‘He remembers what he remembers,’ says Bogdan. ‘And for now he doesn’t really know what he forgets.’
‘That’s a mercy,’ says Kuldesh. ‘For now.’
‘You can help with Stephen’s list?’ asks Bogdan.
‘If one person owns all of these books,’ says Kuldesh, ‘then I might be able to find out who. Difficult. I’m guessing it’s not Bill Chivers, though?’
‘No, is not Bill Chivers,’ says Bogdan. ‘Is someone who wants to kill Stephen’s wife.’
‘Elizabeth?’
Bogdan nods. ‘Elizabeth.’
‘Then I will find out,’ says Kuldesh. ‘That is my promise. She’s still firing on all cylinders I hope?’
‘Most of them,’ says Bogdan. ‘I’m sorry I brought a police officer into your shop. But is only Donna.’
‘A friend of Stephen is my friend,’ says Kuldesh. ‘Even if they’re in a uniform. Give me a couple of days to see what I can find.’
Kuldesh shakes Bogdan’s hand and starts to usher him to the door. But Bogdan seems reluctant to leave.
‘Is there something else?’ asks Kuldesh.
Bogdan is shifting his weight from foot to foot. Then he nods his head towards the back of the shop.
‘The statue that Donna liked?’ asks Bogdan. ‘How much for cash?’
53
Joyce
I met Fiona Clemence today, that’s my big news. Also, I had a gun in my handbag which, on any other day, would probably be the big news. Thirdly, Blackfriars Station has the tiniest branch of WHSmith you’ve ever seen in your life.
What a day we’ve had of it, though. We left at about ten, and we weren’t back till gone seven. Viktor is still not back from seeing Jack Mason. All his bits of paper are scattered all over the floor. The financial records. This morning I asked him if he’d had any luck, and he said there was no luck involved, and I said, well, I was just making conversation, and he said, yes, I was quite right, and then he put the kettle on. We rub along just fine.
Normally Alan would have a field day with all those bits of paper. Chewing them, tearing them. But he was stepping around them politely. Viktor has explained their importance to Alan, and asked him to be very careful with them. Viktor does have a persuasive tone. For example, he had me watching the Formula 1 the other day, even though there was a Poirot on ITV3. He makes everything feel like it was your idea in the first place. Alan and I just sit there nodding half the time.
Before I come into the flat now, I have to do a special knock so Viktor knows it’s me. It’s just four quick knocks, and it sort of matches the rhythm of the moonpig.com advert. Viktor says that if he hears the door open without the knock, I will find him behind the sofa with a handgun. ‘I don’t want to shoot you by accident,’ he said, ‘but I will.’
Elizabeth and I have been to watch Stop the Clock being filmed. They filmed three episodes, and I saw the second and third one. The first one was interrupted by Elizabeth pretending to faint. All in a good cause, as it turns out. The couple in the second show won two thousand seven hundred pounds, and they are getting married, so it is going towards their wedding. He must have been fifteen years older than her. I know you shouldn’t judge but really. I wanted to shout to her, ‘Get out while you can!’
Through a combination of pretending to faint and showing her a gun, Elizabeth persuaded Fiona to speak to us afterwards. We sat in her dressing-room, and somebody who can’t have been long out of school brought us all a herbal tea. I had chamomile and raspberry, because it was the first one I was offered and my brain switches off when someone reads me a long list.
Now, I didn’t dislike Fiona Clemence, let me say that. She is not as warm as you might think when you watch her on TV. I think some of that is just for the cameras, but she wasn’t rude, even though she had every right to be after the fainting and the gun.