Page 98 of The Stranger in Room Six
The message is clear.
We need results. Now.
My boss is tightening the screws. I’m not surprised. The contest for the party leadership is beginning to hot up and Harry Marchmont is a favourite to become the next prime minister. Apparently, that’s why the July 12th date is so important. It’s the date of an important leadership debate, taking place not far from here, ironically.
If we can find that list and my boss’s suspicions are correct, Harry will (hopefully) be out of the running. Job done.
Since they’re tightening the screws on me, I need to do the same with Belinda. I decide to pay her a visit.
She looks knackered.
‘I’ve just come off the dementia unit,’ she sighs.
‘Tough, was it?’
‘You can say that again. One of the residents wouldn’t stop banging her head against the window. When I tried to prevent her, she scratched my face.’
I make a sympathetic sound. ‘Nasty. But not as nasty as my boss can get.’
‘I’m done with your threats against me. I’ve tried to find this bloody list but as far as I can see, it’s not there.’
‘Then you need to try harder. Or do you want me to tell your beloved employer that they’ve got a murderer in their midst?’
Her mouth drops. ‘You wouldn’t.’
‘Try me.’
‘That would mean telling them who you are,’ she points out.
‘Not if I say I recognized you from the paper.’
‘That was ages ago,’ she stammers.
‘Your release photos weren’t. Scroll through the internet and you can find anything. Plus, I wasn’t about to miss my good friend Lady Belinda leaving prison, was I?’ I can’t resist a snarl here. ‘Not after everything she’d done for me. So get back to work or I will shop you. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll kill the old lady off. I’ve got nothing to lose.’ (She’s not to know that my boss has told me not to harm her.) ‘But you, Belinda, could be in big trouble. Because my bosses will kill me if I don’t deliver. And maybe you and your family too.’
67
Belinda
When I return the next morning, Mabel is ready and waiting.
‘I haven’t slept all night,’ she says. ‘My mind has been going round with so many questions. When did you find Karen? How? Where is she?’ Then, in a hushed voice, she adds, ‘Is she still alive?’
Now I wish I’d stayed quiet. But perhaps I can use this to my advantage, especially in view of Mouse’s threat last night. I’ve barely slept either, visions of Linda’s and Mouse’s bloodied bodies on stretchers kept running through my mind. If only I could have seen then what the future held.
‘I’ll tell you about Karen when you tell me more of your story.’
Mabel looks rather sullen. ‘I don’t see why it’s so interesting to you.’
I can hardly tell her that my girls’ lives depend on me finding that list. I need to think of something else.
Scrambling, I say, ‘The thing is, Mabel, I’m really interested in the Second World War. Remember how I was complaining about having wasted my degree? I’ve decided to sign up to an Open University History course to get me back on my feet.’
Mabel looks less hacked-off now. ‘What a good idea. I find it extraordinary that young people nowadays know nothing of it.’
‘Me too.’ I take a deep breath. ‘As part of my research,I read that each county in Britain had a list of people who were suspected of being on Hitler’s side.’
She frowns. ‘Really?’
