"We were hoping," Quirke said, "that you might know."

Mrs. Latimer laughed, making a hard, small sound, like the tinkling of a silver bell. "I'm afraid I know very little about my daughter's doings. She doesn't * she doesn't confide in me." She glanced at them both and shrugged. "She's something of a stranger to us, I mean the rest of the family, and has been for some time. She leads her own life. It's how she wants it, it seems, and that's how it is."

Hackett sat back, frowning. Quirke put down his cup* he had not touched the tea.

"So you have no idea where she might have gone, or"* he paused a second*"or who she might be with?"

He could see her turning over the implications of his question, the second part of it in particular.

"I've told you," she said, "she leads her own life." Becoming brisk suddenly, she stubbed her half-smoked cigarette into the gla.s.s ashtray on the table before her. "I can't afford to let myself be concerned about her. April hardened her heart against us, rejected all we stand for, gave up her religion. She lives among G.o.d knows what kind of people, gets up to things I dare not speculate on. Of course, I'm not indifferent. She is my daughter, I have to love her."

"Would you rather you didn't?" Quirke said, before he could stop himself.

"Didn't what* love her?" Again that green glitter. "You're impertinent, Mr. Quirke."

"Doctor."

"Forgive me. Doctor. I'm used to a different kind of medical man. Besides, from what I hear, you're not exactly in a position yourself to challenge anyone on the duties of a parent."

Quirke only looked at her, almost but not quite smiling, and Hackett half lifted his hand as if to forestall some violent movement. They heard from downstairs the sound of the front doorbell ringing. Mrs. Latimer turned aside and set down her cup on the tray. "That will be my brother-in-law," she said. "I asked him to call in."

BILL LATIMER CAME INTO THE ROOM CHUFFING LIKE A STEAM train, his hand already out, smiling his broad, cold smile. He was large and heavy, not fat, with a wide, bony face and thick, brown, wavy hair; he was much favored, it was said, by women voters. He moved with surprising lightness, even grace, and Quirke recalled that he had been some sort of athlete in his college days. "G.o.d!" he said, "isn't the weather dire." He shook hands with both men, addressing Quirke by name. His sister-in-law he greeted with a glancing peck to the cheek and walked past her to the table by the fireplace. "I'd kill for a cup of tea," he said. "Will you ring for Maisie or Mary or what ever she's called, and tell her to bring up an extra mug."

Mrs. Latimer was wearing her chilly smile again. "This is china," she said. "I'll get Marie to make some indian for you."

He laughed, turning to her. "Christ, Celia," he said, "it's far from china tea we were reared." He rubbed his hands and held them out to the fire, then turned and lifted the flap of his jacket and offered his backside to the heat. He looked at Hackett and then at Quirke. "So," he said, "that niece of mine is causing heartache again, is she? What is it this time* another boyfriend from the criminal cla.s.ses?"

Mrs. Latimer had tugged a bellpull on the wall beside the fireplace, and now Marie the maid entered and was told a pot of tea was required*"Real tea, mind!" Latimer said with mock severity* and she went off again, grinning from the effect of the Minister's jovial charm. When she had closed the door behind her they sat down all four at the little table, and Latimer accepted a cigarette from the ebony box. Hackett briefly repeated what he and Quirke had already said to Mrs. Latimer. The Minister sat back on his chair and laughed loudly; it was a laugh without humor or warmth, a noise only. "For the Lord's sake!" he said, "she's probably off down the country somewhere with some fellow"* he broke off and turned to his sister-in-law*"I'm sorry, Celia, but you know as well as I do what she's like." He turned back to Quirke again. "A terrible tearaway, I'm afraid, the same April. Our very own black sheep."

Quirke and the policeman said nothing. The silence yawned, and then Mrs. Latimer, as at a signal, tapped her hands briskly on her knees and stood up, smoothing the pleats of her dress. "Well," she said, "I have things to be doing. I'll leave you three gents to it." She crossed to the desk and took up the diary and her propelling pencil and, casting back at them a brittle, brilliant smile, left the room, shutting the door softly behind her.

Latimer sighed. "It's hard on her, you know," he said. "She doesn't show it, but it is. That daughter of hers was wild from the start." He sat back and gave the two men a hard look each. "So: what have you to tell me?"

