Hotbed (27 page)

They sat at a corner table. Harpur said: ‘I gather Articulate was here alone recently for quite a dialogue. Had he suddenly turned
really
articulate? He'd emerged somehow?'

‘I see such one-to-one conversations with long-time members as a very worthwhile and, indeed, pleasurable experience,' Ralph replied, ‘and an essential factor in one's job as host.'

‘How true,' Iles replied.

‘One to one?' Harpur said.

‘Articulate's a valued “Montyist”, as I term our regulars,' Ember replied. Had this sod, Harpur, seen Articulate turn up alone, on a return visit the other night? But how could that have happened? Articulate arrived very late. Had Harpur been watching the Monty? Why? Or had someone in the club at the time given Harpur or Iles a whisper? It always badly hurt Ralph to think the Monty housed members who watched things here and straight off reported to the police, for some contemptible fee. He might be able to trace the guilty voice this time, if that was how Harpur knew. There'd been very few other people in the club. Ralph believed he could remember who.

‘And then Articulate and his mother and great aunt Edna in earlier that evening,' Harpur said. ‘We saw them, of course. A previous conference.' It wasn't a question, but he gazed at Ralph, as if expecting an answer. Harpur always looked slabby, harsh, aggressive – yes, some said, like Marciano, though fair-haired. Alongside him, Iles appeared dainty, but to Ralph's knowledge, lacked all daintiness. ‘This sounds like real activity,' Harpur said.

‘What does?' Ember said.

‘These visits,' Harpur said.

‘This is a club. It has a social aim. People drop in,' Ember replied. ‘You drop in yourselves, don't you, Mr Harpur?'

‘We wondered, Mr Iles and I, whether you could recall the gist of your talk with Articulate, or even with Articulate and his mother and great aunt Edna.'

‘As a matter of fact, I didn't know of the later tête-à-tête with Articulate,' Iles said, ‘but Harpur mentioned it to me. He'd found out about that in some way. We won't inquire how, Ralph, shall we? We'd get no fucking answer. Occasionally, Harpur does mention things to me, if it suits him, but edited.'

‘I talk to many members over any twenty-four hours, you know,' Ralph said. ‘I see it as my function – a necessary and pleasurable one.'

‘They're lucky to have you,' Iles said. ‘Everyone realizes that. But, look, don't piss Col and me about, Ralph, there's a chum. Just give us what Articulate said, what you said, what the women said, would you? Something agreed at the first meeting and then Articulate comes in late to confirm? Or cancel? OK?'

‘Casual conviviality, that's all. You make it all sound very purposeful and businesslike, Mr Iles,' Ralph said, ‘whereas –'

‘Yes, purposeful and businesslike,' Iles said. ‘That's our reading of things.'

‘It could be wrong – with respect,' Ralph said.

‘It's the later conversation – just you and him – that really interests us,' Harpur said.

‘Generalities, I should think,' Ember said. Ralph produced a frown to show he meant to try seriously to help them and recollect. ‘Weather. Holidays. Cricket. The usual small talk. We try to avoid politics – too controversial. Most of them support David Cameron and the new Conservatives, of course, because of Eton and Oxford. I don't mean any of them actually
went
to either place, but they'd like to be noticed backing classiness. They think it will persuade me to accept their membership when the Monty changes. I bump into so many people here and have a few unimportant yet, I trust, comradely words. These little exchanges seem to merge into one pleasant and not very significant encounter. I don't know whether Alec would recall things better than I. It might be in your interests to talk to him, if you feel something significant might have come up.' Obviously, Articulate would tell them nothing. He wasn't going to chirrup:
Oh, yes, Mr Iles, Mr Harpur, I went into the Monty to arrange a bit of reciprocity – I'd do Manse for him if he'd promise not to let my mother and great aunt put any of my money from the Holborn bank expedition into the Monty black hole.
‘I'd not object to your asking him. Why would I? Nothing controversial or private. You can tell him, if you wish, that it's OK with me for him to go over

what was said.'

‘The thing about Articulate is he's dead,' Iles replied.

‘My God,' Ralph said. The shock was real.

‘Which is why what he talked about with you might be to the point,' Harpur said.

‘Is this certain – confirmed?' Ralph said.

‘
I
confirm it,' Iles said. ‘You can't get anyone deader than that.'

‘Generalities,' Ralph said. ‘We talked generalities.'

‘Done by multiple shots,' Harpur replied.

‘Oh,' Ralph said.

‘It looks as though he meant to bop Mansel Shale, but got bopped himself,' Harpur said.

‘As most of us would have forecast,' Iles said. ‘Alec as executioner? I mean, sure to cock it up.' He sniffed boisterously for a while and did an imitation weep for Articulate. ‘These things tend to sort themselves out nicely, don't they, with next to no interference from us? A bit of neat domestic tidying. Brown, dead, Articulate dead – both wholly inpenetrable cases, I'm afraid.'

‘The whisper's around, isn't it, that he was in on the ICDS robbery with some sort of stooge function,' Harpur said, ‘but nicely paid to keep his gob shut? Did that make him feel suddenly big and mature and competent – and free up his voicebox, at least for chats with you?'

