Hotbed (26 page)

‘Do you recall a time in the club when Ralph claimed Monty special occasions showed the humanity of his clientele? This seemed rather fruity then. Yet, perhaps humanity is important. I don't know whether you've ever thought at all about humanity, Harpur. It might not be within your range, but those two – Ralph and Manse – are not mere elements to be pushed about by a political theory. I'm afraid this goes back on what I described to you, Col, only a little while ago. My view then you see, Col, Francis . . . my view then placed Ralph and Manse as fated, doomed, by the pressures of market demands to seek monopoly. And therefore each must try to dispose of the other, despite their long affiliation and possible friendship. This theory seemed feasible, coherent. It appeared academically convincing. However . . .' He paused lengthily. Harpur and Garland waited, silent. Iles said: ‘However , I wholly reject this notion now. It might be academically convincing but does it square with Life?' He spoke with the capital letter. ‘There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy, K. Marx.'

‘That's almost poetic, sir. It's a treat the way these thoughts just seem to come to you.'

Iles stopped strolling and held up two hands, as if in surrender. ‘No, no, don't say anything out of your habitual good nature to excuse my volte-face, Col. I am routinely grateful for that kindness, even from someone who casually yet repeatedly debauched my wife in flea-pit rooms, or municipal park flower beds, or police vehicles, or back lanes, or beaches, or train lavatories, but I must not accept such kindness now. Would you say it was casually yet repeatedly, Harpur? I'm not certain what answer I want to that. Which do you think would be preferable to me, Col – the casual or not casual debauching of my wife? “Casual” would suggest no serious attempt to take her from me. Non-casual might mean intent.'

‘Has anything specific brought about this change of mind on monopoly, sir?' Harpur replied.

‘Yes, something specific,' Iles said.

‘This is fascinating,' Harpur said.

‘Naturally, I'm speaking of Unhinged Humphrey.'

‘Ah,' Harpur said.

‘Clearly, this is what lay behind my reference to Ralph and Manse as human beings,' Iles said.

‘Right, sir,' Garland said.

‘Obviously,' Harpur said.

‘Unhinged, as we saw, insulted and assaulted Mansel's fine and, for all I know, at this stage, clean and reputable, fiancée in the Monty.'

‘Unhinged can be like that,' Harpur said.

‘This is someone very precious to Manse,' Iles said. ‘He is ready to take her on full-time, despite the experience he had with that earlier, wandering piece, Sybil, the mother of his children, though that didn't seem to bother her much when she hopped it.'

‘Manse and Naomi met through art,' Harpur said. ‘It's rather inspiring. I hear there's a lot of picking up done in galleries. People loiter and make themselves receptive to the stuff on the walls. In that state, conversations can occur with other loiterers. Some women get turned on by almost anything in a suitable frame.'

‘Now, who was it who first took action against Unhinged during that disgraceful attack in the Monty?' Iles said.

‘I heard Ember hit him with a Kressmann armagnac bottle,' Garland said.

‘I find that so meaningful,' Iles said.

‘Ralph usually has a bottle of Kressmann's near,' Harpur said. ‘When there's plenty in it this can give a very effective smack.'

‘I see an unshiverable bond between Ralph and Manse,' Iles said. ‘If something of Mansel's is threatened – for instance, his fiancée – Ralph regards it as an inescapable duty to protect her, a duty more compelling than even that capitalistic duty to compete. He acted regardless of the fact that, as far as I've discovered, Ralph isn't doing anything with her himself at this stage. Knightliness – we witnessed a kind of knightliness. We saw unbreakable comradeship. They stand by each other and, I now think, on this evidence and my accumulated knowledge of them, always will. They are part of the fabric, a lasting, proven part. Further – oh, yes, magnificently further: further, there comes the notable way Manse expertly backed up with his knuckle-duster Ralph's use of the bottle as bludgeon. This is two men beautifully in concert, two men viscerally connected, Col, Francis, in that case via a woman, but also generally, profoundly. On the face of it these may seem small, accidental incidents. In a way, yes. But they are also indicators. They tell us of larger issues – or, at least, they tell
me
, who is, possibly, exceptionally attuned to such hints owing to my reservoir of empathy.'