Hackett shifted on his chair. "We went to the young woman's flat," he said. "To have a look."

"How did you get in?"

"She leaves a key under a stone, for her friends," Quirke said. "My daughter came with us, to show us where the key was."

"And? "

Hackett hesitated. "I think, Mr. Latimer, there's cause for concern."

Latimer glanced at his watch. "Concern over what?"

"It didn't look to us like she's gone away," Hackett said. "There are two suitcases in the wardrobe in her room. And all her makeup and stuff is there* I can't imagine a girl going off without her lipstick."

"Maybe she's staying with a friend? Or as I said already, maybe she's shacked up somewhere with some fellow."

"Either way she'd have taken her things with her."

The politician and the policeman eyed each other levelly.

"Then where the h.e.l.l is she?" Latimer demanded angrily.

They all had finished their cigarettes, and now Quirke brought out his silver case and offered it round. Latimer rose with a sigh and went to the fireplace and stood leaning an elbow on the mantelpiece, looking into the burning heart of the coals. "That little b.i.t.c.h has caused nothing but trouble since the day she was born. Her father dying didn't help* she was only nine or ten, I think it was. Who knows what it does to a child when she loses her father? That's the charitable view. I'm inclined to think she'd have been the same even if Conor had lived." He put a hand into his trousers pocket and nervously jingled coins. "It's in the blood," he said. "Her grandfather, my father, was a gambler and a drunkard." He gave his empty laugh again. "The sins of the fathers, eh?" He looked at Hackett. "What else did you find?"

Again Hackett hesitated. "There was a bloodstain beside her bed."

Latimer stared. "Blood?"

"Cleaned up," the policeman said. "But of course you can't ever really get rid of blood, as I'm sure you know. It always leaves a telltale trace"*he glanced at Quirke*"isn't that so, Doctor?"

With a violent movement Latimer pushed himself away from the mantelpiece and began to pace the room, so that Quirke and the policeman had to swivel on their chairs to keep him in view. He stopped, staring at the floor and scowling. "What about the bed?" he asked. "Was there blood there, too?"

"You'd expect that, wouldn't you, if it was on the floor," Hackett said, "but I didn't find any. Only between the floorboards. I have a couple of my fellows in there now, going over the place."

Latimer set off pacing again, smoking his cigarette tightly in rapid, sharp drags. "This is not what I expected to hear," he said, as if speaking to himself. "This is serious." He stopped, turned. "It is serious, isn't it?"

Hackett lifted his shoulders and let them drop again. "We'll have to see what the forensics fellows say. I'll have their report tomorrow."

"Who are they," Latimer asked sharply, "these fellows? They'll report direct to you, yes?* they won't go blabbing around the place?" Inspector Hackett chose not to reply but sat as stolid as a bullfrog, gazing before him. "I mean," Latimer said, "I wouldn't want Celia to hear any t.i.ttle-tattle before * before there was anything official known."

Quirke could see him going over in his mind the implications for himself and his reputation should it turn out that his niece had come to a scandalous end.

"Mr. Latimer," Quirke said, "how much do you know about your niece, about the way she lives, and who she knows?"

Latimer turned on him. His brow was flushed, and there was an ugly light in his eyes. "Are you the detective now, asking the questions? Why are you here, anyway?"

Quirke gave him a long look. "My daughter came to me," he said quietly, "because she was worried about her friend, and wanted me to do something."

"So you called in the Guards before you even spoke to the family."

"I spoke to April's brother."

"So you did, yes," Latimer said with another ugly laugh. "I don't imagine you got much out of him." He came back to the fireplace again and stood facing Quirke and the policeman. "Look," he said, "you know what we're dealing with here. We can't control this young woman; we have no hold over her. She's a stranger to us. G.o.d knows what she's been getting up to in that flat* a black Ma.s.s or something, it wouldn't surprise me."

"So you don't know," Hackett said, "who she might have been friendly with?"

Latimer stared at him. "What do you mean, friendly?"

"Going with* you know."

"A boyfriend?" His look darkened. "A lover? Listen, Inspector* what's your name again? Hackett, sorry, yes. I don't know how many other ways you want me to say this* April cut herself off from us. She blamed the family for everything, trying to run her life, keeping her from being free, being too respectable* the usual stuff, and all an excuse to get out from under any authority and live it up, doing what ever she liked*"

"I'm told she's a good doctor," Quirke said. "I asked about her at the hospital." It was not true, but Latimer was not to know it.