‘Poor deluded prat,' Iles said. ‘He gave himself a kill mission on your behalf? Has Mansel seemed a threat lately, Ralph? That's how we read the scene. I expect you know the theories about monopoly, the commercial imperative, that eternal, grisly capitalistic struggle for dominance.'

‘Interlocking factors,' Harpur said. ‘You'll remember that Mr Iles is quite a dazzler at charting these. So: Joachim Brown, Karl Marx, Naomi, monopoly, Unhinged, Manse Shale, Articulate, the lady Misks – Rose and Edna.'

‘And, of course, yourself, Ralph,' Iles said.

Yourself
. Ember wondered, did these two want to nick him as accessory? Were they saying he commissioned Articulate to remove Mansel Shale? Perhaps in a way he had. Articulate and he shook hands on the plan. Articulate had offered, Ralph accepted, though regarding it as fantasy. That might be criminal. Must be. Luckily, however, it was deeply, blessedly unprovable. Possibly, Harpur saw Articulate come late to the Monty, but he couldn't have heard the conversation, and no stooly club member had been near enough to eavesdrop. Harpur and Iles pressed him to tell them what was said, but must realize they'd get only horse shit. They hadn't put him under caution. Iles considered this and the Brown case ‘impenetrable'. They'd never charge anyone with either. So, how could Ember be an accessory? Accessories had to have somebody to be an accessory with.

‘Mansel, a threat?' Ember replied. ‘In which way?'

‘Thrilled by his new gangster gloss, did Alec offer to knock Shale over for you?' Iles said. ‘Suddenly the retard thinks he's one of Nature's hit men? Were you and he talking some kind of deal? You'll see why we're concerned about his appearances here, Ralph, especially the second one, without his minders, the crones. He needed confidentiality? I wonder if he wanted to say something to you they shouldn't hear?'

‘Deal?' Ember said.

‘Quid pro quoism of some sort,' the ACC said.

Ember saw Iles needed to show he had guessed the arrangement between Articulate and Ralph. As ever, this fucking know-all craved credit for being a know-all. That was probably enough for him. There could be no arrests. ‘Yes, generalities,' Ralph replied. ‘We spoke generalities.' He replenished their drinks and took more armagnac himself. ‘I think about his mother and great aunt Edna,' he said.

‘Those two are provided for, we believe,' Iles said.

‘I mean their grief,' Ralph said. He gave it solemnity, though clipped, not unctuous.

‘Did they want to buy into the club with Alec's loot?' Iles replied. ‘They longed to be part of the new, redeemed Monty, right? A grand, sparkling wish. But Alec objected, did he? Perhaps he didn't consider it a sane way to use his distinguished earnings. Not everyone has your special, visionary flair, Ralph. Some cannot believe the Monty will ever change itself into something different. Did Articulate think like that? People used to find him a bit slow and stupid. But had he altered somehow – felt entitled to his own views now? Instead of the women's funding plan, he offers to take out Manse. You could then boost your trade takings and use the increase for recreating the Monty – without touching Articulate's gorgeous funds? Was that the situation?'

‘The club's in for another after-funeral do, Ralph,' Harpur said. ‘The Monty's a real social fulcrum, even
un
transformed. Maybe
because
untransformed.'

‘Your fine ambition will linger, though, Ralph. Possibly now Articulate's a goner the two ladies will try offloading their loot in your direction again,' Iles said. ‘The Heston pull pulls.'

At home in Arthur Street, Hazel said: ‘We were thinking of going to have a gaze at the Manse Shale wedding, dad. St James's. Is that all right? It's a crook wedding. You didn't much like it when we went to the Turret Brown funeral. I thought we'd better clear it with you in this instance.'

‘The bride's not a crook,' Jill said.

‘There'll be the same lot as guests,' Hazel said.

‘Weddings are all right,' Harpur said. Hadn't Iles decided Ralph and Manse were brilliantly, humanly,
unenslavedy
free from the dictates of economic theory and wouldn't be trying to kill each other, for the present?

Jill said: ‘How about you, dad?'

‘No, I don't think I'll come,' he said.

‘I meant, do you ever think about getting remarried – like Mansel Shale,' Jill said. ‘We wouldn't mind if you married Denise.'

‘I do think about it,' Harpur said.

‘Does
she
?' Hazel said.

‘Probably not,' Harpur said.

‘I don't think you're
terribly
old,' Jill said.

‘Would her parents kick up a fuss?' Hazel said.

‘Why should they?' Jill said. ‘Dad's got good sides as well as the . . . Shall we talk to Denise about it for you one day, soon?'

‘No, I wouldn't want that,' Harpur said.

‘Why?' Jill said.

‘She might feel pressured,' Harpur said.

‘Maybe she should,' Jill said.

‘Not a good way to start,' Harpur said.

‘You haven't got time to waste,' Jill replied.

‘I thought you said I wasn't old,' Harpur said.

‘Not
terribly
old,' Jill said. ‘Think of Mandela.'

The girls were away for a few hours and then came back, full of delight and excitement. ‘Lovely, dad,' Jill said.

‘Another horse-drawn vehicle. But this one an open carriage for the bride and groom to go off to the reception,' Hazel said.

‘And then, just after they'd left, some crazy woman comes running down the road screaming she'd been kidnapped, and wanting to get into the church,' Jill said. ‘Too late, though.'

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