“It might have helped to place him near the scene.”
“Of the crime,” Sister Bonaventura said.
“It would be my duty, then,” Sister Teresa said a touch regretfully, “to help you if I could?”
“What is a crime,” said Sister Bonaventura, “is that these paintings were ever in private hands in the first place. They should be on public view, available to all and sundry. Not just the privileged few.”
“I don’t see our friend Grabianski,” Resnick said, “as some artistic Robin Hood.”
“Don’t you?” Teresa asked.
“Maidens in distress,” Sister Bonaventura said, now peeling the potatoes herself. “A different legend, surely.”
“I don’t suppose you’ve got a number for him? Any kind of current address?” asked Resnick.
Sister Teresa said that she did not.
“Ah, well …” With a sigh, Resnick rose to his feet.
“You’re not staying for supper, then?” Sister Bonaventura asked.
“Maybe some other time.”
Teresa escorted him to the door. “Do you need to borrow these?” she asked, glancing down at the envelope by her side. “If they’d be any help …”
“I don’t think so. Not now, at least.” He looked at her handsome face, unflinching green eyes. “I doubt you’ll be getting rid of them, throwing them away.”
When he turned back near the street end, she was still standing in the doorway, a tall, solidly built woman in simple, straightforward clothes. Had she always wanted to become a nun, he wondered, one of those fantasies so beloved of little Catholic girls, one that most of them leave behind with their first period, their first real kiss? Or had something happened in a split second that had changed her life? Like walking into a room and finding yourself face to face with God?
Next time, he thought, crossing toward the Boulevard, he just might ask. Next time. For now there was a colleague he could contact down in the smoke, someone who kept his ear well to the ground. And the secretary of the Polish Club would have connections with his counterparts in Kensington and Balham. Small worlds and where they connected, Grabianski might be found.
Five
Hannah was wearing a Cowboy Junkies T-shirt, white with a picture of the band low over her waistline; if she hadn’t been wearing it loose outside her jeans they would have been tucked from sight. The Lay It Down tour, is that what it had been called? She remembered the way Margo Timmins had performed half of her numbers sitting down, hands resting across the microphone, a voice that was clear and strong, stronger than on their recordings. Unhurried. Hannah had liked that. Liked, too, the way she had prattled on between songs, seemingly inconsequential stories she felt needed telling, despite the hectoring calls from young men on the edges of the audience. Beautiful, also-but then they always were-Margo with her sculpted nose and perfect mouth, bare legs and arms. Well, women were beautiful, Hannah knew that.
She reached out toward the mug of coffee she had made after she had showered and changed from school, but it had long grown cold. A handful of small boys, primary age, were playing football in the park, an elderly woman in a dark anorak was slowly walking with a lead but no apparent dog; the foliage was several shades of green. Beside Hannah, on the floor by her comfortable chair, were folders for her to mark and grade, fourth-year essays on soap opera-realism or melodrama? For tomorrow, there were lessons still to prepare, chapters of Hardy to reread, Lawrence short stories, poems by Jackie Kay, Armitage, and Duffy.
Hannah folded her arms across her lap and closed her eyes.
When she awoke, the telephone was ringing. Disorientated, she made her way toward it; although it had probably been no more than twenty minutes, she felt she had been asleep for hours.
“Hello?” Even her voice seemed blurred.
“Hannah? I thought perhaps you weren’t there.” It was Jane, husky and concerned.
“Has something happened? Are you okay?” She had seen Jane in the staff room less than two hours before.
“Oh, yes, it’s this stupid thing.”
“What thing?”
“This day school, what else?”
Alex, Hannah had been thinking, something’s happened with Alex. Some monumental row. “I thought everything was in hand,” she said.
“So did I. There was a message when I got home. The film we’re meant to be showing-Strange Days-it looks as if it might not be available. Apparently the distributors saw some of the advance publicity about the event and got cold feet. They’re worried we’re setting it up as an easy target so it can be rubbished.”
“Oh, Jane, I’m sorry.”
“I wish I’d never taken it all on.”
“It was a good idea.”
“Was is right.”
“Come on, it’ll be fine. And, anyway, maybe they’ll change their minds.”
“I suppose so.” There was a silence and then: “Hannah, would it be all right if I came round?”
“You mean now?”
“No, it’s fine. It doesn’t matter.”
“Jane …”
“Really.”
“Jane.”
“Yes?”
“Stop off at the off-license, okay?”
When Resnick got to Hannah’s house a couple of hours later, the two women were sitting in the kitchen with the remains of a bottle of Chardonnay between them, plates pushed to one side.
“Charlie, sorry, we’ve already eaten. I wasn’t sure if you were coming or not.”
“I should have called. Let you know.”
“No. No.”
Resnick glanced across from Hannah to Jane, the patches beneath Jane’s eyes suggesting she had been crying.
“I should go,” Jane said, pushing back her chair.
“There’s no need,” Resnick said. “Not on my account.”
Jane banged her hip hard against the table and stifled a cry.
“Are you all right?” Hannah asked.
“Uum. Yes.”
“You weren’t thinking of driving?” Resnick said, giving the bottle a meaningful glance.
“I was.”
“I’ll make coffee,” Hannah said, getting to her feet. “Charlie, coffee?”
“Thanks.”
“Jane, why don’t you take Charlie into the other room? Tell him about your day school. You might be able to persuade him to come along. Represent the male point of view.”
Resnick was looking at her carefully, uncertain from her tone how ironic she was being.
He found bits and pieces in the back of Hannah’s fridge: a jar of black olive paste, three anchovies at the bottom of a foil-wrapped can, feta cheese; in a wooden bowl on the side were two sorry tomatoes and a small red onion. The bread bin yielded a four-inch length of baguette which, when he took the knife to it, shed crust like brittle paint. Five minutes later, he was sitting with a can of Kronenbourg and his sandwich and chewing thoughtfully, while Hannah made the last of her notes on Carol Ann Duffy’s dramatic monologues, and music played in the background, light and pleasantly soporific.
“You staying, Charlie?”
“If that’s okay.”
Hannah grinned at him and shook her head.
“Don’t take things for granted, that was what you said. Don’t take you for granted.”
“You don’t,” Hannah said.
“Good. I’m glad.”
“Oh, Charlie …”
“What?”
She let her copy of the book slide through her fingers as she reached for him along the settee on which they were both sitting. Her cheek was cool against his mouth, her hand warm against his neck.
“What?” he said again, but by then she was kissing him and neither of them said a great deal more, not even is the back door locked or is it time for bed?
They had not been together long enough for familiarity to determine the when and how of making love. Sometimes-most often-their first movements would be graduaclass="underline" slow, generally cautious kisses and manipulations; then, in the quickening of arousal, it was generally Hannah who rose over him, hips swiveling down, eyes closed, Resnick’s hands or her own pressed hard against her breasts.