Latimer did not like to be interrupted. "You did, did you?" he said. "So now you're carrying out surveys, are you, issuing questionnaires? What are you* a pathologist, isn't that right? I've heard of you. I thought you had retired, on health grounds."

"I was in St. John of the Cross," Quirke said.

"Nerves, was it?"

"Drink."

Latimer nodded, smiling nastily. "Right. Drink. That's what I heard." He was silent for a moment, looking Quirke up and down with a contemptuously measuring eye. Then he turned to Hackett. "Inspector," he said, "I think we'll call it a day. I can't help you about April; no one in this house can. Let me know what you find out about the bloodstain or what ever it was. I'm sure there's some simple explanation." Again he consulted his watch. "And now I'll say good day to you."

He stood before them, waiting, and they got to their feet slowly and turned towards the door. The foghorn once more sounded its blaring note. Outside on the road again Quirke would not speak and kicked the Alvis hard in one of its rear wheels, for which show of fury he got nothing save a bruised toe.

8.

THE SHAKESPEARE WAS ONE OF THE FEW PUBS WHERE TWO UNEScorted women could meet for a drink without being stared at or even asked to leave by the barman. "Well, it is the works canteen, you know," Isabel Galloway would say. All the actors from the Gate Theatre round the corner drank there, and during intervals half the men in the audience would come hurrying down and throw themselves into the crush in order to get a real drink, instead of the sour wine and ersatz coffee on offer in the theater bar. The place was small and intimate and easygoing, and in certain lights, with enough people in, and enough drink taken, it could seem the height of sophistication, or at least as high as could be hoped for, in this city.

Phoebe and Isabel met by arrangement at seven o'clock. At that hour there were few customers, and they sat at a table in a corner by the window and were not disturbed. Phoebe had a gla.s.s of shandy; Isabel was drinking her usual gin and tonic. "I'm resting for the next fortnight," she had said in her weariest drawl, "so this is going to have to be your treat, darling." She was wearing a green feather boa and the little pillbox hat that Phoebe had got for her at a discount from the Maison des Chapeaux where she worked. Her unnervingly long nails were painted scarlet, and her lipstick was scarlet to match. Phoebe as always was captivated by her friend's extraordinary complexion, its porcelain paleness and fragility set off by the merest touches of rouge placed high on her cheekbones, and those vivid lips, sharply curved and glistening, that looked as if a rare and exotic b.u.t.terfly had settled on her mouth and clung there, twitching and throbbing. "Well," Isabel asked now, "what's the latest? Has April escaped from the white slave trade and come back to tell the tale?"

Phoebe shook her head. "My father and I went round to her flat yesterday," she said. "With a detective."

Isabel opened her eyes very wide. "A detective! How exciting!"

"There's not a sign of her there, Bella. Everything in the flat is just as she left it* she might have walked out to go to the shop and not come back. She can't have gone away; she took nothing with her. It's as if she vanished into thin air."

Isabel shook her head with her eyelids lightly closed. "Darling, no one vanishes into the air, thick or thin."

"Then where is she?"

Her friend looked away, and busied herself searching in her purse. "Have you got a cigarette? I seem to be out."

"I've given up smoking," Phoebe said.

"Oh, my G.o.d, you haven't, have you? You're becoming more virtuous every day, a nun, practically, I can't keep up with you* not, mind you, that I want to." Phoebe said nothing. There was a sourness sometimes to Isabel's tone that was not appealing. "I suppose," she said, "you wouldn't like to buy some f.a.gs for me? I really am broke." Phoebe reached for her purse. "You're such a darling, Pheeb. I feel a complete s.l.u.t compared to you. Gold Flake* a packet of ten will do."

