Across the road, the policeman at the door observed the woman that he was protecting talking to a man. He decided to investigate, although his order had been to stand at the woman’s front door during the day, a particularly tedious task. The constable crossed the road and made towards Sally and her father.
Malcolm Woolston stood up and walked away. Sally moved towards the policeman. ‘Is it all right?’ he asked.
‘Fine, thank you.’
As she went back into her house, she looked over at the park; her father was gone. She considered contacting her mother, but for some reason she did not. She had felt safe with the man, even his granddaughter had smiled at him. She knew he would not harm them.
***
Ed Barrow returned to his office the day after the revelation that his wife’s former husband was still alive. He was confident that no one suspected that he already knew, even before the police officers had visited him in his office.
Sue Christie was soon in his office. She flung her arms around his neck to give him an early morning kiss. He pulled back. ‘Why?’ she asked.
‘Sorry, there’s too much going on. Don’t you see it? We’re targeted as well.’
‘Why me?’
‘Why not? You were here when he contacted me, and he knows about our affair.’
‘It’s your affair, not mine. You went and married Gwen, not me.’
‘You know I had to.’
‘Doing your duty for Queen and country?’
‘We had to know if he ever contacted her.’
‘You signed the initial order authorising Malcolm’s torture. The man was brutal with him. I’m with Malcolm on that one. But why us? Why me?’
‘Malcolm’s mind could be disturbed. If he’s settling old debts, then we could be drawn in. He knows that we’re here making love. He’s probably got videos. What if he shows Gwen?’
‘He’ll not do that. He was always devoted to her, you know that. Remember that time when we’d had a few too many drinks, and I sat on his lap,’ Sue said.
‘You were looking for a foursome.’
‘I was just joking.’
‘But if they had agreed?’
‘I’d have been game, so would you, don’t deny it.’
‘It didn’t happen, and Malcolm was sure angry for you suggesting it.’
‘He’ll not harm her; he’ll not harm you, because of her.’
‘You weren’t here,’ Ed said,’ when they went to work on Malcolm.’
‘You told me afterwards.’
‘I told you too much.’
***
Malcolm Woolston had made a promise, a promise he could not keep indefinitely. His daughter was right in that she wanted to protect her mother from further anguish, but then his daughter was idealistic, saw the world through rose-coloured glasses.
Ed Barrow was a malignant parasite who had sold out to the highest bidder. The man sat in a decent office, with a personal assistant and a hefty salary; blood money as Woolston saw it.
He looked out of the window of his flat. A couple of children played down below, a dog barked in the distance, yet in his small flat there was nothing. The television no longer interested him, the food that he had bought had gone stale. In the past, when he had been with Gwen and Sally, he had enjoyed preparing the evening meal whenever Gwen came in late, even picking their daughter up from school. But now, he had nothing, not a noise, not a friendly face.
He looked around the flat. It was dull and devoid of reading material. Not that he wanted to read; too many ideas swirling in his mind, too many unfinished equations, too many people still alive who should not be.
Unable to sit down, Woolston left the flat and returned to where the chance of his being recognised was at its greatest. He walked past his daughter’s house, past his wife’s house. He could see her through the kitchen window. He thought she still looked lovely. He continued walking for several hours, finally arriving at Sue Christie’s address. The woman was not there, he could tell that. He walked around the back of the building, peered in the window, saw the cat that she had had eleven years before, although it was now looking old.
***
Ed Barrow knew that Sue had been correct. Initially, he had been close to Gwen out of a feeling of compassion for her, coupled with the more immediate reason for finding out where her husband had gone. It was clear after six months that she had no idea where he was, only a belief that he was dead. With Malcolm’s disappearance, he realised that he loved the woman. Sue was fun, and always ready to be laid, but with Gwen it was romance, a bottle of wine, and candles.
Sue was Thursday night in the office, or in the back seat of his car, or wherever. He liked her, and although she could be irritating, he still could not resist.
Ed knew that Malcolm was a liability, not only for the department but for his life. Eleven years earlier, it had been him who had postulated that Woolston’s disappearance had been an elaborately constructed hoax.
The research still remained uncompleted; others had tried, only one person looked as though she may succeed. Ed realised that Liz Hardcastle had not fallen off the platform at the railway station; she had been pushed.
***
‘What is the response from Barrow? Have you been keeping a watch on him?’ a man in uniform said.
‘We should have told him that Malcolm Woolston was back when we saw his formula on the internet.’
‘Hindsight, pure hindsight,’ the man said as he drank his brandy.
It was not often that the two men met. One was a minister of the Crown, the other, a general. In a gentlemen’s club in Mayfair, their conversation would be confidential. It was