‘You don't any longer think they'll try to wipe out each other in the predestined fight for capitalistic dominance, as proposed by Marx?' Harpur said.

‘My point now is, they are bigger than any mere woolly claptrap about the inevitable need for commercial monopoly.' The ACC tightened his jaw to demonstrate

certainty. ‘Bigger in which respect, you may ask.'

‘Bigger in which respect, sir?' Harpur said.

‘Oh, don't you see it – don't you
sense
it, Col, Francis? Bigger because they are human, human, human, gloriously, unimpeachably human.' Iles almost sang, almost chortled. He beamed. This hugely surpassed a smile or grin. It tried to warm the room. Yes, it was as if the ACC had seen a vision, a happy one, unique to him. ‘They will act according to human impulses, not formulae,' he said. ‘They will, in fact, deliberately, unenslavedly, resist those formulae.'

‘But we still have Turret dead, sir,' Garland said.

Iles frowned. Here was that sodding nitty-gritty, to foul up those splendid abstractions. ‘Yes, Turret dead. I think they both now suffer major regrets over Turret – Ralph for placing him secretly, treacherously, in Manse's outfit, Manse for killing him, or having him killed. Both acts violate perfect blood-brotherliness.'

‘But how can you know they repent like that, sir,' Harpur said, ‘if I may ask this, too?'

‘Yes, Col, ask, ask away! How? I'll tell you: I feel it.' Iles struck the uniform at stomach level with the palm of his right hand. Harpur thought it must be to show how visceral this, also, was. ‘Perhaps we shouldn't push too hard at the Turret inquiry, Francis,' Iles said. ‘After all, what was Turret? Offal. We have a balance to keep. That balance will see Ralph and Manse maintain their long, fruitful tolerance of each other in the trade. We then enjoy continuance of assured peace on the streets. This is precious. To make too much of the Turret death will endanger such peace, cause finger-pointing. Let's avoid that.'

‘His brother is still around, sir, pressing for a rigorous inquiry, as you might expect from a brother,' Garland said. ‘He has some clout – a famous actor. Press friends, possibly. I wouldn't want him or them to regard us as slack.'

‘Famous, certainly – and deservedly. My wife and I will definitely try to get up to London to see him in
No Man's Land
,' Iles replied. ‘That's the kind of joyful, open, stimulating trip she and I often take together these days – a bit damn different from your activity in – to list at random – flea-pit rooms, or municipal park flower beds, or police vehicles, or back lanes, or beaches, or train lavatories, wouldn't you agree? Theatre – such a wonderful link between us!'

Garland said: ‘On the whole I accept the word of the neighbours at 15B, but that word doesn't take us very far.'

‘Neighbourhood fucking Watch,' Iles replied. ‘I should think the young girl with the bike was Ralph's daughter, Venetia. Did you recognize the hopeful, sad, teenage, loving, letter-box voice, Col? Have you ever met her? I hear Turret went to Low Pastures for a discussion, perhaps discussions, with Ralphy. If this girl saw him there she'd probably take a fancy. Wispy beard? Moustache? She's rather that way, isn't she? Even in the condition we found him, Col, one could see he might have had some third-rate, short-term, underclass attractiveness. But I'd say, keep her right out of things, please, Francis. I don't know how it could affect Ralph if we start harassing his daughter. True, Ember wouldn't have liked Venetia making a play for Turret, but possibly he'd feel angry with Mansel for bringing her distress. I'd rather he was not angry with Manse. Things between them seem good now, but might also be delicate for a while. We seek peace, don't we, Col, Francis? It is our duty to preserve the Queen's Peace, God bless her. We are, as Colin said, her triumvirate, her happy, united triumvirate. This doesn't mean I forget you helped your respective selves to my wife, but we are professionals and can be happy and united in that boundaried, workaday fashion.'

