The Trinity Six - Charles Cumming [140]
‘Is there any chance you could stop saying that? It’s like you’re talking to a four-year-old. I’m grateful for everything you’re doing, Tanya. Seriously. But I’m not going to sit on my arse for the next few days and hope that John Brennan suddenly changes his mind about me. What did you think I can achieve here? Watch some daytime TV? Do the crossword?’
Tanya, to his astonishment, took him at face value. ‘I’m afraid so. Until we can find somewhere safe for you to go, you’ll have to stay here. That means you can’t make phone calls. It means you can’t even go outside.’
He looked at her in disbelief. He had a glass of wine on the kitchen table and drained it as he absorbed what she had said. He was amazed by how quickly their flirtatious rapport had evaporated; there had been several moments during the course of the evening when he had even entertained the possibility that they might spend the night together. Now Tanya seemed to be taunting him with the stark fact of his imprisonment.
‘Fine,’ he said.
‘What do you mean “fine”?’
He recalled their conversation on the street outside UCL. Don’t go looking for Crane. Don’t go looking for Wilkinson. He had made promises to Tanya Acocella before. He could do so again.
‘I mean that I’ll do as you say. I’ll stay here while you go to work. I’ll watch Countdown and go through your knicker drawer. Forget about Holly. Forget about the tape.’
Tanya knew that he was lying.
‘That simple?’ She produced a look which suggested Gaddis was making her job even more difficult than it already was. ‘That’s not a Sam Gaddis “I-swear-I-won’t-go-to-Austria” type of promise, is it? The last time you said something like that, a few days later you were in a bar in Vienna.’
‘It’s not that type of promise.’
Tanya shook her head. She knew that Gaddis would stop at nothing to avenge Charlotte and to retrieve the tape. What choice did he have? She could hardly keep him under house arrest indefinitely. If he walked out of the mews, there was nothing she could do about it.
‘Fine,’ she said eventually, walking into the sitting room. She began to puff the cushions on the sofa, like a physical demonstration of her desire to bring the conversation to an end. ‘Why don’t we get some sleep? It’s been a long day. You must feel like a bath or something.’
‘In the morning, Mummy.’ Gaddis was surprised that she had let him off the hook so easily and seized the opportunity to lighten the mood with a joke. But Tanya did not laugh. Instead, she said: ‘I’ve laid out one of Jeremy’s T-shirts for you,’ which made Gaddis feel like an unwanted suitor who has outstayed his welcome.
‘Terrific.’
‘There’s a towel as well, whisky in the kitchen if you want it.’ She yawned in a way that was stagey and self-conscious and Gaddis began to resent her again. ‘You’re in the room at the end of the corridor. Jeremy uses it as a study.’
‘Is he likely to come back and climb into bed with me?’
She allowed herself a smile, the glow in her eyes like a break in bad weather. ‘No,’ she said softly, and Gaddis reflected that she was probably just tired and worried.
‘Thank you,’ he said, because it was right to acknowledge the huge sacrifice she had made. ‘I don’t know what I would have done without you. I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve made.’
‘All in a good cause.’ She surprised him by kissing him gently on the cheek. ‘Most of it, anyway.’ She turned and walked up the stairs. ‘Sleep well. Will you turn off the lights before you go to bed?’
‘Of course. I’ll be five minutes.’
Gaddis found the whisky in the kitchen and poured himself four fingers. Switching on the television, he surfed briefly for a twenty-four-hour news channel which might be covering developments in the Wilkinson shooting. But CNN was fixed on an American political story, Sky News broadcasting a business programme. He turned the television off, checked the bolt on the front door and made his way upstairs.
He could hear a shower running when he reached the landing. There was a line