“Ralph! He did signal,” Katie said. “You were a million miles away.”
Ralph knew that he had not been concentrating.
“What did she say she wanted to talk about? You said something about having a fiancé and being blackmailed. That sounds more like a job for the police.”
Unusually, Katie had been quiet about the purpose of their visit. She did not answer for a few moments.
“It seems that someone has some photos of her and a man. He’s threatening to put it on Twitter or even the University web site. That’s all I know.”
Ralph groaned inwardly. He hated getting involved in anything that smacked of being sordid. He knew that people saw him as a bit of a prude, and perhaps he was. But he had decided long ago that what people did in private behind closed doors was their affair so long as it was between consenting adults. And although he was not averse to modern technology, he had strong views about how people behaved when using social networks. He had seen colleagues at the College setting up chat rooms or whatever they called them. The younger staff used them to pour out their feelings about whatever came to mind. He excused the students, after all, they had been brought up to believe that airing their views – ‘letting it all hang’ out was the way they generally phrased it –was de rigueur. Ralph’s view was that emails were no different to letters and should be treated with propriety. He realised that he was in the minority and accepted that very few of his colleagues agreed with such an old-fashioned idea. At least his secretary, Janet was his staunch supporter on this one.
“Ralph, she needs to work out what to do. You’re good at that sort of thing. Your students love you for it.”
He tried an old gambit, although he knew before he spoke that it would fail.
“Look, Katie, I’m no good with women, why don’t I just go for a walk along the river by the house or watch the seagulls while you have a heart to heart talk with her?”
“Aw, come on Ralph, she’s our friend and she needs our help. You always know exactly the right thing to say.”
He knew he was scuppered.
“Okay. Let’s just get it out of the way, and then we can start our holiday.”
An hour later he recognized the two white pillars at the entrance to Marian’s Victorian mansion. He drove the Jag slowly up the gravel drive that he remembered from that summer when Marian had entertained them and Alex Shevchenko for a weekend. Marian greeted them and led the way into the ornate foyer. The black and white tiled entrance hall was immaculate. They went into a glass covered conservatory surrounded by citrus fruit trees and other exotic plants. The room was the size of his entire ground floor apartment in Surbiton. Marian had laid out their superb lunch on a white wooden table.
“You two look great. I hope I’m not taking you too far out of your way.”
“Not at all,” Katie assured her as she kissed her friend on the cheek. “Ralph was just telling me on the way here how pleased he was that we’d get to see you.”
“Oh, Ralph, how sweet of you,” Marian said as she gave Ralph a hug. As usual, he just stood there stiffly, not exactly sure how enthusiastic a response was required.
“I expect you can remember where everything is,” Marian said as she released him. “The bathroom’s to your left down the hall.”
Ralph excused himself and said he’d like to freshen up before lunch. He hoped that if he took his time, Katie would have already broached the problem that Marian had alluded to on the phone. He was wrong.
“Look let me tell you straight away that I’m over Alex, so there’s no need to pussyfoot around that minefield,” Marian said as soon as Ralph rejoined them. “I’m engaged to be married to a marvelous man called James Bradley,” Marian said as she showed them her rather large diamond solitaire engagement ring.
“Oh, Marian, we’re so happy for you,” Katie said as she leant over and gave her friend a hug. “But tell us something about him.”
“Well, he’s a bit older than me. We met at a reception that the University had put on to celebrate the opening of the new Faculty building. James runs a big construction company and they’d done most of the work.” She sat back as though in one breath she had explained everything they needed to know.
Ralph was taken by surprise. He had somehow expected to have to tiptoe around the Alex saga.
“That’s wonderful news, isn’t it, Ralph? I hope we’ll be invited to the wedding,” said Katie.
“Yes really good news, Marian. I’m very pleased for you,” replied Ralph following Katie’s obvious prompt. He waited for the sting in the tail.
He was puzzled as to how the photos Katie had talked about fitted into all of this. If she was being blackmailed, then he presumed that her fiancé would take care of it.
Marian sat back and for an awful moment Ralph thought that she was going to cry.
“But this blackmail business may ruin everything.” She hesitated. “I can’t believe this is happening to me.”
“It can’t be that bad,” said Katie, leaning forward.
“You’re the only people I’ve spoken to about the whole sordid business.” She paused. “I’m ashamed to say that I had what we used to call a fling. But worse, I think that James found out about it and had some of his rougher friends beat the man up.”
“Was this man threatening you?” Katie asked.
“At first I thought it was just money he wanted. I could deal with that. But then he stopped calling.”
“But isn’t that a good thing? He might have got scared that you would go to the police. People who try
