I’m very fond of my uncle And I love this little business, and I’d do anything to keep us afloat.’ She said it with intense feeling. I wondered whether ‘anything” meant sleeping with the pilots, or whether that came under the heading of pleasure, not profit. I didn’t intend to find out. Not getting involved included Honey, in the biggest possible way.
I said, ‘It must have been a blow to the business, losing that new Cherokee.’
She pursed her mouth and put her head on one side. ‘Not altogether. In fact, absolutely the reverse. We had too much capital tied up in it. We had to put down a lump sum to start with, and the H.P. instalments were pretty steep.… I should think when everything’s settled, and we get the insurance, we will have about five thousand pounds back, and with that much to shore us up we can keep going until times get better.’
‘If the aircraft hadn’t blown up, would you have been able to keep up with the H.P.?’
She stood up abruptly, seeming to think that she had already said too much. ‘Let’s just leave it that things are all right as they are.’
The daylight was fading fast. She came and stood close beside me, not quite touching.
‘You don’t smoke, you don’t eat, you don’t drink,’ she said .softly. ‘What else don’t you do?’
‘That too.’
‘Not ever?’
‘Not now. Not here.’
‘I’d give you a good time.’…
‘Honey… I just… don’t want to.’
She wasn’t angry. Not even hurt. ‘You’re cold,’ she said judiciously. ‘An iceberg.’
‘Perhaps.’
‘You’ll thaw,’ she said. ‘One of these days.’
The Board of Trade had sent the same two men, the tall one and the silent one, complete with notebook and bitten green pencil. As before, I sat with them in the crew room and offered them coffee from the slot machine in the passengers’ lounge. They accepted, and I went and fetched three plastic cupfuls. The staff as well as the customers had to buy their coffee or whatever from the machine. Honey kept it well stocked. It made a profit.
Outside on the airfield my part-time colleague, Ron, was showing a new pupil how to do the external checks. They crept round the trainer inch by inch. Ron talked briskly. The pupil, a middle-aged man, nodded as if he understood.
The tall man was saying in effect that they had got nowhere with the bomb.
‘The police have been happy to leave the investigation with us, but frankly in these cases it is almost impossible to find the identity of the perpetrator. Of course if someone on board is a major political figure, or a controversial agitator… Or if there is a great sum of personal insurance involved… But in this case there is nothing like that.’
‘Isn’t Colin Ross insured?’ I asked.
‘Yes, but he has no new policy, or anything exceptional. And the beneficiaries are his twin sisters. I cannot believe…’
‘Impossible’ I said with conviction.
‘Quite so.’
‘How about the others?’
He shook his head. ‘They all said, in fact, that they ought to be better insured than they were.’ He coughed discreetly. ‘There is, of course, the matter of yourself.’
‘What do you mean?’
His sharp eyes stared at me unblinkingly.
‘Several years ago you took out a policy for the absolute benefit of your wife. Although she is now your ex-wife, she would still be the beneficiary. You can’t change that sort of policy.’
‘Who told you all this?’
‘She did,’ he said. ‘We went to see her in the course of our enquiries.’ He paused. ‘She didn’t speak kindly of you.’
I compressed my mouth. ‘No. I can imagine. Still. I’m worth more to her alive than dead. She’ll want me to live as long as possible.’
‘And if she wanted to get married again? Your alimony payments would stop then, and a lump sum from insurance might be welcome.’
I shook my head. ‘She might have killed me in a fury three years ago, but not now, cold bloodedly, with other people involved. It isn’t in her nature. And besides, she doesn’t know anything about bombs and she had no opportunity… You’ll have to cross out that theory too.’
‘She has been going out occasionally with an executive from a firm specialising in demolitions.’
He kept his voice dead even, but he had clearly expected more reaction than he got. I wasn’t horrified or even much taken aback.
‘She wouldn’t do it. Or put anyone else up to doing it. Ordinarily, she was too… too kind hearted. Too sensible, anyway. She used to be so angry whenever innocent passengers were blown up…