"I see," he said. "I have two words for you, Lara. Shit happens. Get over it."
"That's five words, Clive," I said.
"And here's three more. Get back here."
"I thought you told me I should get away," I said.
"That was before I knew you'd be acting so silly," he replied. "Stay out of trouble, please." Lovely man. But maybe he was right.
The five remaining Divas had dinner at a restaurant off Vaci utca, the main shopping drag, very near the Erzsebet Bridge over the Danube. The place claimed to be one of the oldest restaurants in Budapest or something, and maybe it was. It was also my introduction to that Budapest institution, the surly waiter. Within two minutes of dealing with him, he had me longing, for the first time in my life, for someone who knelt beside my table to tell me his name was Jason and it was his pleasure to be my server that night. The man forgot just about everything we asked him for, argued with us when he brought the wrong entree, managed to go for very long stretches without ever making eye contact with any of his patrons, and took forty minutes to bring the bill. But that was the least of my worries.
"We're a little bit surprised that you just took off for Budapest without telling any of us that you were going," Grace began rather belligerently the minute we were seated.
"I don't recall anything about having to tell you where I was going," I said. "You asked me to trace the Venus's provenance and that is what I am here to do."
"You didn't return my file," Diana said.
"I'm glad you brought up the subject of your file," I replied. "Because I've been asking myself, is it normal to keep copies of all the documents you deal with when you're a bookkeeper? To keep copies at your home?"
"I was freelance. I worked from home," she said.
"I'm sure Diana has her reasons," Grace said.
"These were not all current files," I said, ignoring her. "Some of them went back to the day Karoly started at the Cottingham, I believe."
"So?" she said. "I brought the whole file home with me, that's all."
"Actually, they were not all expense claims either," I said. "Technically they shouldn't have been in the same file." I could see the others watching this exchange with some interest.
"When he fired me, I went back and got some of the files I thought would be useful," she said. "I had been wrongfully dismissed, and I wanted to prove my innocence, so I went back and got some of the files."
"No, you didn't," I said. "They changed the locks on your office before they fired you."
"You don't know that," she said.
"Yes, I do," I said.
"How do you know that?" she demanded. "The only person who could have told you that is Karoly Molnar!"
"I saw you, Diana. You couldn't get into your office."
That was not true, but I wasn't about to say I had been hiding behind a curtain when I heard the news.
"What are you getting at?" Diana demanded.
"I'd say she is wondering, as I now am, why you would have been collecting files on Karoly for all that time," Morgan said. "If I have interpreted this conversation correctly, there seems to be more to this than your being fired, perhaps?"
"Absolutely not," she said.
"So why did you, then?" Cybil demanded. "Keep the files for so long."
"Okay, if you want to know, I'll tell you," Diana said. "I have nothing to hide. I have my PhD, and I'm working part-time as a frigging bookkeeper, that's why. I live in a crummy apartment, I don't own a car, I can never take a decent vacation, and it is all because of Karoly Molnar. Do you know the magic word when you're teaching at a university? It's tenure. I'd got my doctorate, slaved as a student, a teaching assistant, and finally a professor. And then it came time for me to apply for tenure. However, I'd written my thesis on a subject that Karoly considered his own. Furthermore, my conclusions contradicted, no, not just contradicted, destroyed, one of his prize theories, and when it came time for my application for tenure at the university to be considered, he vetoed me. I'm told he spoke very eloquently, as only he can, against me. I expect I don't need to tell you that that ended my academic career on the spot. No other university was going to touch me, and I'd already invested years of effort where I was for nothing. I had to scramble just to earn a living, and have been working at pathetic jobs ever since."
"So when he came back to Canada you saw your chance for revenge," Cybil said.
"Yes, I did," Diana said. "I got a job at the museum.
Karoly even hired me. He's probably forgotten what he did to me, it was so inconsequential from his perspective. I had heard about his big spending habits from a former colleague of mine who works in England now, and I figured I'd bide my time and I'd find a discrepancy somewhere in his expense accounts, and the board would fire him, for a change. But then the Magyar Venus came along, and I was sure it was a fake. I still think so. And I don't care what you think of me keeping his files."
"I don't know why you wouldn't have told us this before," Cybil said.
"I agree," Grace said. "You shouldn't keep this bottled up. We are your friends, you know. Talking about it will enable you to move on."
"Whatever," Morgan said.
"It does rather beg the question of why we're all here, sitting in this restaurant tonight," Cybil said. "I guess I just want to believe that it was not my insensitivity, my negligence as a friend, that allowed Anna to die. I suppose I'd rather believe that Karoly had something to do with it, although I can't think what it would have been. I have no reason other than my personal demons to come to such a conclusion."
We all sat and thought about that for a minute. Grace reached over and patted Cybil's hand. "You mustn't blame yourself for what happened," she said.
Morgan made a face. "Lara knows why I'm in this, but right this minute I think I'd rather not say," she said. "Lara, tell them I've confessed already, please."
"She has," I said. "What about you, Grace? Do you have some reason you haven't shared with us. Can it really be because he dumped you in university? Surely not."
"I have my reasons," Grace said. "I prefer to leave it at that."
"And you, Lara?" Diana said. "Why are you here, exactly? Surely, to use your expression, it is not because he didn't recognize you that night. I will not believe that."
"Maybe I'm here to prove you all wrong, Diana," I said. "Had you thought of that?"
CHAPTERSEVEN
June 1
I have received word from T that he has been delayed in his arrival due to business matters in Vienna, and may indeed not reach Budapest for some weeks. As a result, I am determined to visit the hills north and east of the city to ascertain whether the account of them I have heard is true, and if so, whether or not they might lend themselves to the sort of scientific study I am of a mind to do. If the hills are, as I am told, formed of sedimentary limestone, clay, slate, and dolomite, and marked throughout by caves, what better place for the earliest man to live? I am intrigued too by some small pieces of stone and flint that Fekete Neni has shown me. Her two sons, Peter and Pal, work on the Nddasdi estate near a place that was named, fairly recently if I understand correctly, Lillafured. The two young men like to explore the caves, and have given these objects to their mother. I have studied these very carefully, and have reason to believe that their form is due not to natural forces but rather to the workings of man. I am therefore most interested to visit these caves.
I am not blessed with the gift of making friends easily, and am therefore most grateful for the kindness of Fekete Neni, but also the Nddasdi family whom I admire very much, their every word and action of such grace and refinement. The children are schooled at home by private tutors, and speak several languages, French quite beautifully. I was fortunate indeed to take dinner with them one evening, invited, I believe, in order that I might speak French with the children. The furnishings in their sitting room would rival anything I have seen in London or indeed anywhere. I was particularly enchanted by a lovely painting, a landscape with mountains. The family tells me that it is the site of their country home.