Page 78 of The Stranger in Room Six
‘You’d better have something for me,’ I tell Belinda when she reports to me that evening, looking visibly terrified. ‘Or heads might roll. And I’m not joking.’
‘I need more time,’ she pleads. ‘It’s not easy.’
‘She’s an old lady, Belinda. How hard can it be? You’ve managed much worse than that before, haven’t you?’
‘She’s more interested in telling me about the Italian POW she fell for than connections with Hitler or the Blackshirts.’
Little Mabel could have had her head shaved for sleeping with the enemy back in the day. Her lack of patriotism would certainly dirty Harry Marchmont’s reputation, which is no bad thing for my boss. Even so, we need more.
If it was me, I’d twist Mabel’s arm until it snapped. I’ve been reading about these suspected Hitler sympathizers. Some of these traitors were imprisoned or executed. There were also rumours of local people taking matters into their own hands; sometimes cutting throats in back alleys. Bloody right too. My granddad was killed fighting up the spine of Italy, while back in this country, aristocrats and wealthy farmers were promised secure positions; the less well-off were bribed with food and clothes if they helped Hitler to invade.
If Mabel Marchmont was involved in that, I won’t be sad to see her go.
‘When are you seeing her again?’ I ask.
‘Tomorrow.’
‘Then you’d better come back to me with something good. Because if you don’t, I’ll blow your cover. You’ll lose your job but, worse, the people I work for will get you and your family. Do I make myself clear?’
Belinda shakes so much that I almost feel sorry for her. I admit, I cared for her back in the day, but my injuries changed everything. If I hadn’t stuck up for her in prison, I wouldn’t be in this state.
‘Yes,’ she sobs. ‘I understand. Actually, there is something. Well, it might not be, but …’
‘Go on.’
‘Mabel’s aunt gave her a locket and she doesn’t know where it’s gone. She said it might have been stolen or she might have just lost it in her room. I’m wondering if it’s got the list in it.’
‘How convenient that you’ve just remembered this.’
‘I didn’t think it was important.’
‘Bollocks. You’re protecting the old woman, aren’t you? It sounds to me as if you’re getting a little too fond of her.’
‘No, Mouse. I promise I’m not.’
‘We need to check out her room. Get her out of there and take a good look.’
‘I have! I’ll try again when she’s at lunch tomorrow.’
‘Right. Then get on with it. And this time, find something.’
51
Belinda
‘Oh! You’re already here,’ says Mabel when she comes back from lunch. Hastily, I smooth down her duvet. If she’d been any earlier, she’d have caught me turning the mattress over, checking if the list or locket hasn’t slipped underneath.
‘Just thought I’d change your sheets.’
‘They were only done yesterday.’
‘Oh, I didn’t know. Never mind.’
As a carer, washing clothes and bedlinen is part of my responsibilities. It reminds me of my laundry stints in prison. The two are not so different. There are stains in both worlds.
‘I’ve been desperate to hear the next part of your story,’ says Mabel, hobbling over to the chair by the window. Sometimes she needs a wheelchair but today she seems happy with a stick. ‘It’s got to be one of the most dramatic things I’ve heard. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be in prison. Now, you said you’d made a mistake when you left off last. What was it?’
Her eyes are feverishly bright.