Ember and Shale had one of their routine, private business pow-wows in Manse's house, the former St James's rectory. Shale wanted to finalize some accounts before his wedding and honeymoon. Suppose he got through the ceremony alive, Manse and Naomi would leave immediately afterwards for Stockholm. Shale had told Ralph he didn't want any of those ‘touristy', ‘obvious' spots, such as Venice or Las Vegas. ‘Them northern countries, such as Sweden, Norway, Finland – there's a sort of
cleanness
to them, Ralph. As you know, I'm always seeking that – cleanness. Such as fjords for Norway – that clear blue water and snowy cliffs– and islands all around Stockholm, more beautiful water, some sea, some fresh. I hear they got what's called an “ice bar” in Stockholm, which is a bar in an hotel where everything is ice. The bar itself – what they serves the drinks off of – is a big lump of ice and you can see right through it because ice is so pure. Great! There's a lad over there, Upsalla way, running a really sweet H and coke operation, and it will be nice to call in on him and check any new angles we could learn from, Ralph.'

Ember and Shale talked now, as they often did, in what Manse termed ‘the den-room'. Ralph reckoned Manse didn't care for the word den on its own, because it would make him sound like an animal, and not an attractive or odour-free animal. Ember thought Manse's eyes looked ferrety, so you could understand his worry about the word ‘den'. This was not a cruelly personal view of Manse's eyes: several people had mentioned the blatant ferretiness of them to Ember. He found ferretiness difficult to define exactly, but the eyes radiated something stony, clever and unmerciful.

Shale had told him once that he liked to work in here doing the accounts and so on because he felt it put him in touch with vicars and rectors who might have used this room to draft sermons, and write testimonials. Manse loved that sort of connection with the upright, even holy, past. Maybe it chimed with what he described as the desire for cleanness via Scandinavia. His den-room had a large mahogany table-desk and a suite of furniture in red leather. Original paintings hung on the walls, one of a plumpish woman who looked as though she would be Dutch. On their way through the house, Ralph had seen other paintings in the hall and, through an open door, in a larger room off it, some more daubs, probably from that Pre-Raphaelite movement Manse adored. They drank coffee. It was early evening.

Ember would never allow these meetings to take place at Low Pastures or even in the Monty. Not at all fucking on. Ralph felt committed to keeping his home and the club clear of any contact with a trade he knew to be generally viewed as crooked. Naturally, he recognized that Low Pastures could not be wholly clear of his trade because trade money helped buy it. But he'd prevent any further link between the property and the business. Making sure the Monty stayed separate from the trade was less easy. After all, the club had its tainted, villainous, aspects, regardless of any connection with Ralph's other career: why Ralph wanted to transform it. Just the same, Ralph greatly disliked the thought of making the Monty a site for regular strategy meetings about the drugs game.

Inevitably, he realized that Manse might ask why, then,
his
place, with its evident religious history, should be considered suitable for their meetings. Ralph didn't have much of an answer, but often he'd bring a bottle of Kressmann's around to solace him. He could tell that Shale, in his fucking small-minded, niggly way, was not totally convinced by this. Ralph certainly regarded Manse's attitude as regrettable, and, ultimately, Manse could go stuff himself.

Immediately the two lots of figures had been agreed – one set for Manse and Ralph, the other for the general, companies' dinner at the Agincourt – Shale said: ‘What I appreciated above all, Ralph, was the way you looked after Naomi in the club the other night when Unhinged turned rancid , like he so often does.' He sounded genuinely warm and matey, though his eyes couldn't match this.

‘Oh, an automatic response, Manse – nothing extraordinary.'

‘An automatic response for
you
, yes, Ralph. But for many another it would not of been that. This was something deep and personal in you – in you, Ralph Ember. And I felt proud to join you in this flattening of Unhinged. Such cooperation, Ralph. Such very special, brilliant comradeship.'

‘True.'

‘It thrilled Naomi,' Shale said.

‘She's a fine girl.'

‘Now and then she gets her doubts about me, Ralph.'

‘Doubts? About
you
?' Only someone mad wouldn't have doubts about Shale.

‘I can tell. These doubts might be natural.'

‘You're very forgiving, Manse.'

‘It wouldn't be right to blame her too much, seeing the sort of life she've come from.'

