A Vision Softly Creeping by Maggie Allder

Author:Maggie Allder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2017-12-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Pearson and Josephine invited me to their Christmas party when I returned from Wales a couple of days later. Pearson handed me a proper invitation, on a card produced rather expertly on a high-class DeV, looking a little sheepish as he handed it over. “I’ve told Josie lots about you,” he said. “She’d love you to come.”

The party was to be in Josephine’s flat, although when I arrived I realised that Pearson was obviously living there too, at least for part of the time. His slippers were beside the bed when, as instructed, I took my overcoat in to lay it, with the furs and winter jackets of other guests, on the bed. I felt pleased for Pearson, but also a little jealous. They made a good couple, both working for the same organisation, sharing the same belief systems, free to take their relationship as far as it naturally went. With a pang, I thought of Alice, and longed for her to be there, with a longing that seemed to touch every nerve in my body. Of course, it was not possible. Meadows, as Josephine’s official boss, would be at the party too, along with others from the police commissioner’s office. And anyhow…

I took a proffered glass of punch and admired the Christmas decorations, chatting with Josephine about a job she had once had during an undergraduate holiday, harvesting Christmas trees in the Borders. Meadows arrived a few minutes later, by which time the living room was already fairly crowded. She was with a small group of smartly groomed middle-aged women, her acolytes I assumed, and they all fluttered and beamed at Josephine as she greeted them, and said what an attractive apartment she had.

I was talking to one of the neighbours when Meadows came over to me. He was, if I remember rightly, a school inspector, and lived in one of the penthouse apartments reserved for high-ranking government employees. His conversation was tedious and he stood just a little too close to me while he spoke, so that I found myself shuffling unobtrusively backwards to create a more comfortable space between us. I would not say that Meadows rescued me, but the boring neighbour moved away as soon as she appeared at my side.

“Karl,” she gushed in her society voice, “how lovely to see you!” She looked around the room, as if searching someone out. Then, with assumed surprise, she asked, “Are you on your own?”

“Hardly,” I said. “The room seems fairly full to me.”

Meadows laughed a high-pitched, artificial laugh. “Ah, my dear Commander!” she exclaimed. “I thought you might have a young – one might almost say a very young – companion over for the festive season. From Texas, perhaps?” She giggled a synthetic giggle and looked at me sideways.

Despite the control I had practised for decades I could feel myself blushing. How on the earth could Meadows know about Maria? And what did Meadows know about Maria? Or think she knew? Almost at once I guessed the answer.

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