he’s doing. She would ruin it on her own, and sell what was left to the Americans.’ Then he asked, ‘Well?’
I did some thinking music in my head, Glenn’s ‘String of Pearls’ – I’ve told you about that before as well. Then I grinned.
‘Cyprus it is then, sir, although they indicated that it might not be for some weeks yet.’ I always feel relieved when I’ve made a decision.
‘Good. The family lawyer will contact you. There will be some papers to sign. I won’t tell Frieda until afterwards.’ No; nor should I. Frieda would play merry hell when she found out. What goes around comes around.
‘Seen your boys recently?’
‘I’m going down to them this afternoon. They’re fine. Dieter wants to join the Merchant Navy.’
‘Flying’s not in his blood then?’
‘Flying’s not in my blood either, boss. My lot liked fighting their wars from trenches, or where there were plenty of things to hide behind.’
That set him off coughing again. This time when he pulled the handkerchief down there were those specks of blood on it. He saw me watching him, and demanded, ‘What? What are you thinking?’
‘That we’d better get those papers signed as quickly as possible. I don’t know how long you’ve got.’
That set him off laughing and coughing again. The truth was that Old Man Halton could be a bit of a bully, and I was probably the only person around him who ever talked back. That was because we liked each other a lot, and of course, being men, it was something we never said.
‘About
