Tuesday cont.
Cleo decided that she and Dorothy would find out more
about Grisham with their own methods. They would also make an effort to trace
the vicar, though Cleo did not think there was much hope if he had decided to
disappear. But they would tread carefully. No one should find out that they
were doing their own bit of spying since Gary would be furious!
“Exactly who is the new guy, Gary?”
“He goes by the name Frank Cook; he’s experienced and
unknown in these parts. That’s how he works, apparently. He goes to places
where no one knows him, gets the job done and moves on.”
“That sounds good, but he’s sure to be known in the
underworld. He can’t go unrecognized for ever,” said Cleo.
“We might not be talking about the normal criminal
underworld, Cleo. I have a feeling that Grisham had something to do with espionage.”
“That’s out of the agency’s depth.”
“Be warned, Cleo. You could be in serious trouble if you happen
to hit on something that would endanger national security.”
“How would I know that unless I delved deeper?” said Cleo.
“You’d inform me if you found out anything and I’d inform
Roger. Normal procedure. No cloak and dagger stuff. But we would not know what
is relevant, so we should not get our fingers into that pie, Cleo.”
“But surely a guy living in Lower Grumpsfield separated
from a silly woman with a high voice is hardly likely to be involved in spying,”
said Cleo.
“There’s always the MI6,” said Gary. “Foreign powers have
a vested and often unhealthy interest in what goes on in this country.”
“I expect I’ve been investigated already then, and judged
harmless.”
“We are not talking about local issues and mysteries.”
“I’d sure like to know what we are talking about,” said
Cleo.
“The problem is that once you stubbled over something you would
be in the thick of it. We don’t know anything about Grisham except that someone
decided he would be more useful dead than alive for one reason or other. If there’s
been some security leak, or spy exchange, or something of that nature is going
on that Grisham knew about, he would be suspicious and possibly dangerous to
the characters responsible for whatever is going on,” Gary said.
“OK, but what if Parsnip killed Grisham, so that he could
get away from Edith?”
“Ridiculous. He wouldn’t have the brain or the imagination,
Cleo. And he was getting away by going to Africa, anyway.”
“How about this then? Parsnip gets Grisham to go off the
road so that he can urinate, or he offers to drive, and then he makes off.”
“So what about the person who sat on the back seat?”
“If Grisham wais a spy or into undercover crime, or had
done so at some time, he might be due for extermination.”
“And that’s why I think Roger Stone should have come
clean, Cleo.”
"Dorothy will say it's a domestic crime," said
Cleo.
"She could be right, of course. We have absolutely no
idea why Grisham had to die."
***
Quite apart from this fruitless exchange, Gary was glad he
had come home for lunch just to witness at first hand the tiger in Cleo as she
defended her agency and was quite obviously not going to resist the temptation
to do a little espionage of her own.
As for lunch, he didn’t seem to be getting any.
***
“I didn’t cook,” said Cleo. “I’m just going to have a snack with PeggySue.
We’re cooking tonight. Shall I make you a sandwich?”
“Please.”
“Ham or cheese?”
“Both.”
“I’ll get it. Look after your new daughter, Sweetheart!”
“Trust Charlie to know before we did,” said Gary.
“I’m so glad Robert is out of it,” she said, embracing
Gary with alarming intensity.
“You literally took my breath away then, Cleo,” said Gary
“I love you to bits, remember?”
“I remember it well,” intoned Gary with a strong French
accent.
“Maurice Chevalier has a rival,” said Cleo.
“I’ll put PeggySue in her high chair, shall I? My little
girl loves my singing, don’t you, Sweetheart”
PeggySue just laughed.
***
In the kitchen, Cleo opened the sliding door that Robert
had freed from the tiles that someone had stuck over it, and peeled off the
wallpaper on the dining-corner side. Robert had been very proud of that
discovery and it was very useful if you wanted to cook and keep in contact with
the party.
“Have you told Robert about PeggySue?” Gary asked.
“No, and Gloria can’t have because he’s sure to have phoned
by now if she had.”
“So when are you going to tell him?”
“Later today, I suppose. He’s bringing me some steaks for
this evening. Gloria has her line-dancing so she has no time. Robert does not
know he’s going to lose a daughter. Ketchup?”
“No thanks. As for PeggySue: he didn’t want her but he’s
still legally her father,” said Gary.
“He did want her once she arrived, Gary. As usual he had
told himself to join it if he couldn’t beat it, the beating being my insistence
on having a baby before it got too late for me.”
“It wasn’t too late and it obviously still isn’t, Cleo.
Robert is a chump.”
“When you contest his father status he won’t fight the
claim,” said Cleo. “He’s quite parsimonious when it suits him and I don’t think
he will want to have to finance a kid that isn’t his.”