‘Which?'

‘She got to adjust. All right, every couple got to do that. But for her it's a really big item. Not so easy, maybe. This is a woman with her own mind. In a way, I admire her for that. It can be a fucking plague.'

‘What
kind
of doubts, Manse?' as if Ralph didn't know.

‘She don't like some of the . . . well, she thinks there might be untoward things she haven't been told about, like not quite as things seem, and this worries her. Women goes in for all sorts of worries, as you know.'

‘Untoward?'

‘Like this Turret Brown.'

‘In what sense, Manse?'

‘She wonders who killed him. They can be like that, women. Somebody gets killed and cut about, so they'll start with questions. They see that as natural. It's their way. Silence? They never fucking heard of it. They haven't got a lot to do, and so they're always on the lookout for topics.'

‘Whom does she think killed him?' Obviously, Ralph knew the answer to that one, but it would be best for
Manse
to tell
him
, not for
him
to tell
Manse
. He said ‘whom' because it was correct and he did not want to patronize Manse by going down to his fucking grammatical level.

‘This nosiness can make things dodgy, Ralph.'

‘Everyone wonders who killed Brown, including the police.'

‘Yes, we all do, I know. It's an absolute mystery.'

‘Does she want to name someone?'

‘She thinks she picks up pointers – such as from Unhinged. Very sickening hints.'

‘What sort of hints?'

‘It can make things tense, Ralph.'

‘You tell her what Unhinged is like, don't you?'

‘That his mouth takes over? Yes. It takes over until something else takes over, such as the throttling.'

‘Pointers from Unhinged mean nothing. Well, she ought to be able to see what he's like. Half crazy. Naomi's an intelligent woman.'

‘Yes, I think she does see it. And because of what you done on Unhinged and the way we acted so harmonious together, flattening him – I think that affected her in a truly helpful style. I don't say she's forgot the doubts – not totally, that will take time – but I believe it's going to be all right – the wedding and so on. I got to say moments used to come when I couldn't be sure. This is a major church all lined up and willing to do it, and I still worried she'd back out because this Brown gets hisself killed in very worrying conditions – I mean, it was more than worrying for him hisself, clearly, but worrying for others, as a result. A poor situation, Ralph.'

‘Hard on you.'

‘Yes.' Shale did some mourning. Then he bucked up suddenly. ‘But what I wanted to explain, Ralph, is how I – I mean I myself, in person – how I learned so much from that little carry-on with Unhinged. You might not know it, Ralph, but there are some who say businessmen like us are bound to fight each other, because we all want to be top dog with no other dogs around at all. It's what known as a theory. You heard of “dog eat dog”? It's like that. Of importance. Some thinker come up with it as an idea, I heard. They can be like that, thinkers – famed for theories. They'll look at certain conditions and they'll decide, Ah, these need a theory. You and me, Ralph, when we think of something it's just ordinary thinking. But when one of these real thinkers thinks most likely they'll come up with a theory. Famed for it.'

‘They're always at something.'

‘Anyway, I don't believe it. Never did, and less now. What I'd say, especially after that Unhinged trouble, is we're friends, you and me, Ralph, and
eternal
friends. No theory from no thinker can upset that. Them thinkers can go fuck theirselves. If they think thinking's so grand, why don't they think about something useful, not just theories? We'll act like we always did, two firms, but two firms who give each other total respect and understanding.'

‘Right, Manse,' Ember said.

‘We don't usually talk about such matters, I know. We don't
need
to talk about such matters because they are there, like natural. But now and then it's good to talk about such matters. They deserve it, because very few others got

anything like it, or none at all.'

‘True.'

‘This is not one of them theories, this is just how it is, and OK to discuss.'

‘Highlights things.'

‘Spot on.' Shale stood suddenly. ‘Look, Naomi is here, with the children. I'd like to call them all in so they can see us together, companions for ever, in total trade harmony. This they should witness, and share the joy.'

‘Right, Manse,' Ember said.

