Faraday 01 The Gigabyte Detective (5 page)

His smile had turned hard. “I don’t have a wife and kids.”

“All on your own?” She wasn’t sure that she believed him. She thought all the good looking ones were spoken for.

“That’s right. I was married, but she - er - died about six years ago.” He looked out of the window again. “We didn’t have any children.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.” It seemed an inadequate comment.

“That’s all right. It seems a long time ago, now. It’s a part of my life I’ve tried to forget, except for these two weeks each year.”

“What do you mean?” Now he had her interested.

“I suppose you’ll think it strange.” He continued gazing out of the window at the boats which swayed and bobbed restlessly on the wavelets. “I’ve sort of turned my holiday into an annual pilgrimage. I come back and visit the places we used to know and enjoy doing the things we used to do.”

“You used to spend your holidays together here?”

He turned to look at her. “We used to live here. She loved it. She came from London, and she thought it was so much fun to be able to walk beside the sea, or go up on the moor, or take a boat up the Dart to Totnes. I used to enjoy watching the fun she got from it all.”

“She died very young?” Susannah felt the question being dragged out of her, even though she knew it was an intrusion.

“Yes.” His eyes seemed to beg her to ask no more but she felt compelled to continue.

“What was it? Cancer?”

“No.” He looked down at the table and said very carefully. “It was suicide.”

She was startled, not sure that she had heard. “Suicide? But you said she was so happy.”

“She was - most of the time. But she had a tough life when she was young. She was very easily upset by other people’s attitudes.” He stood up. “If you’ll excuse me, I don’t want to talk any more about her death. It’s not that side of her which I want to remember.” He smiled bleakly and made a little bow. “Thank you for letting me share your table.”

He turned and made blindly for the door, pulled it open and walked out. He crossed the pavement and the road without looking to right or left. Susannah’s heart was in her mouth in case he should walk under a passing car, but he reached the other side safely. He leaned against the rail, looking down into the harbour.

She felt awful. It was her prying questions which had upset him and brought back the bitter memories of his much-loved wife’s unhappy death. She should have continued to be withdrawn and not allowed him to engage her in conversation.

The young waitress came over to collect his cup and check the table. “Oh,” she said, “he’s forgotten to leave his money.” She looked across the road and Susannah could envisage her going out to trouble him for it.

“Don’t worry. Put it on my bill.” She drained her cup. “I might as well pay now in any case.”

When she had settled Susannah rose to her feet and pulled her cardigan around her shoulders. She went out and paused in the bright sun. He was still standing immobile against the rail, staring down at the restless water. She couldn’t resist crossing the road to his side.

“I’m sorry if I upset you,” she said. “Please accept my apologies.”

He turned to face her. For a second he appeared not to recognize her. Then the dark misery in his eyes faded and he gave a weak smile. “That’s all right. You’d think that I would have more sense than to let a casual question upset me after all these years. Most of the time I’m fine. It’s not very often I let it get through to me.”

Susannah thought of how few real tragedies had afflicted her sheltered life. Even her divorce had been more of a relief than a pain. What would she have felt like if such a thing had happened to her? “You don’t have anyone you can share it with?” she asked.

He shook his head. “All we had was each other.” He smiled to himself. “It’s not easy for a man to find someone to confess to.”

Without conscious volition, Susannah realised they were walking along the promenade above the harbour. When they reached Haldon Pier they turned along it, strolling in the bright, fresh sun with the harbour on one side and the open sea on the other.

“Where did you live in Torquay?” she asked.

“We had a small house the other side of Brixham,” he explained. “It was nothing special, but Sandra liked it. We could walk along footpaths onto the cliffs above the sea and she said it felt as though we were on the edge of the world.”

“And you sold up and moved away after she died?”

He half turned to face her. “That’s right. In fact I always had trouble in finding well-paid work in the area. I was having to travel to Plymouth every day as it was. That may have been part of the problem.” He shrugged. “Anyway there seemed to be no point in staying here on my own.” He turned and smiled at her. “But I still like the area a lot. I feel as though I really only come alive when I return to it.”

“Yes,” she agreed, “I wouldn’t like to leave Torquay now. I have often regarded it as a prison. But I suppose no-one could ask for a nicer place to be shut up.”

“You think of it as a prison?” He looked at her in surprise.

She nodded, at the same time wondering why she was telling him so much, which she would never have revealed to her family or friends. “Strange, isn’t it? My husband would be horrified to hear me say it. I live in a beautiful house. I have no doubt that, if I told him I thought of it as a prison, he would buy somewhere else that I wanted - perhaps in London, or the South of France. But it wouldn’t be any different. Besides I couldn’t do that to him. It was the house where his parents lived in their retirement. It means a lot to him. The only trouble is,” she shook her head, “he is hardly ever here. He is too busy to retire himself.” She paused and looked out to sea. “And I suppose, if I’m honest, I wouldn’t know how to live with him now, if he was here all the time.”

She was astonished at herself. This was the first time she had ever thought such a thing in so many words, and yet she had gabbled it out to a complete stranger - and a man at that. What was worse - she realised every word she had said was absolutely true. It was as though she was cutting herself off from love and companionship for the remainder of her life.

“I don’t understand him.” He was standing close by her elbow. “I assume he has all the money he could want, isn’t that so?”

She nodded. She couldn’t think of anything to say.

“And here he is, married to one of the most beautiful women of his generation, and he doesn’t want to spend every available minute with you.”

She looked at him sceptically but, as far as she could see, he was completely sincere. “He is not of my generation,” she said. “He is nearly twenty years older. He was already approaching sixty when we married. Perhaps that is the problem.”

