A Small Town in Germany

'They all knew, did they? You made a display of it, did you?'

'First of all he chases after me... besieges me with declarations of love... like a gigolo really. Of course, I me an there's part of me that sees through that all right, don't you worry. Running hot and cold like that: who does he think he is?'

She lay across the chair, her head buried in the crook of her elbow, her shoulders shaking to the rhythm of her sobbing.

'You've got to tell me,' Turner said. He was standing over her, his hand on her arm. 'Listen. You've got to tell me what happened at the end of January. It was something important, wasn't it? Something he asked you to do for him. Something political. Something special you're afraid of. First of all he made up to you. He worked on you, took you by surprise... then he got what he wanted: something very simple he couldn't get for himself. And when he'd got it he didn't want you any more.'

The sobbing started.

'You told him something he needed to know; you did him a favour: a favour to help him a long the line. All right, you're not unique. There's a good few others have done the same thing one way or the other, believe me. So what is it?' He knelt down beside her. 'What was it that was injudicious? What was it that involved third parties? Tell me! It was something that frightened the life out of you! Tell me what it was!'

'Oh God, I lent him the keys. I lent him the keys,' she said.

'Hurry.'

'The Duty Officer's. The whole lot. He came to me and begged me... no, not begged. No.'

She was sitting up, white in the face. Turner refilled her glass and put it back in her hand.

'I was on duty. Night Duty Officer. Thursday January the twenty-third. Leo wasn't allowed to be Duty Officer. There are things temporaries can't see: special instructions... contingency plans. I'd stayed in to cope with a rush of telegrams; it must have been half past seven, eight o'clock. I was leaving the cypher room... just going to Registry, and I saw him standing there. As if he'd been waiting. Smiling. "Jenny," he said, "what a nice surprise." I was so happy.'

The sobbing broke out again.

'I was so happy. I'd been longing for him to speak to me again. He'd been waiting for me, I knew he had; he was pretending it was an accident. And I said to him: "Leo." I'd never called him that before. Leo. We just talked, standing in the corridor. What a lovely surprise, he kept saying. Perhaps he could give me dinner? I reminded him, in case he had forgotten, that I was on duty. That didn't bother him either. What a pity, how about tomorrow night? Then the weekend? He would ring me on Saturday morning, how would that be? That would be fine, I said, I'd like that. And we could go for a walk first, he said, up on the football field? I was so happy. I still had the telegrams in my arms, a whole bundle, so I said well, I'd better get a long, post these into Arthur Meadowes. He wanted to take them for me but I said no, I could manage them, it was all right. I was just turning a way...I wanted to be first to go, you see, I didn't want him walking away from me. I was just going and he said, "Oh Jenny, look here, by the way..." You know the way he talks. "Well, a ridiculous thing has happened, the choir are all hanging around downstairs and no one can unlock the Assembly Room door. Somebody's locked it and we can't find the key and we wondered whether you had one." It seemed a bit odd really; I couldn't think why anyone should want to lock it in the first place. So I said, yes, I'd come down and open it; I'd just have to check in some telegrams for distribution. I me an he knew I'd got a key; the Duty Officer has a spare key for every room in the Embassy. "Don'tbother to come down," he says. "just give me the key and I'll do it for you. It won't take twominutes." And he saw me hesitate.'

She closed her eyes.

'He was so little,' she burst out. 'You could hurt him so easily. I'd already accused him of opening my letters. I loved him... I swear I've never loved anyone...' Gradually her crying stopped.

'So you gave him the keys? The whole bunch? That's room keys, safe keys -'

'Keys to all desks and steel cupboards; to the front and rear doors of the building and the key to turn off the alarm in Chancery Registry.'

'Lift keys?'

'The lift wasn't bolted by then... the grilles weren't up... They did that the next weekend.'

'How long did he have them for?'

'Five minutes. Maybe less. It's not long enough, is it?' She had seized his arm beseeching him. 'Say it's not long enough.'

'To take an impression? He could take fifty impressions if he knew what he was about.'

'He'd need wax or plasticine or something: I asked. I looked it up.'

'He'd have had it ready in his room,' Turner said indifferently. 'He lived on the ground floor.

Don't worry,' he added gently. 'He may just have been letting in the choir. Don't let your imagination run a way with you.'

She had stopped crying. Her voice calmed. She spoke with a sense of private recognition: 'It wasn't choir practice night. Choir practice is on Fridays. This was Thursday.'

'You found out, did you? Asked the Chancery Guard?'

'I knew already! I knew when I handed him the keys! I tell myself I didn't, but I did. But I had to trust him. It was an act of giving. Don't you see? An act of giving, an act of love. How can I expect a man to understand that?'

'And after you'd given,' Turner said, getting up, 'he didn't want you any more, did he?'

'That's like all men, isn't it?'

'Did he ring you Saturday?'

'You know he didn't.' Her face was still buried in her forearm. He closed the notebook. 'Can you hear me?'

'Yes.'

'Did he ever mention a woman to you; a Margaret Aickman? He was engaged to her. She knew Harry Praschko as well.'

'No.' 'No other woman?' 'No.' 'Did he ever talk politics?' 'No.' 'Did he ever give you any cause to suppose he was a person of strong left-wing leanings?'

'No.' 'Ever see him in the company of suspicious persons?'

'No.' 'Did he talk about his childhood? His uncle? An uncle who lived in Hampstead. A Communist who brought him up?' 'No.' 'Uncle Otto?' 'No.' 'Did he ever mention Praschko?

Well, did he? Did he ever mention Praschko, do you hear?' 'He said Praschko was the only friend he'd ever had.' She broke down again, and again he waited.

'Did he mention Praschko's politics?'

'No.' 'Did he say they were still friends?'

She shook her head. 'Somebody had lunch with Harting last Thursday. The day before he left. At the Maternus. Was that you?' 'I told you! I swear to you!' 'Was it?' 'No!' 'He's marked it down as you. It's marked P. That's how he wrote you down other times.' 'It wasn't me!' 'Then it was Praschko, was it?' 'How should I know?' 'Because you had an affair with him! You told me half and not the rest! You were sleeping with him up to the day he left!'

'It's not true!'

'Why did Bradfield protect him? He hated Leo's guts; why did he look after him like that? Give him jobs? Keep him on the payroll?'

'Please go,' she said. 'Pleasego. Never come back.'

'Why?'

She sat up.

'Get out,' she said.

'You had dinner with him Friday night. The night he left. You were sleeping with him and you won't admit it!'

'No!' 'He asked you about the Green File! He made you get the despatch box for him!'

'He didn't! He didn't! Get out!' 'I want a cab.' He waited while she telephoned.

'Sofort,' she said, 'Sofort,' come at once and take him a way.

He was at the door. 'What will you do when you find him?' she asked with that slack voice that follows passion.

'Not my business.'

'Don't you care?'

'We never will find him, so what does it matter?'

'Then why look for him?'

'Why not? That's how we spend our lives, isn't it? Looking for people we'll never find.'

He walked slowly down the stairs to the hall. From another flat came the growl of a cocktail party. A group of Arabs, very drunk, swept past him pulling off their coats and shouting. He waited on the doorstep. Across the river, the narrow lights of Chamberlain's Petersberg hung like a necklace in the warm dark.

A new block stood directly before him. It seemed to have been built from the top, beginning with the crane and working downwards. He thought he had seen it before from a different angle. A railway bridge straddled the end of the avenue. As the express thundered over it, he saw the silent diners grazing at their food.