Jackson's Dilemma by Iris Murdoch

Author:Iris Murdoch [Murdoch, Iris]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-03-26T07:00:00+00:00

SIX

It did not take Jackson very long, using a curving piece of plastic cut from a mineral water bottle, to undo the fragile front door of the house, and then the ancient lock of Marian’s flat. He cautiously quietly moved the door, slid inside, and closed it silently. Then he stood still, breathing deeply, in the small hallway, then moved into the sitting room. He had not been there before. Of course, after Marian had disappeared, Benet and Rosalind, with Rosalind’s key, had entered the flat, anxious not to find Marian dead upon the floor. They had come to the flat more than once. Edward did not accompany them. They had of course ‘made a search’. Jackson looked round. Everything was tidy. That would be the result of their search. The police had also been in, and were said to have watched the place. Apparently, as Jackson heard Benet saying, they had found no clues at all. He himself, he was sure, had entered rapidly and unnoticed. That lot, he thought scornfully, would have no idea of how really to search. Of course someone ought to have been staying there all the time. He moved about slowly, noticing Marian’s ‘things’, her clothes hung up in a cupboard, by her, more likely by Rosalind. Her rows of shoes neatly stowed under the bed. She might have left in a hurry, or been kidnapped, or-the china animals upon the mantelpiece, the cushions easily moved, the little desk easily rifled. Jackson pictured Benet and Rosalind finding everything untidy and putting it all back into order, having discovered nothing. Jackson, following the obvious tracks, looked through the desk, the sofa, the clothes, the bed, under the carpet, inside books, inside china animals, the kitchen, the shelves, the airing cupboard, drawers of all kinds containing clothes or papers or jewellery, all sorts of odd places which might have missed attention. He even found reverently laid to rest by the seekers, Marian’s wedding dress. If there had been entities or indication, they might well have been effaced by his clumsy predecessors. He thought, something deliberately hidden, something so obvious as to be invisible. Benet and Rosalind had of course carried off Marian’s address book and checked the addresses. And now, alas, Jackson had apparently tried everything including of course the secret drawer in the desk.

He lay down on Marian’s bed. Could anything now come to him? He was fond of Marian, he grieved for her, he tried to be near her, now, to see her. He was horrified by the ‘order’ which surrounded him, and by his own utter incompetence. He was a watcher. He had perceived Edward’s grief long before it came to view. He had shared Benet’s grief. But that was another matter - how had he let himself be cast aside - at last. Because he deserved it? He, the jack-of-all-trades, who now exhibited so few. Owen Silbery had perceived it. Then he had called Jackson ‘a ringed bird’. An apt name. Where were the other names now? Yes, he carried a weight, a burden placed upon him by them.

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