Tim shifted suddenly on his seat. ‘Yes. Why?’
‘I was just wondering when you got it.’
He shrugged his shoulders, but looked uncomfortable. ‘A couple of weeks ago.’
‘Did you buy it? It’s very smart. It must have cost the earth.’ She knew he didn’t have the £500 or so that iPhones like his went for. Some months he didn’t even have his share of the rent.
‘Not really,’ Tim said reluctantly.
‘Well, have you signed a new contract or something?’
‘No. But what does it matter?’
‘Well, of course it matters. If you’ve taken out an expensive phone contract, how are you going to pay your share of the household bills?’
‘Well, I haven’t.’
‘So where did you come by such a fancy phone?’
‘From someone I met.’ He spoke jerkily. ‘Through a group.’
‘A group?’
‘Online,’ he snapped. ‘An online group. People who think like me about civil liberties. But they think of their own free will, unlike the clones you work with.’
‘So you made a friend online and they gave you an iPhone?’
‘It wasn’t like that.’ He looked embarrassed, but said angrily, ‘I met the person actually, since you ask. And we share the same views.’
‘About what?’
‘The internet. The need for freedom of speech. Thanks to your lot, no one can be sure that communications are confidential. Snowden showed that governments can look at anything – and they do.’
‘It would take at least a couple of million people to look at everybody’s email. Frankly, we have better things to do.’
‘That’s not the point. You can’t feel safe on the internet. You never know for sure that Big Brother isn’t snooping on everything you do. Phones are much safer.’ He looked at her defiantly. ‘I’m not doing anything wrong. The state is. I don’t want them poking about in my business.’
Peggy shook her head, partly to clear the cobwebs induced by the sedative, partly in disbelief. She had heard most of this before from Tim, but it was still utter codswallop. How on earth could an intelligent man think that accessing the internet on a phone was any different from doing so on a computer, or safer if it came to that? Someone had been filling his head with rubbish. She said, ‘This “friend” of yours, is female?’
‘As a matter of fact, she is. But that’s nothing to do with it.’
‘Oh, really? She admires your ideas, I suppose; so much that she gives you expensive unsolicited gifts. I wasn’t born yesterday, you know.’ Peggy found herself growing angry, if only because Tim was being so unforthcoming. If he were having an affair, if he had found someone else, it would hurt, yes, and it would mean their relationship was over. But then why couldn’t he say so?
‘I promise you, it’s not like that. Marina – that’s the woman’s name – isn’t interested in me that way.’
So maybe this woman was taking him for a mug. Though that didn’t explain why she’d given him an expensive phone. Peggy said angrily, ‘And what about you? Is your interest purely intellectual?’
‘I barely know what the woman looks like. I only met her for the first time at that talk we went to. You know, the one Jasminder gave before she joined the Spooks.’
‘Spooks? Is that what you call us now?’
‘It’s just a name, Peggy,’ said Tim, but he looked ashamed of himself.
She frowned. ‘I still don’t understand – especially if this Marina woman is only interested in your mind – why she gave you a phone. It doesn’t make any sense. It would be like my giving some casual friend a laptop for Christmas. Over the top, inappropriate, and actually downright weird.’
‘I explained – it’s to keep our exchanges confidential. And anyway, it’s not what you think. Marina has a friend who beta-tests phones for Apple and had a few spare. She asked if I would like one. I said, of course. So she gave me one. It may look weird,’ he acknowledged, sounding defensive, ‘but that’s the truth.’
Peggy didn’t know what to say. Fortunately the nurse came in just then, to take her temperature and blood pressure, while another woman brought supper on a tray. By the time she’d set it down and filled the water jug, Tim had left. Peggy didn’t mind that he hadn’t even said goodbye.
38
It had been a long day, and Liz had got back to her flat wanting nothing but a hot bath, a large glass of white wine and perhaps a chunk of Cheddar and a biscuit, when the phone rang. All thoughts of these creature comforts disappeared when the desk officer at Thames House informed her that Peggy Kinsolving had been attacked, and was now in the Royal Free in Hampstead, receiving treatment. She would be all right, the desk officer assured Liz, but had been quite badly hurt.
It was another twenty-four hours before Liz saw Peggy in the flesh, though by then she had already made two trips to Hampstead. Peggy was being scanned on the first occasion; the next time, she was in a drug-induced sleep, which the nurses said would not wear off for several hours. There was no sign of Tim at the hospital, though apparently he knew all about the incident and had visited; a nurse told Liz he’d actually been on the scene just moments after the assault. There didn’t seem to be anyone else to notify: Peggy’s father had died many years before and Liz knew that her mother was in a home, suffering from advanced dementia.
This time she found Peggy wide awake – and looking grumpy. ‘So,’ said Liz, handing her a box of After Eights and a paperback edition of Cold Comfort Farm, ‘what’s the prognosis?’
Peggy explained she’d be in for another day or two. ‘The doctors tell me I can come back to work next week.’
‘Take your time. I’d rather you were fully fit before you return.’ Liz paused, then said, ‘By the way, I’ve spoken to Special Branch. We’re trying to work out who did this to you, and why, but I can’t say we’ve got very far.’
Peggy shook her head wearily. ‘I am sure there’s something behind it but I’ve thought and thought and I can’t work out what it is.’
‘Well, try and leave it for now or you won’t get better. Anyway, have you got everything you need?’
‘Yes, thanks. And thank you for the chocs – and the book. I’ve never read it.’
‘It’s very funny. I hope it won’t hurt you to laugh.’
Peggy grinned, and for a moment looked her old perky self. Then the slight melancholy Liz had noticed recently in her young friend re-emerged, settling on her face like a gloomy mask. Liz said gently, ‘Has Tim been to see you?’
‘Yes. You must have just missed him. He brought me those,’ and she pointed to the grapes that were beginning to shrivel on their plate. Liz couldn’t help smiling at the unattractive-looking specimens, and was relieved to find Peggy smiling too.
Then she said, ‘Liz, if someone you knew and liked – a friend, let’s say, but nothing more – suddenly offered you an iPhone, would you think it odd?’
‘You mean, as a present?’
Peggy nodded.
‘Well, I’d say it was pretty unusual. Why? What’s happened?’
‘Tim was given a phone by… someone called Marina.’ A tear start to roll down Peggy’s cheek. ‘He said they talk in an online chat room. A bunch of kindred spirits apparently. Snowdenistas one and all.’
‘I remember you telling me he was getting involved with those people.’
Peggy nodded, her expression grim. ‘He says it’s purely a sharing of interests, but it sounds pretty fishy to me.’ She sighed, then winced as she moved her shoulder.
Liz said sympathetically, ‘You mentioned things had been difficult lately.’
‘That’s putting it mildly. But I thought it was his politics that had changed. I didn’t think—’ Peggy stopped talking and looked away. Liz noticed another tear fall. She felt for Peggy, but something in this story didn’t seem as obvious as her friend thought. If Tim were seeing someone else, wouldn’t he have just come out and said so? He had always struck Liz as slightly weak, even nerdish, but duplicity seemed out of character for him – if anything, he was painfully ingenuous.