Free The Company of Saints by Evelyn Anthony

background, you had him thoroughly vetted as soon as you took over at Anne’s Yard. He’s clean. Or two years ago he was clean.… Mother and married sister living in Poland, but no problems there. No affiliations with anything suspicious since he set himself up in England. He did bring one or two refugees out of Eastern Europe, but they were personal friends and he did it by using his money and bribing the necessary officials. In this role he came to Humphrey’s notice and Humphrey introduced him to you – when you were both playing spies behind my back,’ he added. ‘I must say now that I don’t like your friend Walden.’
    â€˜You don’t have to tell me that,’ Davina interrupted. ‘You proved it once.’
    â€˜If you say so,’ he murmured. ‘I don’t like the type. It’s not a good situation for someone in your position, but you’ve taken all possible precautions and you can’t see that your private life can impinge on your job. But out of the blue, in the middle of a holiday, Walden tells you it’s all over. He makes a heroic renunciation for your sake and then allows you to persuade him to go back on it. Am I being accurate, Davina?’
    â€˜You’re being a bastard,’ she answered quietly. ‘But I expected that. Go on.’
    â€˜He’s a very sophisticated man who’s made a lot of money out of manipulating people. Playing on their credulity. Wouldn’t you agree that defines top-level advertising? He’s been your lover for two years or so. He knows you very well by now. He sets the scene and writes the lines. He knows perfectly well that you’re not the type to accept his noble gesture without wanting to know how and why. Very few women would, I imagine. Certainly not you. So he gives in and tells you that he’s being blackmailed. And what a story! His brother-in-law was arrested as a Solidarity sympathizer. He’s in the Ministry of the Interior, didn’t you say? He’s been interned ever since martial law. He doesn’t say whether his brother-in-law is innocent or guilty. I find in my experience that civil servants have little sympathy with workers’ movements like Solidarity, but that’s beside the point. The point is, his sister is pregnant, living with her mother. That paints a picture of two frightened women, one old and feeble, the other having a child. Helpless and under siege by a ruthless military regime. By now, you’re probably running ahead of him, Davina, filling in the gaps. It’s the penalty of a quick mind. The blackmail is his brother-in-law’s release? But no. It’s crueller than that. The brother-in-law isn’t interned as his family thinks. He’s been taken to Russia because the KGB knows about Walden’s relationship with you. They believe they hold a hand of trumps. Walden is to pass on anything you tell him and to pump you for secret information – in exchange for his brother-in-law’s life. If he refuses, the poor chap either gets a bullet, or a ticket to the Gulag camps. Now, is that accurate?’
    â€˜It’s accurate,’ Davina admitted, ‘if I ignore the interpretation. That’s what Tony said. They’re holding this man as a hostage. The only way out that he could see was to break off with me.’
    â€˜Saying that you’d left him, of course?’ Sir James said. ‘For what reason, I wonder? Our friends in Moscow are difficult people to convince. He’d have to have a strong story that could be checked. Davina, my dear girl, don’t you know the answer to all this yourself? Didn’t you just come down to have it confirmed by an outsider?’
    â€˜You don’t believe it,’ she stated.
    He shook his head gently. ‘I think it’s a pack of lies and so do you.’
    She got up and stood looking down at him. ‘That’s what it looks like,’ she agreed.