We made our way back to the station via the Wimpy, and I had a snooze on the train. I told Elizabeth she could snooze, and I would keep an eye out for our stop, but she wanted to stay awake.
I wonder when Viktor will be back? I hope he is having luck with Jack Mason. Elizabeth seems to have great faith in him. I asked her if they had ever slept together, and she said that she honestly couldn’t remember, but they probably did. I told her I carry around a picture of everyone I’ve ever slept with in my purse. Then I opened it, and showed her that the only picture in my purse was one of Gerry, and she said, ‘Yes, I got it the first time, Joyce.’
I wonder if Viktor will remember if he slept with Elizabeth. I think one probably would.
54
The three men are sitting on Jack Mason’s verandah in the moonlight, with a strip heater and a tumbler of whisky each, keeping them warm. Lights blink out at sea. Ron feels the whisky warm his chest, and his eyelids begin to droop. Give him this over a massage any day of the week.
What a lovely day they’ve had. BBQ on the heated terrace, snooker, cards. Couldn’t wish for more. Viktor gently prodding here and there, Jack avoiding his questions.
The snooker is over for the evening. The first, everyone hopes, of a regular game. Three old men, three new friends. The gangster, the KGB colonel and the trades union official.
‘It must be a burden, Jack,’ says Viktor.
‘What’s that?’ Jack asks.
‘Your scheme,’ says Viktor. ‘It should have been so clean. Then Bethany dies. And now Heather dies. That must weigh on you. Your responsibility?’
Jack nods, and raises his glass.
‘I don’t kill people, Viktor,’ says Jack. ‘Some people do, but I’ve never got a thrill from it. I like breaking the law, I like making money, I like getting one over on people.’
‘A man after my own heart,’ says Viktor. ‘Perhaps it haunts you,’ says Viktor. ‘Just a touch.’
‘A touch,’ agrees Jack.
‘I understand,’ says Viktor. ‘And you must be angry, I think I would be, with the killer?’
‘It was stupid,’ says Jack. ‘It was unnecessary.’
‘Just the thought,’ says Viktor, ‘of Bethany going over that cliff. It must wake you at times?’
‘Nah,’ says Jack. ‘You got it wrong.’
‘I sometimes do get it wrong,’ agrees Viktor. ‘I am eager to know why I am wrong now though? That vision would trouble me.’
‘Lads,’ says Jack, with a small smile, ‘can I tell you something? Unburden myself a bit?’
This sounds like it might get uncomfortably close to discussing feelings, Ron thinks, but he sees that’s how Viktor works. And they’re investigating a crime, so he’s going to have to put up with it.
‘This is not for the police,’ says Jack. ‘It’s for the three of us. What you choose to do with it, that’s your business.’
‘No one here is speaking to the police,’ says Ron. ‘Go on, Jack.’
‘There was no one in the car when it went over the cliff,’ says Jack Mason, and takes another sip of his whisky. ‘Bethany Waites was dead hours before that.’
Ron is awake now, that’s for sure. He looks at Viktor, knowing the KGB officer might have better questions than he does.
‘Well, this is an interesting development,’ says Viktor. ‘You know this for a fact, Jack?’
‘I know it for a fact,’ says Jack Mason. ‘I know who killed her, I know why, and I know where she’s buried. I know where the grave is.’