Shale went and opened the den-room door. He called out to Naomi and the children, in an excited, fulfilled voice. After a moment, the three appeared and sat down on the leather chairs and settee, Naomi, Laurent and Matilda. The boy and girl were still in their private school uniform, blue, trimmed with black. They looked refined, despite Mansel. ‘Here's Ralph,' Shale said, with terrific affection. ‘He didn't want to go until he saw you all. It's the way he is. Of course, he'll see you again at the wedding, but that's still days away.'

‘We're all looking forward to it, I'm sure,' Ralph said.

‘So much,' Naomi said.

And Ralph thought she might mean it now, although she seemed to have learned fast how to use conversation to hide things as well as say them. Perhaps that very personal interview with him at the club helped her. He guessed she had not told Manse about the visit. Their meeting, plus the Unhinged incident, could have worked on her, together convinced Naomi that Shale might just about justify the risk, marriage being such a risk, anyway. Many women would gamble. Also, she knew art, and had decided that at least some of Manse's stuff was genuine and valuable. Plus, there had been so much talk about this wedding that she probably thought she couldn't get out of it now – big church, very helpful clergyman, lots of invitations sent. Ralph believed he might be able to give her some consolation later on in the marriage. She'd probably expect this from him. But not immediately. He would regard that as gross, and probably she would, too.

‘Naomi's not our mother, of course,' Matilda said, ‘in the biological meaning, but she's going to be our new mother, anyway.'

‘Yes,' Laurent said. ‘Our real mother's quite good at it when she wants to be, but she's not here lately.'

‘No,' Naomi said.

‘Isn't it great?' Shale said. ‘How things sort theirselves out.'

‘Great,' Naomi said.

Ember left soon after this. He'd certainly thought about getting Manse on his own to let Shale know that Articulate meant to kill him as part of a deal with Ralph, but then decided Manse could probably protect himself. Perhaps, in any case, the sod deserved whatever came. After all, he'd done, or he'd
had
done, Joachim Brown, someone very carefully selected and approved of by Ralph, and by his daughter. It was difficult to forgive that, despite all the endless brotherly windbagging and buddy-mush just now.

Yet, Ember didn't want to be entirely negative and harsh. Maturity, in his opinion, brought an ability to compromise, and he thought of one way he could respond to Mansel's thoroughly inspired show. Ralph decided he'd tell a couple of his people to watch out for Sybil on the wedding day, assuming Manse lived that long, and, if she looked likely to turn rough and loud, cart her off somewhere secure and soundproof until the ceremony ended, though with no more than necessary violence, and definitely nothing sexual. Ralph knew he, personally, would hate a disturbance in this top quality church as much as Manse.

Ember was at the Monty late again a day or two later and did a routine tour of the club yard to satisfy himself no mysterious packages had been left against outer doors. He must not get unvigilant. It could be a mistake to think any attack from Shale would be against him, Ralph, physically. Instead, the tactics might be shaped to reduce him, break him, gradually. So, for instance, knock off Turret, a valued, favoured, honoured, member of Ralph's firm. And then? Do the Monty, and with it, many of Ralph's golden hopes. Destruction of the Monty could mean destruction of Ember's mind and selfhood and will to fight.

An unmarked Volvo drove into the yard and parked. Iles and Colin Harpur left the car and walked towards him, Iles looking what Ember thought of as deeply unwinsome. These two would sometimes arrive at the Monty after midnight, on the face of it to see all licensing conditions were observed, but actually, in Ralph's view, to terrorize the clientele and enjoy a few free drinks. ‘Hunting firebombs, Ralph, dear?' Iles said. ‘Isn't it a gross world, though?'

Ember took them to the bar and set the pair up with their usuals, then poured himself a Kressmann's. Twenty or so members remained in the club, mostly at the bar or playing snooker and pool. Iles did his usual arrogant glare about, as if he couldn't believe how some of these people were out of clink, or any of them. Ralph felt this sort of attitude would be utterly improper once the Monty had been relaunched. Perhaps it should be regarded as improper
now
, though Ralph would admit that some members who got Iles's disbelieving stare tonight might have been locked up except for very talented QCs and/or the overcrowded jails.