At the bar, while she waited for the barman to give her the cigarettes and fetch her change, Phoebe recalled an evening that the little band had spent here three or four weeks previously. Isabel had been in a play that closed after five per formances, and her friends had gathered in the Shakespeare to console her. There were the usual stares from the other customers* Patrick seeming not to notice, as always* nevertheless it had turned into a jolly occasion. April was there, gay and sardonic. They had drunk a little more than they should have, and when they came outside at closing time the streets were glittering with frost, and they walked under the sparkling stars round to the Gresham in hope of persuading the barman there, an avowed and ever hopeful admirer of Isabel's, to give them a nightcap. In the lobby they laughed too loudly and spent some time shushing each other, putting fingers to each other's lips and spluttering. To their disappointment Isabel's fan was not working that night and no one would give them a drink, and instead Patrick invited them back to his flat up by Christ Church. The others had gone with him, but something, a vague yet insurmountable unwillingness* was it shyness? was it some obscure sort of fear?* made Phoebe lie and say she had a headache, and she took a taxi home. When she got home she was sorry, of course, but by then it was too late; she would have felt a fool turning up at Patrick's door at dead of night, pretending that her headache had suddenly vanished. But she knew that something happened at Patrick's that night; no one would talk about it next day, or in the days after that, but it was their very silence that told her something definitely had occurred.

She brought the packet of cigarettes back to the table.

"Tell me what the detective said," Isabel urged, tearing at the cellophane with her scarlet nails. "No, wait* first tell me what he was like. Tall, dark, and handsome? Was he the Cary Grant type, all smooth and sophisticated, or big and dangerous like Robert Mitchum?"

Phoebe had to laugh. "He's short, pasty, and plug-ugly, I'm afraid. Hackett is his name, which suits him, somehow. I met him before, when*" She stopped, and a shadow fell across her features.

"Oh," Isabel said. "You mean in Harcourt Street, when all that*"

"Yes. Yes, then." Phoebe found herself nodding, very rapidly, she could not stop, she was like one of those figures on a poor box that nod when a penny is put in, and her breathing had quickened too. She closed her eyes. She must get hold of herself. She would not think of that night in Harcourt Street, the breeze coming in through the wide-open window and the man below on the area railings, impaled there.

Isabel put a hand on hers. "Are you all right, darling?"

"I'm fine. I just* really, I'm fine."

"Have a real drink, for goodness' sake. Have a brandy."

"No, I'd rather not. It's just sometimes, when I remember*" She sat back on the seat; it was upholstered in plush the color of watered wine; she put her hands down at her sides, and somehow the texture of the nap comforted her, reminding her, she did not know why, of childhood. "Isabel," she said, "what happened that night at Patrick's? You remember, after the show had folded and we all came here and got drunk, and you and the others went off with Patrick afterwards to his flat."

Isabel made herself busy detaching an imaginary flake of tobacco from her lip. "What do you mean," she said, looking away and frowning, "what do you mean, what happened?"

"Something did. You all kept very quiet about it, and Jimmy was even more sarcastic than usual."

"Oh, I don't remember. We were drunk, as you have so sweetly reminded me, though you weren't, I'm sure, since you're such a good good girl." She smiled with mock sweetness. "I suppose there must have been a row or something* you know how Jimmy is with Patrick when he has a drop taken." Phoebe waited. She was calm now, in a horrible sort of way. Isabel, still not looking at her, gave a vexed little sigh that did not sound quite right, that was like a stage sigh. "Yes, all right, yes, there was a row. It blew up over nothing, as usual. Jimmy wanted to walk April home*he was in his chivalrous mode* and April wouldn't go. Eventually I persuaded him to stop sulking, and said why didn't he walk girl." She smiled with mock sweetness. "I suppose there must have been a row or something* you know how Jimmy is with Patrick when he has a drop taken." Phoebe waited. She was calm now, in a horrible sort of way. Isabel, still not looking at her, gave a vexed little sigh that did not sound quite right, that was like a stage sigh. "Yes, all right, yes, there was a row. It blew up over nothing, as usual. Jimmy wanted to walk April home*he was in his chivalrous mode* and April wouldn't go. Eventually I persuaded him to stop sulking, and said why didn't he walk me me home?" home?"

"And then? "

"And then we left. Jimmy and I. It was a lovely night, frost everywhere and not a soul on the streets. It would have been quite romantic if it had been anybody other than Jimmy."

Isabel was lighting a second cigarette from the b.u.t.t of the first one. Phoebe wondered if she was imagining it, or were her friend's hands shaking ever so slightly? Was she telling the truth about that night?

"And April stayed there?" Phoebe asked. "With Patrick?"

