Damn!)
He grabbed the receiver
Wow
Heavy
then placed it, tentatively, to his ear. He didnt speak.
And at the other end of the line?
Silence.
Hello? Kane whispered, finally.
(Was this an entirely different world, this Beede-phone world? Was he speaking into some kind of supernatural vacuum, into a sphere utterly beyond everyday concepts of the here and the now?)
Beede?
Male. Youngish. A pronounced German accent.
No. Kane stood up, smartly (the highly coiled, creamy-white wire connecting the receiver to the phone stretching itself, languorously).
No. This is Kane, his son.
Kane?
Yes.
Kane nodded.
Beedes son?
Yes.
Is Beede there, by any chance?
Uh, Kane glanced nervously around him, no. No, he isnt.
Oh.
Long pause
I suppose you could always try him at work, Kane volunteered, helpfully.
Yes. Yes. Thats true. I could. In fact I was. But this number suddenly justit just popped into my head. Out of the blue. It was reallyreally quite odd. So I grabbed the bull by the horns and I justI rang it.
I see.
You know how that happens, sometimes?
Eh?
Kane frowned and cocked his head.
Although Im not sure if he ever the German muttered, distractedly.
Pause
Im not sure if he ever actually gave it to me. The number. I just plucked it fromHow to describe it? I just plucked it from the air. Fromfrom the ether.
Longer pause
Isnt that odd? Do you think thats odd?
Kane cleared his throat, nervously, not really sure how to answer.
Silence
Perhaps you could leave him a message? he finally suggested (impressed by the quiet, somehow. It didnt drag. It was dynamic. It crackled. Was that a German thing? Did the Teutonic races have some special kind of strangle-hold on the high-quality conversational hiatus?).
Beedes son The German mused, reflectively, as if calling something very peripheral to mind.
Kane said nothing.
Beedes son, Kane he repeated, this time rather more emphatically.
Kane merely scowled.
Kane. Yes. But of course (a connection was suddenly established), now I remember: you shared a coffee together, didnt you, earlier this morning?
Was that a question, Kane wondered, or just a bald statement, posing as one?
Although and Im being brutally honest here, the German confided, when I actually looked over towards the window the window where he pointed (and I can see it now, very clearly, in my minds eye) you were gone. The window was empty. So there was no way of reallyof really knowing
We did meet, Kane butted in, impatiently, quite by chance. Just before lunch. At the French Connection.
Thats it! the German sounded gleeful. Thats right! Thats exactly right! The French Connection! Ha!
Kane took a small, nervous step back, a move which the phone line gently resisted.
What did you say your name was, again? he asked, feeling a sudden, sharp twinge of paranoia.
So youre absolutely positive, then, the German barrelled on, determinedly, and I mean totally certain that you met Beede there for coffee this morning?
Why wouldnt I be? Kane fired back, defensively.
God, yesI remember the fort the German muttered (heading off, without warning, on a sudden tangent) the childrens fort. The fort is significant, but Im not entirely sureuh
Who are you?
Kane was now officially freaked out.
Isidore, the man answered plainly (perhaps a little startled by Kanes forceful tone). Didnt I say so before? Im sorry. How incredibly rude. Forgive me. Im Isidore. Dory. Beede and I do the tours together.
Pardon?
Kane didnt follow.
The Ashford Tours. Im the chauffeur. Beedes my guide.
Ashford Tours?
Kane still wasnt quite up to speed.
YesAlthough its just a side-line, really. And your fathers been so caught up in his work at the laundry latelySecuritys our main function keeping keys, guarding empty properties, a little light detective work
Beede is your guide?
Kane was struggling to catch on (I mean Beede? A guide? That old sourpuss? Welcoming people? Putting on a show? Being informative? Friendly? Obliging? Beede being positive? About modern Ashford of all places the source of all his gloom? The heart of all his disappointments? Had the world finally gone absolutely bloody barking?).
A great guide. A brilliant guide. Your father is quite a remarkable man, the German observed, dryly (was it dryness, or something else?), but Im sure youre already very well aware of that fact.
Oh yeah Kane mumbled, with a vague smirk, absolutely.
His mind was momentarily drifting elsewhere. The childrens fort. Fort
Eh?
What was that?
He drew a sudden, sharp breath as he registered an unpleasant, pinching sensation in his forearm. He glanced down. He realised that he was now supporting the phone receiver against his shoulder and that his right hand was clutching very tightly on to his left arm (where the old sunburn scars were)
Ow!
He blinked. He relaxed his grip
What?!
The outer edges of his scar tissue had been reddened by the roughness of its manhandling. He scowled.
But of course, he suddenly found himself saying, it mustve been you on the horse.
Me?
