‘Don’t look forward and don’t look back. Live life as it happens.’
‘A philosopher,’ said Jane.
‘More disillusioned realist,’ said Steven.
Jane rolled on to her front and traced circles on Steven’s chest with her forefinger. ‘Well, Dr Dunbar, I suppose your interview is now at an end?’
‘Do you want it to be?’
‘No,’ said Jane softly.
‘Then let’s shower, dress, go walk in the sunshine and find a place by a river that’ll serve us strawberries and cream under a weeping willow.’
Jane looked at Steven’s smiling face and recited wistfully, ‘When he came in she was there. When she looked at him, he smiled. There were lights in time’s wave breaking on an eternal shore…’
Steven ran his fingers gently through her hair.
‘Bet you don’t know who wrote that?’ said Jane.
Steven looked at her as if he were about to agree then he said, ‘There were fathoms in her too, and sometimes he crossed them and landed and was not repulsed.’
‘Oh my God,’ exclaimed Jane, resting her head on Steven’s chest. ‘A literate lover. Now I know there is a God.’
Jane returned from the shower with a white towel wrapped round her. It emphasised her smooth, tanned shoulders. She was carrying another towel, which she tossed to Steven saying, ‘Your turn.’
When he returned Jane had put on a summer frock and was trying on a large brimmed sun hat. He thought she looked like a figure from a French impressionist painting.
‘What d’you think?’ she asked. ‘Over the top?’
‘Beautiful,’ he replied, coming towards her and circling his arms round her from behind.
‘We’ve done that bit,’ she said, holding up her hands. ‘If we start that again we’re never going to get out of here.’
‘Would that be so bad?’ said Steven, coming closer.
‘No…’ murmured Jane. ‘But I do love strawberries…’
It was well after six in the evening before they got back to the house. ‘That was a wonderful afternoon,’ sighed Jane as she slumped down into a chair and kicked her shoes off.
‘I enjoyed it too,’ said Steven, sitting down opposite her and smiling at the way she was sitting in the chair, arms and legs akimbo. ‘If 4b could only see you now.’
‘Bugger 4b,’ replied Jane, looking up at the ceiling. ‘What now, Prince Charming?’
‘We sit in the garden with our eyes closed and listen to the birds herald the end of the day, then we shower, get changed and go out to dinner at a good restaurant, which you will choose. We’ll sip chilled wine from crystal glasses and tell each other things that we’ve never told anyone else before.’
‘Before your regiment marches at dawn…’ said Jane.
‘No regiment,’ said Steven.
‘Oh day that I have loved…’ said Jane.
The sky was overcast next morning and there was a threat of rain in the air. It seemed to match their mood as they sat together having breakfast in the kitchen. The looks that passed between them said more than the small talk.
‘So how will you go about finding out what George worked on at Porton?’ asked Jane.
‘I already know,’ replied Steven. ‘At least I know the official version.’
‘You do?’ said Jane, sounding surprised.
‘He and the team he was assigned to were working on a vaccine against the HIV virus. That’s what the Ministry of Defence told my boss.’
‘A vaccine?’ said Jane. ‘Why would anyone have nightmares about making a vaccine?’
‘My thoughts too,’ said Steven.
‘Then you don’t believe them?’
‘Not a word of it,’ said Steven.
‘So what can you do?’ asked Jane.
‘I know you think it was Gus Maclean’s visit that pushed your husband over the edge and into making contact with the press but I’ve spoken to Maclean about that and he seemed to think your husband was already uptight about something when he arrived. He agrees his visit might have made things worse but he doesn’t think he was the root cause of the problem.’
‘I just remember it as being one shit awful day,’ said Jane. ‘Maybe Maclean’s right. It’s possible that George was having one of his days.’
‘This is really important,’ said Steven. ‘If something else happened to upset your husband that day, I have to know about it.’
‘I can understand that,’ said Jane, trying to think back. ‘But it’s hard to think what. He didn’t go out at all and no one else came to the house that day before Maclean.’
‘No telephone calls?’
‘None that I remember.’
‘E-mail?’
‘He always picked these up in his office at the university and the postman just brought a couple of bills I think. I remember he was absolutely fine at breakfast. He planned to spend the day marking essays at home. I had the day off because I had been supervising a school trip the previous weekend so we thought we’d have lunch together at the local pub. When the paperboy brought the morning paper I remember he made a joke about reading some facts before changing to fiction. He was sitting reading the paper and drinking coffee at the kitchen table when I left to go down to the local shops for some odds and ends.’
‘So you went out?’ said Steven.
‘Only for ten minutes or so,’ said Jane, then she added more thoughtfully, ‘But you’re right. I remember it now. His mood had changed when I got back from the shops. I asked him if he was feeling all right because he seemed very pale but he said it was nothing and went off to his study to start his marking.’
‘Did you go out to lunch as planned?’ asked Steven.
‘No we didn’t, come to think of it,’ said Jane. ‘When I asked him about it he said he’d changed his mind and didn’t feel like it after all.’
‘It was the paper,’ said Steven.
‘The paper?’
‘Something he read in the paper upset him,’ said Steven. ‘You said he was reading the paper when you left.’
‘But what?’ said Jane.
‘Can you remember the date?’ asked Steven.
‘It would be… Monday the 28th,’ said Jane.
‘Time for a trip to the local library,’ said Steven. ‘What paper do you get?’
‘The Guardian.’
‘Want to come?’
‘Of course, this is fascinating.’
Jane gave Steven directions and they drove to the nearest public library where Steven used their computer reference facility to access back issues of the Guardian. He brought up the edition for June 28th and after a few moments said, ‘There it is. It has to be this.’ He read out, ‘Gulf War Veterans slam Ministry of Defence over plans to use up old vaccine stocks.’ He paused to read it fully before saying, ‘The government were planning to use up old stocks of vaccine on the troops being put on alert for a new conflict in the Gulf. The veterans’ associations are up in arms because they believe that the vaccines were faulty in some way.’
‘Do you think one of them could have been the vaccine that George was supposed to have been working on?’ asked Jane.
Steven said not. ‘There would be no call to vaccinate the troops against AIDS,’ he said. ‘Apart from that, no one’s succeeded in coming up with such a vaccine as yet. The troops would be given the WHO recommended vaccines for the region: they would also be given protection against bacteria and viruses likely to be used as weapons — anthrax, plague and the like.’
‘So why should a story about using up old vaccine stocks have George running to the newspapers after keeping quiet for twelve years?’
‘Good question,’ murmured Steven. ‘But I’m pretty sure that it did.’
‘I suppose this would fit with the phone calls I heard George making immediately after Maclean’s visit,’ said Jane. ‘He kept asking the people he was calling why the government were doing something that he clearly thought they shouldn’t. He seemed to be getting more and more angry and frustrated about it all,’ said Jane.