‘I feel like I did, yes,’ says Stephen.
‘You remember the names of the books?’
‘Of course,’ says Stephen. ‘He had the Timurid Quran, for goodness’ sake, and a volume of the Yongle Encyclopaedia. Not my area, but he had a Shakespeare First Folio. So, yes, I remember the names. I haven’t gone loco.’
‘I know,’ says Bogdan.
‘“Doolally”， they used to call it.’
Bogdan nods. Elizabeth needs to find out the identity of the Viking. Could this help? Could they track him through these books? He will tell Elizabeth as soon as she is back, and Elizabeth will have a plan.
‘I don’t know when it would have been,’ says Stephen. ‘But recently, I think. Though I feel as if I don’t go out so much any more?’
‘You’re always out and about,’ says Bogdan. ‘Walking with Elizabeth. All sorts.’
‘This will seem another very silly question to you,’ says Stephen. ‘And forgive me. But do I have a car?’
Bogdan shakes his head. ‘Lost your licence.’
‘Blast it,’ says Stephen. ‘Do you have a car?’
‘I have access to cars, yes,’ says Bogdan.
‘When is Elizabeth back?’
‘This evening,’ says Bogdan.
‘Righto,’ says Stephen. ‘Could you run me down to Brighton?’
‘To Brighton?’
‘Old pal of mine runs an antique shop. Dodgy as they come –’
‘Bent as a nine-bob note?’ says Bogdan.
‘Never a truer word spoken,’ says Stephen. ‘I want to ask him about these books. See how Bill Chivers came to have them. Bit of detective work, if you fancy it?’
OK, perhaps Bogdan won’t have to wait for Elizabeth to come up with a plan.
‘And, speaking of detectives and fancying,’ says Stephen, ‘why don’t we invite your pal Donna along too? Been dying to meet her. Elizabeth really hasn’t clocked that you two are dating?’
‘She knows something is up, but she hasn’t worked out what,’ says Bogdan.
‘Oh, Elizabeth,’ says Stephen. ‘You can see why I worry about her?’
Bogdan and Stephen shake hands on a draw. Now to get Stephen changed and shaved, and then a trip to Brighton. Should he ask Elizabeth’s permission?
No, he has Stephen’s permission. He will do as Stephen wishes.
51
‘I’m a dreadful nuisance, I can’t apologize enough,’ says Elizabeth, stretched out on a sofa in an Elstree Studios dressing-room.
‘Don’t be silly,’ says a paramedic, removing a blood-pressure sleeve from Elizabeth’s arm. ‘Blood pressure all normal, but people faint for all sorts of reasons. It happens all the time.’
‘Silly sums it up,’ says Elizabeth. ‘A silly old woman spoiling everyone’s fun. I think it’s because they don’t let you have any food. I’m elderly, you see.’ Elizabeth tries to sit up, but the paramedic is having none of it.
‘Not a bit of it,’ says the paramedic, turning to Joyce. ‘She’s not spoiling anyone’s fun, is she?’
‘I mean, I was enjoying it,’ says Joyce. ‘But these things happen.’
‘Must have been a bit of a shock for you too?’ says the paramedic. ‘Your friend keeling over twenty minutes into the recording?’