“Do you think you could phone your husband, Mrs. Hintlesham?” asked Stadler, following me into the kitchen.
“Why can’t you phone him yourself?”
“We want to talk to him. We thought it might sound more civilized from you.”
“When?”
“Straightaway.”
“What on earth for?”
“We need to clarify a couple of points.”
“We’ve got a drinks party this evening. An important one.”
“The quicker we can talk to him, the quicker he’ll be free.”
I picked up the phone.
“He’s going to be irritated,” I said.
He was very irritated.
The phone rang. It was Josh and Harry, calling from America, early morning for them, although they sounded as if they were just round the corner and at any moment would come charging into the house. Harry told me he had caught a pike, whatever that is, in the lake and he had learned how to sailboard. Josh asked me how things were at home; his voice jumped from boy’s to man’s, the way it does when he’s overemotional.
“Fine, darling.”
“Are the police still there?”
“I think they’re making progress.”
A little gust of hope blew through me.
“Do we have to stay out here another two weeks?”
“Don’t be silly, darling, you’re having a lovely time. Have you got enough money to last?”
“Yes, but-”
“And did I pack the right clothes? Oh, and remember to tell Harry that there are spare batteries for his Walkman in your backpack.”
“Yeah.”
I put the phone down feeling the conversation hadn’t been a success. Christo trailed past, dragging a blanket after him. I felt a sharp pang of guilt when I saw his blotchy, sullen face.
“Hello, Christo,” I said to him. “Can Mummy have a hug?”
He turned to me.
“I’m not Christo,” he said. “I’m Alexander. And you’re not my mummy.” Lena called to him from his room in her singsong Swedish accent and he raised his yellow head. “Coming, Mummy,” he shouted, darting a glance of triumph at me as he went.
I changed my trousers for a yellow, low-waisted sundress and threaded earrings into my lobes. I looked in the mirror. I wasn’t wearing any makeup. My face was thin and pale, my hair was a mess, my eyes were oddly bright although the skin under them was all papery and frail, and there was a long red scratch on my cheek. How had that got there? I hardly recognized myself anymore.
Dr. Schilling ordered me to eat the omelette that she made, using the herbs I’d been saving for dinner after the drinks party. Never mind. I ate it in a few forkfuls, hardly chewing it, stuffing in brown, slightly stale bread after each rapid mouthful. I hadn’t realized how famished I was. She watched me as I ate, leaning her chin on a hand, staring at me as if I puzzled her. Soon, I thought, I would get control back, clean the house, bring back the workmen, the gardener, the cleaner, take a deep breath and find the energy to be Jenny Hintlesham all over again. Tomorrow. I would begin again tomorrow. But just for this once, there was something pleasantly anesthetizing about being looked after. It no longer felt like my own house, just a place I was sitting in, waiting for something to happen; everyone was waiting for something to happen.
My eyes clicked open. A key in the lock, a door slamming loudly, heavy footsteps in the hall.
“Jenny. Jens, where are you?”
Grace Schilling stood up at the same time as me. Stadler and Links were there before us. We all converged by the staircase.
“What’s going on?” Clive scowled; his voice was loud and abrupt; it made my head ache. At that moment he saw a box of his precious documents on the hall floor. I saw a vein pulsing angrily in his forehead.
“Mr. Hintlesham,” said Stadler. “Thanks for coming.” He was much taller than Clive, who looked square and hot next to him.
“Yes?”
He was talking to Stadler as if he were a particularly low-grade functionary.
“We’d prefer it if you could come with us,” said Links.
Clive stared.
“What do you mean?” he said. “Why not here?”
“We want to take a statement. It would be better.”
Clive looked at his watch.
“For God’s sake,” he said. “This had better be important.”
“Please,” said Stadler, holding open the door for Clive, who turned to me before leaving.
“Phone Jan and tell her something,” he snapped at me. “Anything that doesn’t make us both look stupid. And Becky. Go to that party and make sure you are jolly, as if everything is perfectly normal, do you hear?” I put a hand on his arm but he shook it off violently. “I am sick of this,” he said. “Utterly sick.”
Grace Schilling went too, buttoning up her long jacket purposefully before striding out the door.
I rang Clive’s office and told Jan that Clive had a bad back. “Again?” she said sarcastically, which I didn’t understand at all. I told Becky Richards the same, two hours later, and she laughed sympathetically. “Men are such hypochondriacs, aren’t they?” She sniggered.
I looked round the room, at all the women in their black dresses and all the men in their dark suits. I knew most of them by sight, at least, but suddenly I couldn’t summon up the energy to talk to them. I couldn’t think of a single thing I had to say. I felt quite empty.
TWELVE
Clive didn’t arrive and I felt more and more out of place standing there fiddling with the glass in my hand, looking at pictures in hand, walking from one room to another as if I were urgently on my way to meet someone, somewhere. I realized, almost with a feeling of horror, that being at a party on my own had become an utterly unfamiliar experience. It felt wrong, too. I’ve sometimes joked with Clive that when I go out to a party with him I know that it’s really him people want to see and that I’m really there as Mrs. Clive.
So it was a relief rather than a hideous embarrassment when Becky told me there was someone at the door for me.
“A policeman,” she said with awkward puzzled delicacy.
Because we all know what the idea of a policeman at the door means for ordinary people like us: There’s been an accident, a death, a disappearance. But I wasn’t an ordinary person like them anymore. I went to the door feeling unworried. Stadler was there on the doorstep with a uniformed officer I hadn’t seen before. Becky hovered for a moment, helpful and nosy. The officer didn’t speak and I turned and looked questioningly at Becky.
“If there’s anything I can do, I’ll be inside,” she said and moved back, reluctantly.
I turned back to the officer.
“Sorry to bother you,” he said. “I was sent to tell you that your husband won’t be along. Mr. Hintlesham’s still being interviewed.”
“Oh,” I said. “Is anything the matter?”
“We’re just trying to clear up some details.”
We stood there on Becky’s doorstep looking at each other.
“I don’t really want to go back to the party,” I said.
“We can run you back home, if you like,” Stadler said. Then he said: “Jenny,” and I blushed violently.
“I’ll get my coat.”
Nobody spoke to me on the short drive back. Stadler and the officer murmured to each other once or twice. Back at the house, Stadler walked up the steps with me. As I turned the key in the lock it felt for an absurd moment as if the two of us were coming back from an evening out together and we were saying good night.
“Will Clive be back this evening?” I said firmly as if to show myself how stupid that was.
“I’m not sure,” Stadler said.
“What are you talking to him about?”
“We need him to corroborate some details of the investigation.” Stadler looked around casually while speaking. “Oh, and there’s one other thing. As part of this extra push in the inquiry, we would like to conduct a more detailed search of your house tomorrow morning. Do you have any objection to that?”