Confessor

Free Confessor by John Gardner Page B

Book: Confessor by John Gardner Read Free Book Online
Authors: John Gardner
Government would heap embarrassment on great names should any of Cataract become public property.
    For the first time, Big Herbie fully realized that his investigation of Gus Keene’s long professional life, and his fast, horrible death, would be like a trip down the Burma Road, or even the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Long and arduous.
    He scribbled in his diary, which was more a way to quiet his own soul than apprise anyone else of his most secret feelings, and took himself to bed, where he dreamed of rolling green hills and a faceless man who followed him with deadly intent. He woke, sweating and alarmed, just after five, before the advent of the dawn chorus, and went out onto the landing, trying to find his way, fuddled and drunk with sleep, to the bathroom.
    Returning to bed, he could not sleep. Gus penetrated his waking thoughts and he found himself worried about the mountain that had to be climbed. Finally, he dropped into sleep again, awakened by Ginger with coffee. “She wanted to bring it to you, sir. But I thought that might be a bit iffy.”
    “Very iffy, Ginger. Thanks.”
    “Breakfast in half an hour.”
    “Great,” which he did not mean. Herb wanted to close his eyes and retreat under the covers. With that realization he suddenly sat bolt upright, wide awake now. Why did he want to sleep and hide from the day? Gus, he thought. Gus, or Gus’s ghost, warning him off. List! List! Oh, list. He saw with a new clarity that this journey down memory lane with Gus Keene was going to be bloody dangerous. Particularly if Gus had originally planned to publish details of Cataract . He could not have done this, Herb thought. Never in a hundred years. But there it was, last night anyway, on a computer-generated page, a letter no less, coming from a London publisher, which meant Lord knew how many people had seen it—the very word Cataract .
    Before heading for the dining room, having showered, shaved and dressed in record time, Kruger returned to Gus’s study, where he opened the red file again, just to make sure he had not dreamed it. It was there, just as it had been there last night, in a letter dated May 28 of this very year. “For instance, we could sell the book on Operation Cataract alone,” the unknown, as yet unseen, Mark Collier had written.
    Big Herbie felt considerably edgy as he walked into the dining room.
    “Herbie, dear, what’ve you been doing? I thought I heard you come down ages ago.” Bitsy Williams was all done up in an elaborate black two-piece suit, saved from being severe by many gold buttons and piping around the collar and cuffs.
    “Had to look something up.” He knew that it sounded like a lie and he put on his big daft grin. “I’m in charge, so I can come down when I like anyhow.”
    “Of course you can, but I brought your breakfast through.”
    She had made him bacon, two eggs and a slice of fried bread, all beautifully arranged on a plate. A photograph for a Julia Child cookbook would not have been amiss.
    “What you all dressed up like a dog’s dinner for, Bits?”
    “The inquest. Eleven o’clock. I’m to represent the Office. Deputy Chief Worboys called while you were, presumably, in the shower. Wants you to give him a tinkle when you’re free. I told him you’d call soonest.”
    Herbie nodded and attacked the bacon and eggs, not giving his cholesterol a second thought. “You want Ginger for the inquest?” he asked Bitsy, but it was Ginger who replied, “Kenny Boyden’s driving, and Mickey Crichton’s going to mind her.”
    “I thought Mickey was with the widow Keene?”
    “He is, but she doesn’t seem to want him. Prudence is with her all the time. Mrs. Keene’s not good, guv’nor. It’s sunk in and she’s grieving hard. That’s the word from the Guest Quarters. I think they’ve put her on something to help.”
    Yes, he thought. Prudence. Pru Frost, that was the name he could not put to the female nurse. Why the hell had they not sent two females? Mickey was in

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