‘You can’t seriously be trying to blackmail me?’
‘Where is she?’
He made a noise that was part chuckle and part sneer. The sound a man makes when there is nothing left in the world that he cares about.
‘Tregaron Bog, where else? It’s the customary place, I believe, to store the mistakes of one’s youth. There’s a map in the sideboard somewhere. I’ll show you roughly where to look. I’ll even lend you the spade.’
‘I don’t feel like digging myself. Maybe I’ll just call the cops.’
‘The phone’s in the hall. Be my guest.’
‘You really want to spend the remainder of your life in prison?’
He sneered again. ‘Mr Knight, can’t you see? I’ve been in prison since the day she . . . died.’
It was getting on for 9.00 when I parked in Patriarch Street and walked down to the office. They said it was a rounder’s bat that he hit me with. It struck the back of my head, behind the ear. I fell forward, onto my knees. Another blow followed. The world began to spin, so now the night sky was beneath me, like the sea. I knelt, trying to rise, another blow fell, and a spot of blood dropped to the pavement where it spread out to form a starburst. I twisted round to hold up an arm in protection. Meici Jones stared down at me, his eyes bright and wide, like a frightened animal, and his teeth were clenched from the exertion. ‘Dirty double-crosser,’ he said.
He raised the arm holding the bat. I lay on the paving slab and noted details with the strange detachment that passengers in a car accident often report. The pavement was gritty and grimy, covered in spit and chewing gum and sweet wrappers.
‘Dirty double-crosser,’ he said again as the bat reached the acme of its swing.
‘Please, Meici,’ I said.
The slight clenching of his teeth indicated that his arm was about to fall.
A voice cried out in the night. ‘No!’ Miaow appeared from between the parked cars on the other side of the road. ‘No, leave him, please, leave him.’
‘Dirty double-crosser!’ The bat came down. A shot rang out followed by the xylophonic chime of the bat hitting asphalt. Meici clutched his shoulder with a hand that turned red with blood. He fell to his knees and then onto his face. Miaow stood transfixed, holding a smoking gun. I slipped into unconsciousness.
Chapter 14
I opened my eyes and stared up into the face of Sauerkopp holding an ice cream. He smiled. I closed my eyes and waited. I opened them. He was still there, sitting on a grey-blue hospital chair, next to a grey-blue bedside table.
‘Everything is grey-blue,’ I said.
‘They do it to be soothing on the eye,’ he said.
‘Blue and grey.’
‘Soothing, you see? Soooooooooothing.’
‘Yes, I feel calm.’
O fervent eyelids letting through
Those eyes the greenest of things blue
The bluest of things grey.
‘That’s lovely.’
‘Swinburne. A much under-appreciated poet if you ask me.’
‘You’re eating ice cream. You’re always eating ice cream.’
‘I like it. Do you want one?’
‘Not really. It’s nice here, isn’t it?’
‘Yes. Such a shame you have to leave.’
‘Do they need the bed?’
‘No, but it might be a good idea for you to depart before they find out you are not Nathan Carolingus, which is the name we booked you in under, but Louie Knight, a small-time Aberystwyth shamus wanted for attempted murder.’
‘I didn’t attempt to kill anybody.’
‘No, Louie Knight did. He shot a man called Meici Jones. Nathan Carolingus was just an innocent bystander.’
‘How did Nathan get these bruises on the back of my head?’
‘Meici put up a brave struggle and defended himself stoutly using a rounders bat until Louie Knight pulled out the gun and shot him in the shoulder. He’s not on the critical list, but that was more due to luck than intent on the part of Louie. In the confusion Nathan Carolingus got hit by the bat.’
‘I know Louie Knight, he wouldn’t shoot anyone.’
‘Someone shot Meici, and he says it was Louie. He said Louie attacked him for no reason outside his office.’
‘Did they find the gun?’
‘Not yet. It’s probably in the river or somewhere. They usually are. Meici Jones works for the human cannonball –’
‘I know who Meici Jones is. Why did you kill Mrs Lewis?’
‘I didn’t.’
‘Who did, then?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘I think it was you. I think you like killing people.’
‘I’ve never killed anyone in my life, and if I had I certainly wouldn’t have enjoyed it.’ He stood up and removed his hat which had been hanging from my saline-drip dispenser. ‘If I were you, I’d walk out of this room filled with furniture which you rightly point out is predominantly blue-grey; turn left outside the door and take the lift, which is situated at the midpoint of the corridor. You press G and emerge on the ground floor some seconds later and turn left and then straight ahead, and in less than a minute you are outside feeling the warm sun on your pallid face.’
‘Then what?’
‘I don’t know; running might not be a bad plan. There’s a cleaner’s cubbyhole opposite the Gents, just before you get to the lift. There are some overalls in there. Take a clipboard, too. No one ever stops a man with a clipboard.’
‘When I walk out carrying my clipboard, is that when I get arrested?’
‘It’s no trap. Why bother? If I wanted them to arrest you, I’d tell them now.’
‘Why are you helping me?’
‘You work for the Aviary. It’s my job to look after people who work for us.’
‘I don’t work for the Aviary.’
‘That’s for us to decide.’
‘You really going to let me go?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘I like you. We’re on the same side.’
‘No we’re not.’
‘You and I have got a lot in common. I know you don’t think so, but that’s because you have formed the wrong opinion of me.’
‘Underneath it all you are just a cuddly toy, is that it?’
‘No.’
‘Everything you say is . . . is . . . a riddle wrapped in . . . how does it go?’
‘A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.’
‘Yes, that’s it. That was Winston Churchill, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes, indeed, talking about Russia.’
‘You and Russia: a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.’
‘Except that I know what’s inside the enigma.’
‘You’re doing it again.’