Walking in Darkness

‘Who’s speaking?’ Cathy guardedly enquired.

There was a pause and then the voice whispered, ‘Anya? Is that you?’

‘What? Who’s Anya?’ Puzzled, Cathy listened to the breathing on the other end of the line. ‘Who is this?’

The line went dead. Slowly, Cathy hung up. Now what had all that been about?

A few moments later the phone rang again; Cathy hesitated this time before picking it up.

‘Yes?’

A silence, then her father’s familiar voice said, ‘Am I ringing at a bad time?’

‘Dad! You’re in London? Oh, great. Did you have a good flight? Bet you’re tired. I always am after crossing the Atlantic.’

‘I feel a few degrees under. We did discuss coming by Concorde, but the timings didn’t work out,’ he admitted. ‘And we were able to work all the way coming by regular flight.’

‘Oh, work! That’s all you men ever think about. Paul’s the same. But never mind, I forgive you both. I’m dying for you to get here, Dad, we’ll go for a long ride, won’t we, just the two of us, like the old days at Easton, and talk where no one can hear us? And you can tell me how you feel and all about the campaign. I miss all that, you know – the work and the excitement, and the sheer damn fun.’

‘I miss you being there,’ he agreed soberly. ‘You were the only one I could trust to be right behind me with no hidden agendas and no secret resentments. Life’s a damn sight too complicated, darling.’

She frowned, wishing she could see his face. ‘You sound tired, Dad – is the pressure getting to you?’

‘It was a long flight, I guess I’m tired.’

‘Yes, I hate those transatlantic flights too. What about Mummy? How is she? Did she find the flight very tiring?’

His voice changed slightly, grew more careful, and she heard the neutral tone with a pang of distress. Her mother wasn’t getting any better, then; getting worse, no doubt, as Paul had warned her she would as she got older. She recognized that tone in her father’s voice, the will not to give anything away.

‘She’s borne up quite well, she slept on the plane, took a sleeping pill and zonked out, and she’s lying down now, but she sends her love. She’s very excited about seeing you.’ He paused, then asked, ‘Why did you sound so odd when you answered the phone, Cathy? Any problems your end?’

‘No, no, it was just that . . . oh, some weirdo had rung and I was afraid it would be her again.’

‘Weirdo?’ he sharply asked. ‘What kind of weirdo?’

‘Some woman who asked for me and then suddenly said, “Is that you, Anya?” I’ve no idea who she meant – there’s nobody called Anya here.’

Silence, then, ‘What did she want?’ Her father sounded hoarse, as if he had got a sore throat. When you made that long flight from the States you often picked up some bug, she hoped he hadn’t done that. Lately she had felt he wasn’t as strong as he had been most of his life. He was the wiry type; tougher than he looked with a lot of energy burning him up so that he never put on weight.

‘I don’t know,’ Cathy said. ‘She hung up.’

‘Without saying anything else?’

‘Yes.’

She heard him take a long breath. ‘You shouldn’t answer the phone yourself, Cathy, you really shouldn’t. It isn’t wise, especially now. All sorts of crazies ring people in the public eye. In future, get your housekeeper to do it. Promise me you won’t pick the outside phone up again until you know who’s on the line?’

He was worried, really worried about her, she realized and it touched her. ‘OK, Dad, I’ll remember, don’t worry about me. You have enough to worry about without me adding to your problems.’

‘Good girl.’ His voice held a smile now. ‘Look, sorry, darling, I’ve got to go now. There’s a lot to get through today. I’m meeting with some of the opposition politicians this afternoon, and I’ll be seeing your husband later today. Take care of yourself, see you real soon.’

In London, Don Gowrie turned to his secretary, his face tight and pale. She was replacing the receiver of a phone on the other side of the room, having listened to the entire conversation. ‘Damn it to hell. It never occurred to me that she would ring Cathy. Get me Jack Beverley on the phone, I want security tightened up around my son-in-law’s place. I don’t want the Narodni girl getting within a mile

of the house, and I don’t want her getting through to Cathy on the phone again.’

‘I don’t suppose she’ll talk to her openly on the phone, she’ll be counting on a chance to talk to her in person, face to face. And she can’t do that until after the Guildhall dinner. She accepted the invitation to it, she’ll be there.’

He frowned angrily. ‘We can’t wait another day. She has got to be dealt with, and quickly. Tonight. There’s already been too long a delay. Get Jack on the phone now.’