Yes. YouTall. Fair-haired. Wearing some kind ofof navy-blue uniform.
The German seemed bewildered by this revelation. Me? On a horse? Riding? You actually saw me on horseback?
YeahWell, no. You were climbing off. Youd climbed off.
And you were there with Beede, you say? In the restaurant? Having coffee?
Kane grimaced, impatiently. I think we already established that.
He leaned forward and picked up the stray magazines from the carpet.
Silence
And then? the German asked, tentatively.
What?
As Kane carefully placed the magazines back on to the pile again he noticed a bank statement whichd been preserved, flat, between a couple of the editions.
Then Beede left? the German persisted. Is that how it happened?
Uh, Kane considered this for a moment, eyeing the statement, casually, yeah. Quite soon after. Once the chiropodist arrived.
The chiropodist?
The Germans voice was hoarse with excitement. You mean Elen? The chiropodist? She was there?
Elen
Of course
Kane glanced up, smiling.
My wife was there?
Kanes smile faltered.
Good God.
The German seemed overwhelmed by this idea.
Although in actual fact, Kane frowned as he remembered, the boy almost had me convinced that there were two horses
Sorry? What? A boy?
Her son, Kane paused, your son. A sharp little character. He said that there were two. But if there were, then they were pretty much indistinguishable He paused again which I suppose theyd need to be, really, for the trick to work.
Youre telling me that there were two horses?
The German rather slow on the uptake, Kane thought swung from excited to panicky.
Kane stared down at the statement again, distractedly, then his brows suddenly shot up
What?!
Holy fuck
Was Beede on one of them?
Kane continued to stare at the statement, as if mesmerised.
Hello? Are you there? I said was Beede on one of them?
No! Kane snapped, exasperated. Beede was with me. I saw one horse. But the boy said that only by using two horses could you have managed the change-over so quickly. The swap. Like in a trick. A magic trick
Swap? Who swapped?
The German sounded terrified.
You and the other man. The Kane struggled to describe him,
the strangethe creepy
Which man? The German rasped.
Kane closed his eyes and tried to visualise
Black
Yellow
Black
He shuddered, The dark man
And then he found himself hissingSsssssss!
With no forewarning, his mouth was
Good God!
It was hissing Darkmansssss.
Kane quickly clamped his errant lips shut
Where?
How?
What the?!
Isidore hung up.
PART TWO
FLEET
There are many ways in which Fleet is much, much more advanced than all of the other children in his class, Mrs Santa explained, encouragingly, his hand eye coordination for one thing is really quite astonishing. And I mean really quite astonishing
She glanced over towards the play area in the corner of the classroom where Fleet was currently sitting and boredly constructing a small, neat structure
A fort, was it?
out of plastic bricks.
Elen detected a kind of anxiety in the glance. She felt a spontaneous knuckle of rage forming in her stomach (how dare she look at him like that? He was her son. She loved him), and then a balancing knuckle of sympathy (Oh God, he made her feel that way herself, sometimes).
These two contradictory knuckles were Elens constant companions; and her gut was the boxing ring in which they staged their spats. Motherhood, she told herself, bleakly: the pride, the humility.
She tried to take a deep breath
Breathe
Breathe from the stomach
(just like Dory said)
Kinking the back
Diaphragm flat, out, up
They were sitting on two tiny chairs at a tiny table, like a couple of lady Gullivers amongst the Lilliputians. Elen couldnt actually remember entering the classroom, or how shed actually got there. It was all just a blank, a fug. She stared over at the teacher, frowning.
But then he might go and do something likelike that for example
The teacher indicated (perhaps slightly irritably) at the methodical way in which before he finally positioned each and every individual brick Fleet would run the nail of his thumb along the smooth plastic edge, then push the indented side, firmly, into his lower lip.
Hell do that for whole hours at a time. And I mean whole hours, literally. That same, odd little ritual
This time her glance extended over towards the door. Elens own eyes followed, hard upon
Oh my God
The Head Teacher
Standing guard
He has a phenomenal memory Mrs Santa returned, somewhat doggedly, to her positive sales pitch, although hes highly selective about the kinds of things that interest him. Veryuh particular
Elen wasnt paying attention. She was still thinking about the Head Teacher and why he was out there
Back-up?
Is something wrong?
Does she hate me?
She put a self-conscious hand to her cheek
Is it the mark?
But on the down-side Mrs Santa paused, stuck out her chin, gave a small, Jewish shrug
Is she Jewish?
Elen stared at her. She was tiny, plump, wore her dark hair pushed back today with a navy-blue alice-band in a neat, sharp bob
Is she?
his language skills are lagging way behind most of the other childrens in his class. And his social skills are still very shaky even after our previous initiative with the Bradleys youngest
Elen blinked, snapping out of her reverie