‘It was convenient for me to do so. Mine Jansen thought it desirable for her to have a home for herself and the baby.’
‘It isn’t your child.’
It was Harvey’s turn to shrug. ‘It’s my wife’s child. It makes no difference to me who the father is.’
‘The resemblance between your wife and her sister might be very convenient,’ said the inspector.
‘I find them quite distinct. The resemblance is superficial. What do you mean — “convenient”?’ Harvey, not quite knowing what the man was getting at, assumed he was implying that an exchange of lovers would be easy for him, the two sisters being, as it were, interchangeable. ‘They are very different,’ said Harvey.
‘It would be convenient,’ said the inspector, ‘for two women who resemble each other to be involved in the same criminal organisation. I am just hypothesising, you understand. A question of one being able to provide an alibi for the other; it’s not unknown …’
‘My papers are in order,’ Harvey said now, for no reason that was apparent, even to himself.
The inspector was very polite. ‘You maintain your wife financially, of course.’
‘I’ve given her no money since I left her. But if I had, that wouldn’t signify that I was financing a terrorist organisation.’
‘Then you know that your wife is an active member of the FLE, and consequently have refused to supply money.
‘I never knew of the existence of the FLE until now. I don’t at all know that my wife is a member of the group.
‘And you give your wife no money,’ the policeman said.
‘No money.
‘You knew that she was arrested in Trieste.’
‘I didn’t know until the other day. Nobody told me.
‘Nobody told you,’ stated the inspector.
‘That’s right. Nobody told me. I’m studious, you see. I have arranged for people not to bother me, and they don’t; rather to excess. I think someone should have told me. Not that it would have made any difference.’
‘Your wife knows where you live?’
‘Yes.’
‘You have written to her?’
‘No. I left her two years ago. Eventually she found out where I lived.’
‘How did she find out?’
‘I suppose she got it out of someone. She’s an intelligent woman. I doubt very much she’s mixed up with a terrorist group.
‘You must have had some reason to abandon her. Why are you so eager to protect her?’
‘Look, I just want to be fair, to answer your questions.’
‘We know she’s an activist in the FLE.’
‘Well, what exactly have they done?’
‘Armed robbery and insurrection in various places. Of recent weeks they’ve been operating in the Vosges. Where are their headquarters?’
‘Not in my house. And if my wife is involved in these incidents —which I don’t admit she is — isn’t it possible she has been kidnapped and forced to join this FLE? It’s happened before. The Hearst case in the United States …
‘Do you have reason to believe she has been kidnapped?’
‘I don’t know. I have no idea. Has anyone been killed, injured, by this group?’
‘Injured? But they are armed. They’ve collected a good deal of money, wounded twelve, damaged many millions of francs’ worth of property. They are dangerous. Three men and a girl. The girl is your wife. Who are the others?’
‘How should I know? I’ve never heard of the —’Nobody told you.
‘Correct.’
‘It’s time for lunch,’ said the inspector, looking at his watch; and, as he got up, he said, ‘Can you explain why Nathan Fox disappeared from the château last night?’
‘Nathan Fox. Disappeared?’
‘Nobody told you.
‘No. I left my cottage at nine this morning.’
‘Where is Nathan Fox?’ said the inspector, still standing.
‘I have no idea. He’s free to come and go … I don’t really know.’
‘Well, think it over.’ The inspector left the room.
Harvey’s cottage was in darkness when he drove back at four in the morning. He was tempted to go in and see what had happened to his papers, his work; had they been careful or had they turned everything upside down? Later, he found everything more or less intact with hardly a sign of a search; he had suspected that at least half the time he was kept for questioning had been for the purpose of giving the police leisure to continue their search at the cottage and the château; much good it had done them.
He didn’t stop at the cottage that early morning, but drove up to the château. A police car was parked at a bend in the drive. Harvey tooted twice, softly and quickly, as he passed it. Friendly gesture. The light was on in the porch. He let himself in. Ruth came out of the living room in her dressing gown; she had been sleeping on a sofa, waiting for him. ‘They brought us back at half-past six,’ she said. She came to hug him, to kiss him. ‘Are you all right?’ they both said at the same time. Clara was sleeping in her carry-cot.
The first thing that struck him was the colour in the room. There was nothing new, but after the grey and neutral offices, hour after hour, at the police headquarters, the blue of Ruth’s dressing gown, the flower-patterned yellow sofa, green foliage arranged in a vase, the bright red tartan rug folded over Clara’s cot, made a special impact on his senses. He smiled, almost laughed.
‘Do you want to go to bed? Aren’t you tired?’ Ruth said.
‘No. I’m wide awake.’
‘Me, too.’
They poured whiskies and sodas. ‘I simply told them the truth,’ Ruth said. She decided she couldn’t face her whisky and took orange juice.
‘Me, too. What else could one say?’
‘Oh, I know you told them everything,’ Ruth said, ‘I could guess by the questions.
Harvey quoted, ‘“The police won’t shoot if there’s a baby in the house.”‘
‘Yes, why did you bring that up?’ said Ruth. ‘Was it necessary? They’re suspicious enough —’
‘I didn’t suggest it to them.’
‘Well, neither did I,’ said Ruth. ‘The inspector asked me if it was true you’d made that remark. I said I believed so. Edward told me, of course —’They’re quite clever,’ Harvey said. ‘How did they treat you?’
‘Very polite. They were patient about my au pair French.’
‘How many?’
‘Two plain-clothes men and a glamorous policewoman. Did you see the policewoman?’ said Ruth.
‘I saw one, from the window, playing with Clara.’
‘They were very decent about Clara.’
Harvey’s interrogators had been three, one after the other, then starting in the late afternoon with the first again.
Ruth and Harvey described and identified their respective policemen, and in a euphoric way compared a great many of their experiences of the day, questions and answers. Finally Ruth said, ‘Do you really think Effie’s in it?’
‘Up to the neck,’ said Harvey.
‘Can you blame them for suspecting us?’
‘No. I think, in fact, that Effie has chosen this district specifically to embarrass me.
‘So do I.’
He sat on the sofa beside her, relaxed, with his arm round her. She said, ‘You know, I’m more afraid of Effie than the police.’
‘Did you tell them that?’
‘No.’
‘Did they come and look round the château while you were at the headquarters?’
‘I don’t think so, because when they brought me back they asked if they might have a look round. I said, of course. They went all over, attics, cellars, and both towers. Actually, I was quite relieved that they didn’t find anything, or rather anyone. It would be easy to hide in this house, you know.’
‘Did you tell them you were relieved?’
‘No.’
‘Now tell me about Nathan.’
‘It’s a long story,’ said Ruth. ‘He’s in love with Effie. He’d do anything she asked him.’ Her voice had changed to a mumble.
Harvey said, ‘But when did you know —’ Then he stopped. ‘My God,’ he said, ‘I’m becoming another interrogator. I expect you’ve had enough.’