‘I guess not,’ said Eve.
‘But maybe he interfered in some way with what Lane himself was spraying on the crop at Peat Ridge!’ exclaimed Steven, excited at the thought. ‘That would make much more sense. If he managed to tamper with the herbicides that they were using on Peat Ridge in some way, that might explain a lot!’
‘How would you go about proving that?’ asked Eve.
‘I think I just have,’ said Steven. He told her about his nocturnal visit to Peat Ridge Farm and of the chemical samples that he’d taken and sent off for analysis. ‘You see, I thought that maybe Agrigene were using unlicensed weedkillers. It could be that Tom Rafferty interfered with them.’
‘You didn’t ever work for Cadbury’s Milk Tray, did you?’ asked Eve.
Steven came back down to earth with a bump when he saw the one thing that didn’t fit. ‘But why would the government cover it up?’ he exclaimed. ‘That bit just doesn’t make sense. They wouldn’t have made a deal with Trish over something like that. They would have handed the whole thing over to the police.’
‘You’re right,’ agreed Eve. ‘It would just have been a case of one farmer doing the dirty on his neighbour… unless what he did was so awful that the government just couldn’t allow it to become public?’
‘Now what would come in to that category…?’ Steven wondered out loud.
‘Nerve gas? Radioactive material? Viruses? Killer bugs? Some awful carcinogenic compound that might affect the whole community?’ suggested Eve.
‘But where would someone like Rafferty get his hands on anything like that?’
‘You’re right,’ conceded Eve. ‘It’s not as if he used any kind of chemicals on his farm. He’s not grown anything for donkeys’ years. Apart from that, no one in their right mind would have trusted him with a tube of Smarties on his own, let alone a dangerous substance.’
‘I suppose he might have managed to get his hands on something in some kind of a behind-the-scenes black market deal,’ said Steven.
‘Possible I suppose,’ agreed Eve. ‘They say you can get your hands on anything you want if you know the right people.’
‘But why would they just leave the contaminated crop in the field?’ wondered Steven out loud.
‘Because the law has stopped them doing anything else?’ ventured Eve.
‘The law wouldn’t have got a look in if it had really been anything to do with any of the agents you mentioned,’ said Steven. ‘The whole area would have been sealed off and a massive decontamination exercise initiated. Instead we have the GM crop standing in the field, looking as pretty as a picture and guard patrols walking slowly round it. It’s almost as if Sigma 5 didn’t want the GM crop destroyed. They’d rather it was slowly discredited with rumour and innuendo…and all the time it sits there in the fields, waving gently, like a red rag to a bull, angering the community, the smell of it everywhere…’
‘It’s certainly made people angry,’ said Eve. ‘But why do that?’
‘Maybe Trish can tell us that,’ said Steven. ‘This may all be academic anyway. Sci-Med will tell us about the chemicals as soon as the lab comes back with a report.’
‘So all we need is patience,’ said Eve.
‘Quite. Are you planning to see Trish again?’
‘I said I’d phone her tomorrow.’
‘Good. Stay in touch. You never know when she might feel like getting it off her chest.’
Steven drove Eve home to Blackbridge. They saw that the lights were on in the Binnie house as they passed. ‘Poor Ann,’ said Eve. ‘I’ll pop in and see her tomorrow.’
They drew up outside Eve’s parents’ house and Eve said, ‘Mum and Dad are still away at Jean’s. Would you like some coffee?’
Steven said that he would and followed Eve up the path leading to a grimy semi-detached council villa while Eve searched in her handbag for her keys. He saw the curtain move at an upstairs window next door and said so to Eve.
‘The McNabs,’ said Eve. ‘They don’t miss much. I think I’ve just become the scarlet whore of Babylon.’
‘Sorry about that.’
‘Don’t be. They don’t matter. No one matters in this godforsaken place.’
As the door clicked shut and they stood in the darkness of the hall, Eve turned to Steven and said, ‘Well, are we going to go through the ritual coffee business or go straight upstairs and do to each other what we’ve been wanting to do all evening?’
‘Sometimes I feel very old,’ said Steven, but he had to admit that the nearness of Eve in the darkness excited him.
‘But I suspect, my dear doctor, that you also feel very randy?’ Eve came right up close to Steven, filling his senses with her perfume and brushing his cheek with her hair. He found it irresistible. He brought his mouth down hard on Eve’s and hungrily explored the inside of it with his tongue.
‘There now,’ said Eve when they broke apart. ‘Was I right or was I right?’ She took his hand and led the way upstairs to her bedroom where they undressed each other as fast as was humanly possible while still trying to kiss at the same time. They fell on to Eve’s bed and made love with a passion that Steven had almost forgotten. He was entirely possessed by the need to take Eve there and then and foreplay and due consideration just didn’t get a look in. When he climaxed he felt as if the world had suddenly become a better place and inner peace flooded through him like a warm glow.
‘Well, ‘gasped Eve. ‘Talk about, wham, bam, thank you ma’am.’
‘I’m sorry,’ murmured Steven. ‘Christ, I just wanted you so bad.’
‘Don’t be,’ said Eve. ‘It certainly beats the parading of inner angst I usually get and not a trace of guilt there either. Good boy! ’
Steven rolled over on to his front and looked at Eve ‘I predict for you a life free from stomach ulcers and the need for psychotherapy,’ he said with a smile.
‘What makes you say that?
‘Your honesty. You say what you think and demand the same of others. Makes for a stress free environment.’
‘But will I be happy… will I be rich?’
‘Que sera, sera,’ smiled Steven.
‘Maybe I’m just a shameless hussy.’
‘I don’t think so,’ murmured Steven, nuzzling Eve’s neck and moving his lips round to find her mouth and explore it at a more leisurely pace.’
Eve sighed appreciatively as he moved down to suck her nipples and tease them with his teeth while his hand explored the flat of her belly and the firmness of her thighs.
‘What are the neighbours going to say, Dr Dunbar?’ whispered Eve as she arched her back in pleasure.
‘Good morning?’ suggested Steven from a distance.
‘Don’t you have a nation to save?’ asked Eve from the bedroom doorway.
Steven blinked his eyes at the sunlight and came to his senses. ‘God, what time is it?’
‘It’s gone nine but you looked so peaceful I thought the nation could wait for a bit.’
‘My God, I feel good,’ said Steven, stretching his arms in the air and relaxing again with a stupid grin all over his face.
What would you like for breakfast?’
‘We don’t make our own these days then?’ smiled Steven.
‘Any more shit like that and we will,’ retorted Eve.
‘You are incorrigible!’ exclaimed Steven.
‘I’m very corrigible, given the right man,’ murmured Eve, coming to sit on the edge of the bed. ‘Cereal, eggs or both?’
‘Eggs.’
Eve turned as she got to the door and said, ‘Careful with the shower. My dad installed it. It’s designed to wet everything within a two-mile radius with the exception of the body standing under it. You know what dads are like.’