Chris and Donna will both be receiving a ‘Highly Commended in the Line of Duty’ medal. They are gold-plated. Terry Hallet has one and has shown Chris pictures.
Andrew Everton addresses Chris and Patrice. ‘Do you want to see the medal?’
‘Go on, then,’ says Patrice. ‘Teachers don’t see medals very often.’
Andrew Everton reaches into a pocket and pulls out a small velvet pouch. He opens a drawstring and pulls out the gold medal inside.
‘Worth a few bob on eBay, that,’ says Patrice. She squeezes Chris’s hand.
Across from them are two empty chairs. Donna is bringing Bogdan. She had to come clean in the end. Polish cinema indeed. Patrice has yet to meet him, but she has just seen photos, and, as far as Chris is concerned, is a little too enthusiastic.
Bogdan is making Donna very happy though, and that is Chris’s only concern.
Patrice kisses him. ‘You excited?’
‘Never won anything before,’ says Chris.
‘My heart?’ says Patrice.
‘I can’t put your heart in my downstairs loo to show off to visitors, can I?’ says Chris. ‘You excited about meeting Bogdan?’
‘Oh my God,’ says Patrice. ‘So excited.’
Again, a little over-enthusiastic. Chris suspects that Bogdan would be a tough stepson-in-law to match. A lot of weddings needed before that happened though. Well, two weddings. Stop thinking about weddings, Chris. Say something to impress Andrew Everton.
‘I haven’t had a Toblerone for three months now.’
‘Is that so,’ says Andrew Everton. Jesus, Chris.
The compère, a comedian Chris has seen on TV, Josh something, kicks things off with a monologue. He’s very funny, ripping into everyone, and dealing with the drunken heckles that come his way. Chris sees Donna making her way through the side door of the Grand Ballroom. She is alone. Uh oh. Both he and Patrice watch as she makes her way over, and sits, her face like a cliff in a dark storm. An empty chair beside her.
‘No Bogdan?’ asks Chris.
‘Elizabeth needed him,’ says Donna.
Well, quite a theme was developing.
Was something going on they didn’t know about?
Part Three
* * *
CATCH UP ON ALL THE NEWS
70
Joyce
I am in Staffordshire. We all are, pretty much. Everyone who needs to be, at least.
Elizabeth and Stephen are here: they are down the hallway, though they haven’t emerged yet this morning. Ron and Pauline are in the East Wing. This house has wings. Ibrahim drove them, and he is staying at the gatehouse at the end of the drive.
Henrik is here, naturally, it is his house. It’s like Downton Abbey, but with a pinball machine, and a hot tub.
Mike Waghorn is also here. I suggested he join us for a brandy in the library last night, but he wanted an early night as we have given him a job to do today. He is taking it seriously.
In the end it was just me and Ibrahim, sitting up, drinking and chatting. He is feeling very perky because he has cracked the identity of ‘Carron Whitehead’。 He worked it out in the car on the way up here. When he told me, I double-checked and triple-checked, but he was quite right.
He really can be very clever. I’m still taking credit for ‘Michael Gullis’ though. That’s what really cracked the case.
I told Joanna I had worked it out and she said, ‘Well done’ and sounded like she meant it. There was even a thumbs-up emoji.