Jones nodded. ‘Of course. The CHP system, cooling, heating and power supplied throughout the campus within a network of pipes housed underground in tunnels. Like here in New York, yes?’
‘Yes,’ Connie agreed. ‘And the tunnels criss-cross the entire campus. I knew there was a manhole cover at the far side of the quad from the lab. I went straight to it. The cover opened easily. The manholes are in regular use for maintenance, of course. I pulled it down behind me and felt my way along the tunnel until I reckoned I had put enough distance between myself and the explosion. I could see strips of light around the edges of manhole covers all the way along. Eventually I chose one to come up at. It was right on the edge of campus, as I’d hoped, and, as luck would have it, right by a public phone. I’d left my cell in the lab, and in any case it wouldn’t have been safe to use it if I’d still had it. Not if I was supposed to be dead. I called Marion. The one person I knew I could trust. She came to get me as soon as she could. She even remembered to bring me some fresh clothes. I hid in someone’s back yard till she arrived. But actually all attention was focused on the scene of the blast. And if anyone had thought they’d seen me, then they more than likely wouldn’t have believed their eyes, would they?’
Jones looked at her in amazement. ‘Jesus Connie, I’m amazed. How did you have the presence of mind to do all that? You must have been terrified, groping your way along a dark tunnel, and after what you’d been through?’
She shrugged. ‘I think I was beyond terror. The tunnel didn’t really worry me, though. Don’t forget I’m an old Princeton graduate myself, and I’d been involved in my share of student games in those tunnels. Races. Mock battles. I knew the tunnels like the back of my hand once upon a time. You never went down them then, Sandy?’
Jones shook her head.
‘Not even for a dare?’
Jones was momentarily puzzled. ‘No. Nobody ever dared me.’
‘That figures.’ Connie smiled at her. ‘Anyway, I guess I was operating on auto pilot.’
‘Some auto pilot,’ said Jones. ‘So Marion came to get you and brought you here.’
‘Yes.’
Marion had re-joined them, carrying a tray containing a cafetière of coffee, three mugs, and a plate of biscuits, which she put on the table.
‘I thought of Norman at once. I knew he’d let us stay at his place, and that he wouldn’t ask too many questions. He’s very resourceful too, a man of many parts is Norman.’
‘I don’t doubt it,’ said Jones wryly.
Marion passed her a mug of coffee, and then handed one to Connie. Jones was puzzled by the look that passed between them. She glanced towards Connie enquiringly.
‘Dom is one of the few people who have known about Marion and me for a long time,’ said Connie suddenly. ‘She’s my partner.’
‘Right.’ Jones realized she was allowing her surprise to show and tried, too late, to check it.
‘You seem a tad taken aback, Sandy. What is it? Can’t believe I’m a dyke or can’t believe that I have a partner of either sex?’
Jones pulled a face.
‘You know me too well, Connie, just like you always did,’ she said. ‘I realized when I thought you’d died that I’d never known anything about you, really. About your life. I’m ashamed of myself, but, back in the day, I never even thought about you having a personal life. Away from RECAP.’
Jones turned towards Marion, who still looked vaguely familiar.
‘And yet, I can’t help thinking I’ve maybe met you before, Marion,’ she said.
The woman nodded.
‘Marion Jessop,’ she said quietly. ‘I don’t think we ever met, but you may have seen me around with my husband...’
Jessop. Of course. Mother of Thomas, the current dean of Princeton, and wife of Bernard, who had been Princeton’s dean when Jones had been there. Bernard Jessop, who had once privately advised Jones to have nothing more to do with RECAP if she wanted anything like the level of success in the academic world that she’d already seemed destined for.
If this relationship dated back to Jones’s time in Princeton, then Marion would have been very much married to the dean of that most conservative of academic establishments. No wonder she and the others had not been allowed to know anything about it.
‘My goodness,’ Jones remarked lamely.
Connie smiled almost apologetically at her.
‘Poor Sandy, you’ve had an awful lot of shocks haven’t you, old friend?’
‘Yes I have, rather.’
Marion sat down next to Connie and another look passed between them. In just a glance it spoke volumes about their shared history, and left Jones in no doubt, somehow, that theirs was an abiding love.
To her surprise Jones felt a fleeting stab of jealousy. She ignored it. She still had a lot of questions to ask, and could not allow herself to be diverted by the news of Connie and Marion’s relationship.
‘So were you also there yesterday morning, Marion?’ she asked.
‘Sort of. I drove Connie to Princeton from here. That’s my car you saw in the garage. I was parked just around the corner, waiting for her. I didn’t see what happened, but I heard the shots, of course, and the commotion when you fell and the police, or whatever they were, jumped on you. That was a bad bad moment. I thought it was Connie they’d got, at first. Then she came rushing out from behind those trees just outside the quad, badly shaken but OK, and told me about you. We decided that she shouldn’t take any more risks of being seen. I got her to take the car and said I’d try to find you, and follow you.
‘I went straight to the borough police station, found a secluded corner, and waited outside. You could have been taken elsewhere, but I chose the most obvious option and hoped for the best. It was a long wait but there was nothing else to do, and eventually I realized I’d got lucky when you came out. Then you got into a cop car, and I thought at first my luck had run out. I was on foot. I had no way of following you. But of course, Ed MacEntee was there, and he spoke to me as he was leaving. I asked him, as casually as I could, if I’d just spotted who I thought I had from so long ago. He told me, more or less, that you’d come to pay your respects, you’d had a misunderstanding with the police, and you were off to the station on your way back to New York.
‘I got a quick cab to the Junction and just managed to jump aboard the same train as you. I followed you to Soho House. Then Connie and I hatched the plot to get you here, and called in Norman to pick you up.’
‘I never noticed you at all,’ remarked Jones.
‘I think you had other things on your mind,’ said Marion. ‘Doubt you were noticing much.’
‘A pretty impressive piece of surveillance, none the less,’ Jones persisted.
Marion smiled. Her eyes shone much the way Connie’s always had.
‘I actually got to ask a taxi driver to follow the cab in front,’ she said. ‘Extraordinary thing was, he didn’t bat an eyelid.’
‘Yeah, well, that meant he didn’t have to find his way anywhere, didn’t it?’ Jones remarked a touch acidly.
Marion’s smile broadened.
‘Fair comment,’ she said.
Jones thought for a second. ‘So you recognized me straight away then, by the lab, Connie? Even in the dark.’
‘Of course I did. There were lights all over the place, and you weren’t nearly as good at dodging them as you probably thought you were. How you weren’t seen at once by the police or whoever it was out there—’