“I don’t think age is a problem, particularly when you have reached maturity.” He leaned on the wall beside her. “There is so much more to life than making money.”

“Not to my husband.” Her smile hid the pain.

He raised his head and looked out to sea, as though breathing in the fresh water-cooled air. “I assume he works in London during the week and comes back here at weekends.”

“Normally every other weekend. He is too busy to travel all this way every week.” She couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice.

“What about holidays?”

“We usually have a couple of weeks away at some fashionable resort. If you’re a top businessman there’s always some important annual conference in a beautiful part of the world. The men spend the mornings in the conference-room and the afternoons on the golf course. The wives laze around the pool and gossip.” She lifted her head and said derisively, “I’m good at that.”

He was astonished. “You mean you never go anywhere new and explore it together?”

“Oh, he wouldn’t refuse if I asked him.” She gave a brittle little laugh. “He would never refuse me anything. But I know what would happen. He would have a pile of work with him which he would carry everywhere. He would open his briefcase as soon as we sat down. He would be on the phone for an hour or two every day. And within five days a crisis would have arisen back in London which would demand his immediate return. Of course I would be welcome to stay on or go back with him - whichever I chose. But the holiday would have been finished either way.”

“What a strange man,” he said. “He could have anything he wanted in the world. Yet all he does is work.”

“That is your top businessman, for you. All he ever wants to do is work.” She shook her head.” I didn’t understand that when I married him.”

She stepped back from the wall and they resumed their walk towards the end of the pier. For a while they were both silent. She was wondering why she had so exposed her thoughts to this man who she had known for less than half an hour. Was it just because she had upset him with her thoughtless questions about his wife? Or was it because of her suddenly recognized loneliness?

“I’m sorry to have prattled on like that,” she said. “I hope you’ll forget it.”

“I found it very interesting.” She saw that he was looking straight at her, observing her closely. “I feel as though I’ve seen into a corner of a world that I had never seen before. It’s easy for we everyday working types to envy the comfort and leisure of those who don’t need to work. I can see it’s not necessarily all fun.”

At that moment he walked into a large concrete bollard. She actually heard the impact, it was so violent. He let out a grunt and began to hop around clutching his damaged right knee and cursing under his breath. She could tell he had seriously hurt himself but he was so suddenly incapacitated that Susannah found it rather amusing.

“Come and sit down,” she said, trying not to laugh. She led him to a seat beside the wall.

He sat with her and rubbed his damaged joint. “What a daft thing to do.” He chuckled painfully. “At least it testifies to my interest in your story.”

She grinned at him. “I expect you’ve got the message that I’m a dangerous woman to tangle with.”

“That’s right,” he quipped. “You probably ought to carry a government health warning?”

It was the rueful look on his face which amused her the most. She couldn’t prevent herself from laughing out loud and he pulled on a look of injured innocence as she rocked with mirth.

“Well. That’s great, isn’t it,” he complained. “I injure myself in the cause of listening to your problems, and this is all the sympathy I get.” He got to his feet and hobbled round, flexing his leg.

“Oh dear,” laughed Susannah, “I’m sorry. It looks as though you’ve really hurt yourself. We’d better get you back to your hotel and you can rest it and rub in some liniment or something. Here.” She offered her shoulder. “Support yourself on me until we get back to the road. Where have you left your car?”

“It’s back at the bed and breakfast in Paignton. It was such a nice morning that I decided to walk over.”

He accepted her offer and looped his arm about her shoulders and they set off back along the pier. Susannah had to admit that she enjoyed the experience. She allowed herself to inhale the pleasant odour of a man. There were no added perfumes - just clean, well-washed maleness. And she could feel the hard, fit muscles of an active man - so different from the sagging overweight of the inactive Stephen. That thought made her wonder how she would be able to explain her actions to her husband if she ever needed to. And what would she do if they suddenly bumped into one of her friends? She shrugged mentally. Well, they would just have to accept that she was helping a fellow human in trouble, no matter that it was out of character for her.

Neither of them spoke much as they struggled back to the promenade. He was concentrating on keeping moving. It was clear he was in quite a lot of pain.

“Do you think you ought to go and see a doctor?” she asked. “You might have broken something.”

He shook his head. “No. I’m sure it’s only bruised. I can move it and flex it, you see. I can even put my weight on it. It’s just painful when I walk.”

“Nevertheless I think it needs some treatment.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “I’ll have a bath back at my lodgings and rub some liniment on it, as you suggested.”

“I’ll give you a lift home,” she decided. “When we get to the road, I’ll leave you by the wall and go to get my car.”

“It’s all right. You really don’t need to worry. The buses go right past the end of the road.”

But Susannah wouldn’t hear of it. She left him on a convenient seat and went to the car park. She was back within five minutes and helped him into the front passenger seat, fussing round him to make him feel comfortable. Strangely enough, she found she was enjoying herself. She even stopped at a chemist’s to get him some liniment on the way back to Paignton. His lodgings were in one of the small, cheap guest houses in a street which led back from the sea front into the town.

He climbed out of the car and hobbled up the short path to the front door, effusive with thanks. Susannah shepherded him conscientiously.

“I hope it soon recovers and doesn’t spoil your holiday,” she smiled.

“I’m sure it will. Thank you very much.” He paused and looked at her. “Thank you, Susannah.”

“I don’t even know your name,” she pointed out.

“It’s Richard. Richard Harris.”

“Well, Richard, goodbye. Have a nice holiday.”