Samson 02 - Mexico Set by Len Deighton

Author:Len Deighton
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-04-16T01:17:38+00:00

14

I drove back to London listening to Ingrid Haebler playing Mozart piano concertos. I turned the car’s tape player up very loud as I tried to disentangle the thoughts and theories whirling endlessly in my brain. Had I been less tired, and less concerned with the death of MacKenzie, I might have taken reasonable precautions when entering my home. As it was, what should have been adequate warning for any man — the mortise unlocked and the letterbox flap still partly open after some hand had gripped the door to push it — did not register upon my thoughts. I walked through the front door and found all the downstairs lights burning.

I walked through the hall. There was no one to be seen in the front room so I pushed the door of the kitchen and stepped back. There was a figure lost in the gloom of the tiny pantry beyond. I touched the butt of the pistol in my pocket.

‘Who’s there?’

‘Bernard darling. I wasn’t sure if you were home or not.’

‘Tessa. How did you get in?’

‘You gave me a door key, Bernard, Surely you remember.’

‘Of course.’

‘I’m putting frozen soup and fish fingers into the freezer, my love. Your children are coming home tomorrow. Or have you forgotten that?’ She spoke over her shoulder. I could see her more clearly now in the dark shadows of the pantry. Her long fair hair was falling over her face as she stretched forward to reach into the freezer, the dark pantry ceiling made a firmament by the glittering diamond rings on her fingers. And around her there was the swirling ‘smoke’ of frozen air.

‘No,’ I said. But I had forgotten.

‘I spoke on the phone with your nanny. She’s a good girl but she’ll need food for them. You wouldn’t want her to go out shopping and leave the children at home. And she won’t want to drag them round the shops.’

‘It’s very kind of you, Tessa.’

She put the last packet into place and then closed the lid of the freezer chest with a loud thump. ‘So what about a drink?’ she said. She slapped her hands to remove the crystals of dry ice. She was dressed in a loose-fitting button-through dress of natural cotton, and under it a shiny pink blouse that went so well with her fair hair.

I looked at my watch. It was nearly midnight. ‘What would you like, Tessa?’

‘Did I see a bottle of champagne in the fridge? Or is that being kept for a tęte-ŕ-tęte with the gorgeous Gloria?’

‘News travels fast,’ I said, taking off my coat and getting glasses and the bottle of champagne. I put the contents of the ice tray into the champagne bucket and put the bottle into it with water.

‘It’s so stylish to have a proper ice bucket,’ said Tessa. ‘Did I tell you that George bought a solid-silver one and someone swiped it.’

‘Stole it? Who?’

‘We never found out, darling. It was a party we had for car people. Some bastard stole the champagne bucket.

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