مدرک

Chapter 15 Proof!

Guy went on a sailing holiday with Anne on her boat, the India.

They were away from home for three weeks. Guy was happy and calm. He looked at the clear sky and the blue sea, and the sea made him think of the bridge he wanted to build, a long white bridge like a pair of wings. He wanted to be a great architect. Guy saw Anne looking at him with love in her eyes, and he felt all the bad times were gone.

A few days later the phone rang at his home.

‘Hello, Mr Haines,’ a man said, ‘this is Arthur Gerard. I’m a detective. Could I come to talk to you, at your house, please? Now.’

Guy had to say yes, and Gerard came over quickly. ‘Do you know Charles Bruno, Mr Haines?’ he asked.

‘Yes, I know him.’

Gerard said, ‘His father was murdered in March ‘I didn’t know that!’ Anne said, and looked at Guy in surprise.

‘Neither did I,’ Guy said quickly. ‘Murdered?’

‘When and where did you meet Charles Bruno, Mr Haines?’

Gerard asked.

‘At - at the Parker Institute last December,’ Guy said. He only said it because he had told Anne that at the wedding when she asked him about Bruno. Why hadn’t he and Bruno planned a story?

‘When did you see Mr Bruno again?’ Gerard asked.

‘At my wedding in June,’ Guy said.

‘And he came to a party in July, didn’t he, Mrs Haines?’ Gerard asked Anne.

‘Yes,’ she answered.

‘Do you like him?’ Gerard asked, smiling.

Anne looked at his smile; she didn’t like it. ‘Well enough,’ she said finally.

Gerard asked them a few more questions and then he left.

‘Does Gerard think Bruno murdered his father?’ Anne asked Guy later.

‘He probably thinks it’s one of Bruno’s friends,’ Guy said. (‘But it was me, Anne, it was me,’ he thought.) ‘You never know what people are really doing, do you?’ Anne said, shaking her head in surprise.

Later in the day Bruno came to the house.

‘You’re drunk,’ Guy said. ‘Get out.’

‘Perhaps we should get a taxi for you,’ Anne said.

Bruno fell against Guy. He was saying the same thing again and again: ‘I’ll tell her - I’ll tell her - I’ll. . .’

‘What?’ Anne asked Guy. ‘What’s he saying?’

‘Nothing,’ Guy said. ‘I’ll put him to bed.’

Guy pulled Bruno out of the room and took him to a bedroom. Bruno slept for several hours, and when he woke up Guy was with him.

‘Bruno, listen to me, did you tell Gerard we met in December?

At the Parker Institute?’ Guy asked.

. ‘Yeah, I said that,’ Bruno said. ‘Can I have a drink? Look, Gerard thinks this friend of mine, Matt Levine, murdered my father. He’s already killed two or three men.’

‘I won’t let another man take the blame for the murder,’ Guy said.

‘He won’t get the blame,’ Bruno said. ‘Gerard won’t find anything about Matt Levine, or us. There’s no proof ‘Will you go now?’

‘No,’ Bruno said quietly. ‘I want to be with you and Anne.’

And Guy knew that he hated Bruno, but liked him at the same time.

‘You know, Guy, I like you, but you’re in more trouble than me,’ Bruno said. ‘Our servant saw you that night, Anne saw those scratches on your face, and there’s the gun, the gloves . . . the police could ask you some very difficult questions.

But what have they got about me and Miriam, Guy? Tell me, Guy, what have they got?’

♦

Guy and Anne were on the India. The sky was grey and the air was hot. Guy held his little gun in his pocket.

‘Why is Bruno so interested in you?’ Anne asked Guy.

‘He’s got nothing to do,’ Guy said. His hand tightened round the gun.

‘And you met him at the Institute?’ she asked.

‘Yes.’ Guy looked into the water. ‘Why is she asking all these questions?’ he thought. ‘She knows something is wrong. She knows I’m lying, but she doesn’t know about what.’

Guy heard Anne walk away. He quickly took his gun out of his pocket and dropped it into the sea.

‘What was that?’ Anne was standing behind him.

He could think of nothing to say to her.