repossessed. Bloody embarrassing.’ He exhaled. ‘Out. Just like that. I put a call into Simon but I’ve heard nothing.’ He looked plaintively at Lorimer. ‘Have you any idea what it’s all about?’
‘I think,’ Lorimer began, wondering whether it were wise to confide in Torquil, ‘I think it’s something to do with the Fedora Palace.’
‘I thought you’d sorted that all out.’
‘So did I. But there’s something else going on. I can’t figure it out.’
Torquil looked aggrieved. ‘OK, so I cocked up – and I admit it – and was duly shunted out of Fortress Sure. Now I’m shunted out of G G H. It’s not fair. There should be some sort of statute of limitations. I made a wrong calculation, that’s all, I can’t keep on being punished for the rest of my life.’
‘It’s more complicated, I think. I just can’t put all the pieces together. It’s got Hogg worried, though, for some reason. What did he say to you?’
‘He came in and said: “You’re sacked, get out, now.” I asked why and he said: “I don’t trust you,” and that was it. Well, we called each other a few choice names.’ Torquil frowned and winced, as though the act of recollection were causing him physical pain. ‘Bastard,’ he said, and tapped ash absent-mindedly on the carpet. Lorimer fetched him an ashtray and a refill.
‘How did things go,’ Lorimer asked, innocently enough but genuinely curious, ‘after Saturday night?’ He felt, simultaneously, a vague alarm: here they were, he and Torquil, nattering about problems at work, problems at home. They even had a shared history, now, just like two old friends.
Torquil looked glum and threw his head back to stare at the ceiling. ‘It got really bad,’ he said. ‘Nightmare. She became very quiet, Binns, after she calmed down, icy cold, not like herself at all, sort of drawn in on herself. I apologized, of course, but she refused to speak to me.’ He paused. ‘This morning she went to a lawyer – while I was getting the sack. Then she chucked me out. Said I could go and live with Irina. She wants a divorce.’
‘Hence the suitcase.’
‘My worldly goods. It gets worse. I had to speak to this lawyer. He says I’ve got to start giving Binnie money, regularly, some sort of maintenance while the divorce goes through. I told this lawyer chappie that I’d just got the sack so they could whistle for it. Apparently he and Binnie went over the bank statements, credit cards, building society passbooks, the works. Turns out I’m £54,000 in the red. Thank Christ I don’t have a mortgage.’
‘How does that line go? When sorrows come they come not as single spies but in battalions.’
‘Sorry?’
‘Shakespeare.’
‘Oh. Right. Thing is, Lorimer, as it turns out, you’re the only friend I have.’
‘Me? What about Oliver Rollo?’
‘Can’t stand him. Mindless idiot.’
‘What about your family?’
‘They’ve all rather sided with Binnie, say I’m a disgrace. I’m a bit of a pariah, to tell the truth. Shunned all round.’
‘I side with Binnie, too.’
‘Yeah, but you understand, you were sort of involved.’
‘Involved? What’re you talking about? You climbed into bed with Irina, not me.’
‘But you’d met Irina. And she was meant to be your girlfriend.’
‘The key word is “meant”. I’d only spoken to her for two minutes.’
‘I don’t think, Lorimer. That’s my trouble in life, I don’t think ahead.’
Lorimer knew what was coming next, that premonitory heaviness weighing on him again.
‘I was wondering’, Torquil said with a weak smile, ‘if I could kip down here for a night or two, until it all blows over.’
‘Blows over? What do you mean?’
‘Binnie’ll take me back, once she’s calmed down.’
‘You sure?’
‘Course. She’s a forgiving person, old Binns.’
‘Well, all right, but just for a night or two,’ Lorimer said, telling himself with scant confidence that Torquil knew his wife better than he did. ‘I’ll get you the duvet.’
211. The Television Set. Yon felt cold because you were naked and you pushed yourself up against Joyce’s pale, freckly body, your eyes tight shut to keep the colours out Joyce said, you’re wet, you’re greasy, keep away from me, don’t touch me. When you opened your eyes the colour changes had calmed down but your small boxy room pulsed like a beating heart in its socket, contracting and expanding as if the walls were pliable rubber. Noise was a problem now, and you yearned for the perfect silence of the bus ride. All you could hear was the ear-batteringyammer of a television set from the floor below and boorish,