“Even if he loves her?”
“He apparently loved me but he walked out on me and if the
truth be known, it was me who supported him as far as living quarters was
concerned.”
“I hope you are not referring to me. Don’t I pay my
share?”
“Of course you do. We’ve been through all that, Gary. I
really meant this cottage and I think that’s one of the reasons he moved out,
apart from having set his sights on Edith, of course.”
“The plot thickens,” said Gary. “The psychological
component of losing the kid will be an issue for him, won’t it? It’s almost
like a castration.”
“Don’t exaggerate. Anyway, he still has Julie to confirm
that he could have been the father, and she was grownup before he even knew he
had her.”
“Very convenient,” said Gary. He was starting to wonder
about Robert, though he quite liked the guy.
“Of course, he might be bloody-minded enough to contest my
claim just for the hell of it.”
“I shouldn’t think so. Anyway, you have clinical proof,”
said Cleo, passing Gary’s sandwich through the hatch. “He’ll hate me for a bit,
though I truly had no clear idea until your obvious empathy with PeggySue was
more than wishful thinking for me. Charlie had noticed something we hadn’t.”
"And kept it to herself! What about our affair, then?”
"He knew about that, too."
"So why did he not challenge you about it?"
"For reasons best known to himself, I suppose I was a
kind of trophy," said Cleo.
"I can't say that I saw you in that light, Cleo.”
"You were the one I wanted," said Cleo.
"Yes; hungry for decent sex and fed up with the boredom
of being married to Robert," said Gary.
"I agree about the sex, sweetheart, but Robert was not that
boring," said Cleo.
“He damn well was and is, and I have so many sweethearts now
that I’m starting to be one myself.”
“To me you have always been one, Gary. Je t’aime!”
“Moi aussi.”
“So Robert has known about our relationship since it
started, even if he didn’t challenge us,” said Cleo.
“If I’d been in that position I would never have married
you, Cleo.”
“It takes all sorts, Gary, and I did kind of love him at
the time. He was so vulnerable that I could not hurt him by crying off.”
“That’s about the stupidest reason for marrying someone
that I’ve ever heard.”
“But he did marry me and that was good for my
respectability in this village. Maybe he thought our marriage would kill off my
infatuation for you.”
“But it didn’t.”
“I did try.”
“And failed miserably, Cleo, I'm happy to say. Do you want me
here when he comes?”
“No. That would only complicate things.”
“OK. I’ll have to meet Cook anyway. He’s supposed to
arrive today.”
“Bring him to dinner, then I can take a look at the guy whose
usurping my agency.”
“He isn’t taking your place, Cleo.”
“I was joking…”
“Send me a text or call when Robert has left. If Robert
has not been and gone, I’ll work at HQ until I get your all clear.”
“That sounds sensible.”
“Just one thought, Cleo. Supposing an accident had left
Robert sterile, would he have told you?”
“I don’t know. Why do you ask?”
“If that were the case, he would know that PeggySue cannot
possibly be his child.”
“I never thought of that.”
“Find out. You’re the sleuth.”
***
In the meantime PeggySue had finished her fingerfood. Gary
cleaned her up with dampened kitchen paper then picked her up and carried her
around for a bit, whispering sweet nothings into her ear and dropping kisses on
her cheeks before changing her nappy and putting her in her cot for a siesta.
***
“You’re just like something out of a women’s magazine,”
said Cleo.
“I practised enough on Charlie. My wife was already too
busy with her love life to bother about her daughter. I intend to be the ideal
father so I might as well get some more practice in.”
“That’s fine by me. Are you planning a siesta or are you
racing back to HQ?”
“A short siesta would be a good idea. It might get very
late if Frank Cook comes for dinner.”
***
Gary’s idea of a short siesta was an hour’s love-making
followed by a ten minute nap and finished off with a pot of strong coffee drunk
in gulps. Eventually he got into his car and drove off. PeggySue woke and
demanded immediate attention. Cleo gave
her a drink and put heri n the playpen. It was past five and she expected
Robert to turn up any minute. The idea that he could have kept it a secret from
her that he was sterile went round and round in her head. She would ask him.
Spying on him would be unworthy and undignified.
***
When Robert did turn up he was in a hurry. After some
minutes humming and hawing he came out with the confession that he was on his
way to the vicarage to be with Edith.
Cleo was in one of her less charming moods.
“Be with or sleep with, Robert? I’m not sure I caught what
you said.”
Robert blushed. He had no reason to answer for his actions
to Cleo, but he felt guilty all the same.
“So you know,” he said.
“It’s a small village, Robert.”
“Why don’t people mind their own business?” he said.
“Never mind that now. How is Edith coping with the news
that Mr Parsnip was supposed to have been on a plane that crashed and then
didn’t catch that plane at all and has disappeared, apparently without trace.”
