‘And I thought all they did in Chicago was trade pork-bellies.’
Megan smiled. ‘I know. I must sound pretty weird to you.’
‘No,’ said Chris. ‘Not at all. You must show me some of this stuff.’
‘I’ll take you to see The Benedictional of St Aethelwold in the British Library. It’s completely beautiful.’
‘Do that.’
‘All right,’ Megan smiled. ‘I will.’ She pointed down a narrow alley. ‘Shall we try this way?’
They wandered down the small road. Along one side was a row of cottages washed in varying shades of pink and grey, along the other was the back of a college, Chris had no idea which one. He was lost.
‘The funeral was pretty grim, wasn’t it?’ he said.
Megan shuddered. ‘Yes. But I’m glad I went.’
‘I’m sorry we didn’t talk much.’
‘It was difficult with Duncan there. Did you get a chance to speak to him?’
‘Yes, I did,’ said Chris.
‘And?’
‘Although he wouldn’t admit it at first, he did say Marcus had been to see him. Apparently, you were right: Lenka did tell Marcus what really happened on the boat. Marcus asked Duncan whether this was all true, and threatened him.’
‘Threatened him?’ said Megan in alarm.
‘Yes. Nothing specific. But it seemed to rattle Duncan.’
‘So why didn’t he mention this to you before?’
‘He said he didn’t want to admit that he’d given away what really happened, after all we’d done to keep it quiet.’
‘Yeah, right,’ said Megan.
‘I believe him,’ said Chris.
‘Did you ask him where he was the day Lenka was killed?’
‘No, I didn’t.’
‘Why not?’
Chris took a deep breath. ‘It was the day of her funeral. He was upset. I’m sure that was genuine. I think he would have been pretty angry if I’d suggested he was responsible.’
Megan looked at Chris disapprovingly.
‘He’s my friend. I know him,’ said Chris. ‘And I’m sure he didn’t kill Lenka.’
They had reached the river, swollen by the recent rain. Wisps of fog still hung eerily over the fields towards Grantchester. A solitary, cold-looking student was propelling a punt downstream.
‘What a stupid way to drive a boat,’ said Megan. ‘Can you do that?’
‘Not in March,’ Chris said, shivering.
They walked on. ‘At least we now know what Lenka told Marcus,’ Megan said.
‘Yes,’ said Chris. Then he stopped in his tracks. Wait a moment!’
‘What is it?’
‘We don’t know what Lenka was going to tell Marcus. We don’t know at all.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, we know Marcus came to see Lenka on the Tuesday. We also know, because Duncan told us, that that is when Lenka told him that Duncan knocked Alex into the sea. Marcus went straight off to wait for Duncan coming out of work that afternoon.’
‘OK.’
‘But the e-mail Lenka sent to Marcus was written twenty-four hours later.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes. Hang on, let me check.’ Chris dug the e-mail out of the breast pocket of his leather jacket. ‘Yes, here it is. It was sent on Wednesday the sixteenth of February.’
‘That doesn’t make sense,’ Megan said.
‘It does. It means that there was something else that Marcus had a right to know.’
‘Something else?’
‘Must be.’
‘But what?’
‘I’ve no idea.’
They crossed the river and walked along towards the Backs.
‘There is one possibility,’ Megan said. ‘Did you hear Alex was in trouble over drugs?’
‘No,’ said Chris. He furrowed his brow. ‘I don’t remember anything like that.’
‘Oh, yes. He was very worried about it. There had been some kind of sneaky random drug test and he’d been caught with traces of cocaine in his sample. It was a big deal. Bloomfield Weiss was threatening to make an example of him.’
‘A random drug test? I don’t remember a random drug test.’ Chris thought hard. ‘Oh, yes. I think there was some kind of medical for the American trainees after the final examination. The rest of us were allowed to leave. That must have been it.’ He shook his head. ‘Wow. He kept that quiet.’
‘Yes. Eric knew, of course, and therefore so did I. But you can imagine it’s not the sort of thing he wanted to broadcast.’
‘I didn’t realize Alex did drugs.’
‘A lot of people did back then,’ said Megan.
Chris grunted. ‘I’m a complete innocent when it comes to drugs. You read in the press that it’s going on all round you, but I’ve hardly ever seen any. Although I did catch Ian once.’ He remembered Tamara barging into Ian’s bedroom, and the look of embarrassment on Ian’s face as he looked up from the white line of coke. But then he remembered his own discomfort when Tamara had taken some. ‘Ian was very lucky he wasn’t tested.’
‘Perhaps Lenka knew about Alex getting caught,’ Megan said. ‘Perhaps that’s what she wanted to tell Marcus.’
‘But why? I hardly think that it was something Marcus had a “right to know”.’
Megan shook her head. ‘I suppose not. But it’s another reason to look for him. Have you heard any more from him?’
‘He’s scared,’ said Chris. ‘He won’t give me his address. He doesn’t want me to find him.’
Megan looked at Chris. ‘That’s worrying.’
For the first time, Chris wondered whether Marcus had reason to be scared. And if so, whether he should be scared also.
They walked miles that afternoon, criss-crossing the town and its parks and meadows. They were dawdling by the river, surrounded by waterlogged stretches of grass, when darkness crept in around them. They made their way through the gloom to a pub, the Fort St George, standing alone by the bank of the river, and ate in front of a glowing fire.
Later, they walked back to Megan’s college. Chris had intended to drive back to London that evening, but she invited him back to her room for a cup of coffee. They cut through two courtyards, past an ancient tree, a tangle of bare branches looming out of the darkness, to her building. Her room was warm and cosy, and it was cold and damp outside. He and Megan talked late into the night, and Chris didn’t want the evening to end. Neither did Megan.
He stayed.
9
Chris tried to edge his left elbow on to the armrest beside him, but the large man reading a computer magazine wouldn’t have any of it. On Chris’s other side, a much smaller, skinny boy was playing a frantic game of cards with his brother. The research piece on macroeconomic adjustment in the Baltic States that lay on his lap was not making any sense. Chris cursed himself for travelling Economy. Lenka refused to do it, and became quite upset if Chris ever tried to travel that way. But with Carpathian in so much difficulty, Chris had felt guilty about shelling out the enormous fare for Business Class. Stupid. A thousand pounds here or there would make no difference to whether Carpathian survived. In any case, he had had to buy an expensive open ticket. The trip out to Hartford to see Rudy Moss should be straightforward. But he didn’t know how long it would take him to find Marcus Lubron, or to discover more about Alex’s drug problem.