Postern of Fate (Tommy & Tuppence 5)

'Got to try and find out things just to satisfy your wife, I suppose. Yes, I've heard of her. I've never had the pleasure of meeting her, I don't think. Rather wonderful person, isn't she?'

'I think so,' said Tommy.

'That's good hearing. I like people who stick together and enjoy their marriage and go on enjoying it.'

'Really, I'm like the tortoise, I suppose. I mean, there we are. We're old and we're tired, and although we've got very good health for our age, we don't want to be mixed up in anything nowadays. We're not trying to butt into anything. We just -'

'I know. I know,' said Mr Robinson. 'Don't keep apologizing for it. You want to know. Like the mongoose, you want to know. And Mrs Beresford, she wants to know. Moreover, I should say from all I've heard of her and been told of her, I should say she will get to know somehow.'

'You think she's more likely to do it than I am?'

'Well, I don't think perhaps you're quite as keen on finding out things as she is, but I think you're just as likely to get on to it because I think you're rather good at finding sources. It's not easy to find sources for something as long ago as that.'

'That's why I feel awful about having come and disturbed you. But I wouldn't have done it on my own. It was only Mutton-Chop. I mean -'

'I know who you mean. Had mutton-chop whiskers and was rather pleased with them at one time. That's why he was called that. A nice chap. Done good work in his time. Yes. He sent you to me because he knew that I am interested in anything like that. I started quite early, you know. Poking about, I mean and finding out things.'

'And now,' said Tommy, 'now you're the tops.'

'Now who told you that?' said Mr Robinson. 'All nonsense.'

'I don't think it is,' said Tommy.

'Well,' said Mr Robinson, 'some get to the tops and some have the tops forced upon them. I would say the latter applies to me, more or less. I've had a few things of surpassing interest forced upon me.'

'That business connected with - Frankfurt, wasn't it?'

'Ah, you've heard rumours, have you? Ah well, don't think about them any more. They're not supposed to be known much. Don't think I'm going to rebuff you for coming here asking me questions. I probably can answer some of the things you want to know. If I said there was something that happened years ago that might result in something being known that would be - possibly - interesting nowadays, something that would give one a bit of information about things that might be going on nowadays, that might be true enough. I wouldn't put it past anyone or anything. I don't know what I can suggest to you, though. It's a question of worry about, listen to people, find out what you can about bygone years. If anything comes along that you think might be interesting to me, just give me a ring or something. We'll find some code words, you know. Just to make ourselves feel excited again, feel as though we really mattered. Crab-apple jelly, how would that be? You know, you say your wife's made some jars of crab-apple jelly and would I like a pot. I'll know what you mean.'

'You mean that - that I would have found out something about Mary Jordan. I don't see there's any point in going on with that. After all, she's dead.'

'Yes. She's dead. But - well, you see, sometimes one has the wrong ideas about people because of what you've been told. Or because of what's been written.'

'You mean we have wrong ideas about Mary Jordan. You mean, she wasn't important at all?'

'Oh yes, she could have been very important.' Mr Robinson looked at his watch. 'I have to push you off now. There's a chap coming in, in ten minutes. An awful bore, but he's high up in government circles, and you know what life is nowadays. Government, government, you've got to stand it everywhere. In the office, in the home, in the supermarkets, on the television. Private life. That's what we want more of nowadays. Now this little fun and games that you and your wife are having, you're in private life and you can look at it from the background of private life. Who knows, you might find out something. Something that would be interesting. Yes. You may and you may not.

'I can't tell you anything more about it. I know some of the facts that probably nobody else can tell you and in due course I might be able to tell them to you. But as they're all dead and done with, that's not really practical.

'I'll tell you one thing that will help you perhaps in your investigations. You read about this case, the trial of Commander whatever-he-was - I've forgotten his name now - and he was tried for espionage, did a sentence for it and richly deserved it. He was a traitor to his country and that's that. But Mary Jordan -'

'Yes?'

'You want to know something about Mary Jordan. Well, I'll tell you one thing that might, as I say, help your point of view. Mary Jordan was - well, you can call it a spy but she wasn't a German spy. She wasn't an enemy spy. Listen to this, my boy. I can't help calling you "my boy".'

Mr Robinson dropped his voice and leaned forward over his desk.

'She was one of our lot.'

Book III

Chapter 1

MARY JORDAN

'But that alters everything,' said Tuppence.

'Yes,' said Tommy. 'Yes. It was - it was quite a shock.'

'Why did he tell you?'

'I don't know,' said Tommy. 'I thought - well, two or three different things.'

'Did he - what's he like, Tommy? You haven't really told me.'

'Well, he's yellow,' said Tommy. 'Yellow and big and fat and very, very ordinary, but at the same time, if you know what I mean, he isn't ordinary at all. He's - well, he's what my friend said he was. He's one of the tops.'

'You sound like someone talking about pop singers.'

'Well, one gets used to using these terms.'

'Yes, but why? Surely that was revealing something that he wouldn't have wanted to reveal, you'd think.'

'It was a long time ago,' said Tommy. 'It's all over, you see. I suppose none of it matters nowadays. I mean, look at all the things they're releasing now. Off the record. You know, not hushing up things any more. Letting it all come out, what really happened. What one person wrote and what another person said and what one row was about and how something else was all hushed up because of something you never heard about.'

'You make me feel horribly confused,' said Tuppence, 'when you say things like that. It makes everything wrong, too, doesn't it?'

'How do you mean, makes everything wrong?'

'Well, I mean, the way we've been looking at it. I mean - what do I mean?'

'Go on,' said Tommy. 'You must know what you mean.'

'Well, what I said. It's all wrong. I mean, we found this thing in The Black Arrow, and it was all clear enough. Somebody had written it in there, probably this boy Alexander, and it meant that somebody - one of them, he said, at least, one of us - I mean he put it that way but that's what he meant - one of the family or somebody in the house or something, had arranged to bring about the death of Mary Jordan, and we didn't know who Mary Jordan was, which was very baffling.'

'Goodness knows it's been baffling,' said Tommy.

'Well, it hasn't baffled you as much as me. It's baffled me a great deal. I haven't really found out anything about her. At least -'

'What you found out about her was that she had been apparently a German spy, isn't that what you mean? You found out that?'

'Yes, that is what was believed about her, and I supposed it was true. Only now -'

'Yes,' said Tommy, 'only now we know that it wasn't true. She was the opposite to a German spy.'

'She was a sort of English spy.'

'Well, she must have been in the English espionage or security whatever it was called. And she came here in some capacity to find out something. To find out something about - about - what's his name now? I wish I could remember names better. I mean the naval officer or the Army officer or whatever he was. The one who sold the secret of the submarine or something like that. Yes, I suppose there was a little cluster of German agents here, rather like in N or M all over again, all busy preparing things.'

&nb

sp; 'It would seem so, yes.'

'And she was sent here in that case, presumably, to find out all about it.'

'I see.'

'So "one of us" didn't mean what we thought it meant. "One of us" meant - well, it had to be someone who was in this neighbourhood. And somebody who had something to do with this house, or was in this house for a special occasion. And so, when she died, her death wasn't a natural one because somebody got wise to what she was doing. And Alexander found out about it.'