"Well, I'm sure it depends what you mean by stayed stayed, darling." Now at last she turned her face and looked full at Phoebe, as if defiantly, with an odd, hard light in her eyes. "Wouldn't you say?"

It seemed to Phoebe that the lamps in the bar had suddenly dimmed. She tasted something sour at the back of her throat. How they wait to ambush us, our true emotions, she thought.

"I really do think," Isabel was saying, in her husky, stage drawl, "that too much is made of these late-night incidents. No one is himself, half crazy on drink and looking for hidden significance in every littlest thing. Of course, I may have missed a lot, since at that time of night I'm usually so drained after two or three hours standing on a stage shrieking at people who do nothing but shriek back at me, the same thing, over and over, every night. All I I ever want to do is crawl into bed with a hot water bottle, and the only stiff thing I want near me is a drink." ever want to do is crawl into bed with a hot water bottle, and the only stiff thing I want near me is a drink."

Phoebe felt as if she had struggled through a dense and th.o.r.n.y thicket and come out into an ashen, waste place. "So they were lovers," she said flatly.

"What?" Isabel stared and gave what sounded like a forced laugh. "Do you know, I don't think I've ever heard that word used in real life, outside the theater? Lovers, indeed!"

"Well, weren't they* aren't they?"

Isabel shrugged. "My dear," she said in her jaded, worldly way, "you really have the most vivid imagination, for the convent girl you pretend to be. Patrick of course must be fairly bursting with primitive urges* but lovers? I can't quite see it, can you? You know what April is like."

"What do you mean, what she's like?"

"Well, I rather think there's a lot more talk there than action. In my experience the ones who seem the keenest goers turn out to be virgins in the end." She patted her friend's hand. "How quaint you are, darling Phoebe, quaint and adorably straitlaced. Are you jealous? You're blushing* you are are jealous. Mind you, I can understand it. He is quite a hunk of dusky manhood, isn't he?" Her voice had hardened, and there was that cold, bitter light in her eyes again. jealous. Mind you, I can understand it. He is quite a hunk of dusky manhood, isn't he?" Her voice had hardened, and there was that cold, bitter light in her eyes again.

"Yes," Phoebe said, "yes, he's very* he's very beautiful."

Isabel looked at her. "For G.o.d's sake," she said sharply, "don't say you're smitten, too."

Phoebe would not weep; weeping would bring no comfort to her suddenly wrung heart. She was sure, what ever Isabel said, that April and Patrick had been lovers. The notion of it had often crossed her mind, but she had never really believed it; now she did. Once planted, the conviction would not weaken. And Isabel was right, she was jealous. But the worst of it was she did not know which of them she was jealous of, April or Patrick.

No, she would not weep.

AND THEN OF COURSE NEXT DAY SHE HAD TO GO AND MAKE A FOOL of herself. She knew she should not do it, but she went ahead and did. She reasoned that since it was her lunch hour she could pretend, if she had to, that she was out for a stroll. Ridiculous, of course; who would believe that anyone would stroll all the way from Grafton Street up to Christ Church in this weather? She had not really expected to see him; after all, what were the chances that he would be at home in the middle of the day? Not that she had any intention of calling on him. What, then, was she thinking of? It was childish; she was like a schoolgirl hanging about the streets hoping for a glimpse of some boy she had a crush on. She told herself to stop being stupid and turn back, yet on she went, through the foul, damp air, and when she turned from Christchurch Place into Castle Street there he was! She saw him walking towards her from the other direction, in his brown duffle coat and a woolen scarf, carrying a string bag of groceries. He did not spot her right away and she thought of turning on her heel and fleeing, but she knew it was too late; he would see her then, surely, running away, and would think her an even bigger fool, and furthermore she would know herself for a coward. So she went on, forcing herself to seem as surprised as he must be.

"Phoebe!" he said, stopping, with that big smile of his. "How good to see you."

"I was* I was meeting someone," she said. "Over at the cathedral. A friend of mine. I just left her." She was babbling, she could hear herself. "I forgot you lived in this street. I'm on my way back to work."

Patrick was still smiling. He must know she was lying. What would he think she was doing here? Would he realize she must have been hoping he would be there and she would meet him? "Come in for a minute," he said. "It's so cold."