"من خوشحالش کردم"

Chapter three

‘I Made Him Happy’

Alan Cole lay in his bed, listening to a bird singing in the hospital garden. It was nearly dark outside now, and very quiet. He liked to lie like this, remembering.

He remembered the way Anna had kissed him, and looked into his eyes. He remembered her red-brown hair, her blue eyes, the soft, dry touch of her lips, her deep, happy laugh. She liked to drink whisky before they made love, and afterwards, she often held his head on her chest and stroked his hair.

I loved that, he remembered. I felt like a child again, safe and comfortable. Sometimes I fell asleep.

And then what? On the night before the bombing, he and Anna had been out for a meal in a restaurant. Then they had gone to the Mews to look at the horses. The guards knew she was his girlfriend, so they didn’t think it was unusual.

One of the horses, Sandman, had hurt his leg that morning, Alan remembered. In the evening the leg had been hot, so he had put ice on it. Lucky Sandman, Alan thought - he couldn’t pull the coach next day, so he was still alive now.

Afterwards they went back to his house and made love. Anna had been very excited, Alan remembered, it had been very good. Then he had slept until morning. He woke at six o’clock and dressed quietly, but she woke up just before he left.

She opened her eyes, smiled at him, and held out her arms to him sleepily. He kissed her, and she said, ‘Goodbye, lover.’

That was the last time he had seen her.

He was still thinking about Anna when he drove the Queen’s coach to Parliament, with the six fine horses in front of him. For a moment he thought he saw her in the crowd, watching.

Alan didn’t want to think about what had happened next. He stared into the darkness outside the hospital window and thought: why hasn’t she come to see me?

Perhaps she never really loved me, he thought. Perhaps she’s gone back to her husband, or found a younger man. It’s cruel and painful, but I can’t change it. I’ll never see her again.

He remembered her warm body next to his, and the way she whispered his name. There must be another reason. She loves me, I know she does. She’ll come to see me when she gets my letter.

I wish Jane could meet her.

Outside, night had fallen, and the birds had stopped singing. Alan Cole lay quietly on his bed, the tears running slowly down his face.

Jane sat on the chair in her flat and listened to the man and the woman arguing in her kitchen. She could hear, but she couldn’t speak or see, because the man had put a bag over her head.

Her arms and legs were still tied to the chair, and her face ached where the man had hit her.

She tried to get her hands free. She pulled as hard as she could, but the rope just burned her wrists. All she could do was listen to the voices in the kitchen.

‘We must phone him now, Kev. We can’t wait.’

‘We’ve got to wait. It’s too dangerous to do it from here, Anna. Wait until we’re ready to go.’

Anna! Jane thought. Was this her father’s Anna? No, no, lots of women were called Anna.

‘But we can’t go until tonight,’ Anna said. ‘There are too many people around during the day. And every minute is important! Perhaps Cole has already talked to the police about me. Oh God, I wish the bomb had killed him with the others!’

‘Well, it didn’t. And it didn’t kill the Queen.’

Jane’s body was shaking. This was her father’s Anna! The woman was talking about her father, and the bomb. And then Jane remembered where she had seen the woman before.

Outside Parliament, with a camera, shaking it angrily. Taking photos of the back of people’s heads. Then pushing forwards to get closer, pressing the camera button again. a second before the bomb exploded.

The voices in the kitchen stopped. The door opened, someone came into the room. What now?

Jane heard the click of a gun.

‘Phone call for you, Mr Cole. You’re popular today, aren’t you?’ The nurse smiled, pushed the telephone table next to his bed, and went out.

Alan picked up the phone. ‘Hello?’

‘Mr Cole? This is Detective David Hall. You remember I came to see you yesterday. I’m ringing because I’ve got a few more questions to ask you. Is it all right if I come over to see you now?’

‘Er. well, I suppose so. But I’ve told you everything I know.’