“I haven’t talked to her about it yet,” said Robert.
“Really? But that isn’t what I want to talk to you
about, Robert.”
***
“Gloria dropped strange hints today.”
“What did she say?”
“Nothing concrete. I was to beware of the truth, she
said.”
“Typical Gloria,” said Cleo. “I expect she wanted you to
question her till she cracked and could tell you.”
“Tell me what? You know I would not put pressure on Gloria
to tell me something because she might make something up that I would not
believe anyway.”
“She was not to tell you that I had a test done on samples
of PeggySue’s and Gary’s DNA.”
“I think I know what you were going to tell me, Cleo. I’ve
known all along about not being PeggySue’s father so it’s actually a relief to
get the truth out in the open.”
“How did you know, Robert? Because of that rugby
accident?”
“How do you know about that, Cleo?”
“Little birds and guesswork, Robert. You could have been
honest with me instead of making up that rigmarole about me being too old to
have a baby.”
Robert did not question that.
"There's another one in here right now," said
Cleo, patting her tummy.
"Well, congratulations to you and your lover, Cleo,"
said Robert, who felt more humiliated than ever.
“I'll ignore the irony, Robert. Do you know what I think
was really small-minded of you? You know I wanted a baby and you knew there was
no danger of my having one with you.”
“But…”
“You also knew about my affair with Gary, but you thought
we would be careful, didn’t you?”
“But…”
“But the truth will out, Robert. That’s the problem with
the truth. It likes to be out in the fresh air rather than smouldering in the
breast of the dissembler.”
“I knew you were closer to Gary than you ever admitted. I
just didn’t believe you were that close.”
“You didn’t want to believe that, but Gary is not a monk
and I am not a nun, and we took no precautions. I wanted his baby and he wanted
it to.”
“You mean you talked about it?”
“Of course.”
“Is Gary going to contest what’s on the birth
certificate?”
“Yes, Robert. We will have your statement that PeggySue
cannot be your child quite apart from the DNA evidence that Gary is PeggySue's father.
So are you going to resist his attempt to put the record straight?”
“No, and I’ll continue to support you if you have
difficulty in giving your daughter a decent start in life.”
“That won’t be necessary, as you very well know, but thanks
for the gesture.”
***
“It really doesn’t matter who the father is, does it, Cleo?”
“Of course it does. Gary has never been happier.”
“Then we have a happy end, Cleo. Isn’t that what you
wanted?”
“Sure. Am I to say thank you? You’ve organized one for
yourself, after all.”
”I didn’t organize it. Edith came to my flat and asked me to
sleep with her.”
“She did that? I wouldn’t have thought she’d have the nerve.
I hope she turned you on. I couldn’t.”
***
Robert was lost for words. Cleo was so angry that Gary’s
suspicion about Robert was true that she couldn’t resist rubbing even more salt
into the wound.
“I hope you tell Edith the truth about your sterilty,
Robert. I’m sure she would like a daughter to go along with those five boys.
She might want to look elsewhere for a sex partner who can give her one.”
“Are you threatening me, Cleo?”
“No. It’s your secret, not mine. For me the subject is
closed, but I always told Edith I was not sure who the father is and she
promised never to say a word. When I tell her that Gary is definitely
PeggySue’s father she’s going to start wondering.”
Robert was silent for a moment.
“I’ll tell her when the time comes.”
“So you took precautions, I take it.”
Robert was embarrassed. He didn’t need precautions and Edith
would not have bothered if she wanted another child.
“Can't we be friends, Cleo? We have to go on living in this
village.”
“I thought we were friends, Robert.”
Cleo offered Robert her hand and he shook it, squeezed it
and finally kissed it. There were tears in his eyes, but none in Cleo’s. She
was thinking that he could share his tears with Edith in future.
“I’ve brought the order Gloria gave me. I’ll collect the
tray another time. I’ve got to go now. Edith is waiting for me.”
With those words Robert left the cottage.
***
Cleo wondered how she could have lived with that same
feeling of detachment she had felt during the final weeks of their marriage.
Something labelled ‘love’ can’t consist of patches over the emptiness in a
relationship, she mused. It must be instinctive, like the instinctive love Gary
had had for his daughter long before he knew the truth.
In a relationship, once emptiness set in there was no
turning back. Had she loved Robert once? She certainly had no feeling left for
him now.
That must have been how Edith had felt about Frederick Parsnip.
Was the vicar’s disappearance going to change that?
Whatever Gary said, they would have to find Frederick
before anyone else did. Dorothy would work undercover. She didn’t miss a trick
and knew lots of people. If Mr Parsnip had stopped off somewhere near, she
would find him.
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