The Angel in the Corner - Monica Dickens [104]
‘You didn’t tell me. You were asleep when I left this morning. I came on the chance that we could go to a cinema and have some supper out.’
‘Not tonight. I’m not off till eight-thirty. You go home and get some rest. Sweetheart,’ he added, because she looked disappointed. ‘And don’t wait up for me, because I might be a bit late. I’ve got a date after work. Business.’
‘Something for Ed? I wish you’d stop that, Joe. You don’t need to be mixed up with him now that you’re working here.’
‘I’ll choose who I’m mixed up with,’ he said, leaning forward on the counter as he lowered his voice. ‘It happens to be nothing to do with Ed, but you keep your nose out of it, anyway.’
The woman who had come to take the empty stool next to Virginia heard this last remark and looked interested, so Joe stood upright and nodded to Virginia, and went to take an order at the other end of the counter.
Another day, when Virginia and Betty went to the Excelsior at lunch-time, the cadaverous man was there again. He was not talking to Joe, who was busy with the noon-time rush. He was drinking a milk shake and reading a newspaper. He was there again another day, and although he was again reading a newspaper, Virginia still had the impression that he was watching Joe.
‘Who is that man?’ she asked that night. ‘That man who’s always at the Excelsior, drinking milk shakes.’
‘What man?’ he said. ‘Dozens of people come there nearly every day, and dozens of them have milk shakes.’
‘I know, but this man looks as if he knew you. And I’ve seen you talking to him.’
‘Since when can’t I talk to customers? I talk to the women too. How do you like that?’ Joe had been edgy these last few days. He seemed to have something on his mind besides the plans for the restaurant. The restaurant, in fact, was seldom discussed. Jack had not come swaggering into the flat for many days, and if he and Joe were on the street at the same time they walked on opposite sides. It seemed as if they were trying to avoid being seen together.
‘Joe, you know who I mean. The man in the raincoat. His hair is cut very short, and he has a long jaw. His head looks like a skull.’
‘No doubt he has a skull under his head, like most people,’ Joe said. ‘I’ve no idea who you’re talking about.’
‘All right. I’m fanciful, I expect. Mrs Batey says you get fanciful when you’re pregnant.’ She dropped the subject of the cadaverous man, but she still worried about him. She saw him again in the Excelsior at lunch-time, and Betty asked in her loud, clear voice: ‘Why do you keep looking at that man over there? Do you know him?’
Joe told Virginia that he had been given a Saturday off, and was going to a race-meeting in the Midlands. She asked if she could go with him.
‘How could you? You couldn’t get off.’
‘I might, if I ask Mr Jacobs. He’s very kind. He treats me almost as if I were sacred now.’
‘Well, you can’t come. It would be too tiring for you, the journey and everything. I didn’t know you liked going to the races all that much, anyway.’
‘I don’t particularly. I just felt I didn’t want to spend the week-end here alone.’
‘Alone! My God, no one could be alone in this tower of Babel. You’ll be all right. You know everybody here. If you’re scared at night, go across the passage. The gas-fitter will defend your honour.’
Joe was going to be away two nights. He said that he was going with Ed Morris on Friday evening. Ed would put him up at a hotel, and they would be back on Sunday. On Friday morning, Virginia said suddenly: ‘Please don’t go.’
‘Don’t be silly, darling. I’ve promised Ed. He doesn’t like driving alone. Besides, I have a feeling I’m going to make some money this trip. There’s a couple of horses that can’t miss.’
When Virginia came home that evening, he had already gone. His coat was not behind the door, and when she went down to look in the basement storeroom she saw that her small suitcase was not there.
All Sunday she waited in the flat, but he did not come. In the evening she roasted a piece of beef, because she thought he would be hungry when