‘Yes, I’m sure. But it’s just that we have to get all the facts right. I’ll come over now. Is that OK?’

‘Yes, fine. I.’

‘Great! See you in a few minutes, then.’

Alan put the phone down slowly. He felt old, and tired, and very, very lonely. Perhaps I’ll ring Jane later when this man’s gone, he thought. I hope she remembered to post the letter.

Kev pulled the bag off Jane’s head and she saw the gun a few centimetres from her eyes. ‘I’m going to untie this cloth round your mouth,’ Kev said. ‘If you scream, I’ll put a bullet through your head. This gun is silenced, no one will hear anything.’

They untied the cloth and pulled her chair over to the wall, where the phone was. The gun was pointing at her head all the time.

‘Do just what we tell you,’ Anna said. ‘And everything will be all right.’

Jane was suddenly wild with anger. She said, ‘ You’re Anna, aren’t you? My father loves you - he thinks you’re wonderful. But you don’t care about him at all, do you? You wish the bomb had killed him.’

‘Of course I care about him, ‘Anna said softly. ‘He’s very important to me. That’s why I’m going to phone him now, and you’re going to talk to him too.’

Jane stared at her, then at Kev. ‘Why?’

Anna laughed. ‘I’m going to ask him to keep our love a secret. I have a very difficult husband, you know.’

What’s the woman talking about? Jane thought. What does all this mean? Then, suddenly, a lot of things came together in her mind, and everything became clear. Anna had been with her father in the Mews on the night before the bombing. In the kitchen Anna had spoken about her father talking to the police.

Jane could hear from Kev’s voice that he was Irish, and he and Anna had moved out of Bowater Gardens on the morning of the bombing.

Later, Anna had been outside Parliament, doing strange things with a camera when the bomb exploded. If it was a camera. Perhaps it had been a radio, sending a signal to the bomb. Oh God!

‘You’re the terrorists, aren’t you?’ she whispered. ‘ You did it, Anna. You put the bomb in the Queen’s coach. You exploded it with a camera. I saw you, outside Parliament. You’re terrorists - murdering terrorists, both of you!’

Kev smiled coldly. ‘Well, well. What a clever little girl! But you’re wrong. The police have arrested the terrorists. It was in the newspapers this morning.’

‘So? They’re the wrong men, aren’t they? It was you two, I know it was! You killed five people, and took away my father’s leg, and now two innocent men will go to prison for thirty years, for something you did. But you don’t care.’ Kev’s eyes were suddenly full of hate. ‘Care? About what?

We’re fighting to free Ireland. If the British put the wrong people in prison, that’s not our problem. We care about staying free. That’s good for Ireland.’

‘Yes, and I suppose it’s good for Ireland to use innocent people like my father - to make love to him just because you wanted to get into the Mews to put the bomb in the coach. Did you enjoy that, Anna? Do you feel proud of it?’

Anna laughed, a strange, quiet, cruel laugh. ‘Yes, of course I enjoyed it, little girl. And your father enjoyed it too.

I made him happy.’

‘Happy!’ Jane said. ‘You nearly killed him!’

‘Yes. I’m sorry he didn’t die, while he was so happy.’ Silence. There was no answer to that, Jane thought.

‘Let’s get on with it,’ said Kev angrily. ‘We’re losing time.’

Tears came into Jane’s eyes. ‘You dirty murderers,’ she whispered.

Kev hit her across the face with his gun. Jane felt blood in her mouth. One of her teeth was broken.

‘We could kill her now,’ Kev said, ‘and get out of the country tonight.’

‘No, no,’ Anna said. ‘We must talk to Cole first.’

‘But we can’t let her go,’ Kev said. ‘She’s seen our faces. She knows too much.’

‘Oh no,’ Anna said. Her voice was soft and cruel. ‘Of course not. But we’ll keep her alive for some weeks, to make sure that Cole stays quiet. Pick up the phone, Kev.’