Chapter seven
Verloc takes
Stevie with him
After ten days, Verloc returned from his journey abroad.
Looking very tired, he walked heavily into the shop, dropped his bag on the floor, and fell into the chair.
Stevie picked up the bag so quickly that Verloc looked at him in surprise.
Verloc was not hungry but he did not refuse the food that
Winnie put in front of him. In silence, he listened while Winnie told him the
news.
‘Stevie’s been difficult to manage. But he's still working
hard and helping in the house. He can’t do enough for us.’
At that moment, Stevie picked up Verloc’s hat and took it
away carefully with the bag into the kitchen. For the second time that day,
Verloc was surprised.
‘You can do anything with that boy, Adolf. He’ll go through fire for you, if you ask him to,’
said Winnie, smiling.
Verloc spent most of the day sleeping in front of the fire. In the afternoon, he said he
was going for a walk.
Winnie said, ‘Why don’t you take Stevie with you, Adolf?’
‘Yes, all right. But perhaps he’ll walk away from me and get
lost in the street.’
Winnie shook her head.
‘He won’t. You don’t know him. That boy thinks too much of
you. But don't worry. If he gets lost, he’ll soon arrive home safely.’
‘All right,’ Verloc said, trusting his wife.
Winnie watched the two men with. something like affection us
they walked down the street, one short and heavy, the other tall and thin. The
cloth of their coats was the same and their huts were round and black. ‘They
could be father and son,’ she said to herself happily.
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In the days that followed, Verloc took Stevie out more and
more often but the boy had started to talk to himself and seemed angry. Winnie
was afraid that he was listening to her husband’s friends too much. Verloc said
that he might calm down if he went to stay with Michaelis in the country.
Winnie soon agreed. After all, Michaelis was always so kind to Stevie, not like
some of the others.
and he seemed to like the boy.
So Verloc took Stevie away the next day. When Winnie told
Stevie not to get his clothes dirty in the country, he did not look at her in
his usual trusting way. She smiled at him.
'Don't look at me like that. You know you get very untidy
sometimes, Stevie.’
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Some days later, on the evening of the Greenwich bombing,
Verloc did not come back until it was almost dark. Winnie had been alone all
day. She was sitting sewing when the cracked bell rang and Verloc came in with his head down and went
straight towards the back room.
‘What an awful day,’ said Winnie calmly. ‘Have you been to
see Stevie?’
‘No, I haven’t,’ said Verloc softly and he banged the door
shut loudly behind him.
Winnie sat still for some time without touching her sewing.
Then she got up to light the gas. It was time to make tea.
As she went through the back room on her way to the kitchen,
she heard a strange rattling noise that made her stop in surprise and fear.
Verloc had pulled a chair towards the fireplace and was
sitting almost on top ol’ the fire with his head in his hands. The sound Winnie
had heard was made by his teeth which were rattling violently. At the same
time, his huge back was shaking.
‘Where have you been today?’ Winnie asked.
‘Nowhere,’ answered Verloc in a low hoarse voice. Then, realizing
that this was not enough, he added, ‘I've been to the bank to take out all the
money. We may need it soon.’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’ Winnie spoke calmly but she
did not move from where she stood.
‘You know you can trust me,’ said Verloc hoarsely.
Winnie turned slowly towards the cupboard saying, ‘Oh, yes,
I can trust you.’ She put the plates, the bread, and the butter on the table.
Then, remembering that her husband had been out all day and was probably
hungry, she went to the cupboard again for the cold meat and the carving knife
and fork. She called quietly to
Verloc, who seemed to be asleep, ‘Adolf.’
Verloc got up and staggered a little before he sat down at
the table. He did not touch the meat but drank three cups of tea. His eyes and
face were red and his hair was standing up. Winnie said at last, ‘Take your
shoes off. Your feet are sure to be wet, and you aren’t going out any more this
evening.’
Verloc told Winnie that he was thinking of going to live
abroad, perhaps to France or California.
‘What an idea!’ said Winnie. ‘You can’t be serious. You’ve
got a good business and a comfortable home. And you aren't tired of me.' She
got up and walked to the other end of the table. Resting on Verloc’s shoulder
from behind, she kissed his head and waited there for a moment. Finally she
said, ‘If you go abroad. you’ll have to go without me.’ She was thinking about
Stevie. ‘And then
you'll miss me. So you know you couldn’t do that.’
'Of course not,’ said Verloc in a louder voice. At that
moment, the shop bell rang.
‘Shop, Adolf. You go.’
Verloc slowly went towards the shop.
When he came in again a few’ minutes later, his face had
changed from red to white.
‘I have to go out this evening after all,’ he said but he
didn’t move to pick up his coat.
Without a word. Winnie walked into the shop and closed the
door behind her. The man waiting there was thin and dark and looked foreign. He
smiled at Winnie and she said, ‘If you need somewhere to stay, the Continental
Hotel is a good place. My husband will take you there.’
'A good idea,’ said the thin man whose smiling face had
suddenly become hard.
Winnie returned to the back room and spoke to her husband.
'Adolf', that man isn't one of those Embassy people, is he?’
Verloc jumped in surprise and fear. ‘Who’s been talking to
you about Embassy people?’
'You have. In your sleep. I didn’t really understand what
you were saying but I knew that something was worrying you.’
Verloc was red-faced and angry. ‘I could cut their hearts
out! But they’ll have to be careful. I’ve got a tongue in my head.’
'Well, got rid of that man and come home to me. You're not
well. But before you go, perhaps you should give me the money that you look out
of the bank.’
'Oh yes! Yes. Here it is.’ Verloc gave his wife a wallet
full of notes which she hid inside her dress.
Shortly after Verloc had left, the cracked bell rang again.
This time, it was Chief Inspector Heat who had come for some ‘private
information. Winnie told him that her husband had gone out.
‘I think that you know who I am. My name is Chief Inspector
Heat of the Special Crimes Department. Did your husband say when he would be
back?’
‘He wasn’t alone.’ Winnie described the dark stranger and
Heat recognized the Assistant Commissioner and sighed. He decided to find out
how much Winnie knew.
‘What do you know about the Greenwich bombing?’
Winnie told him that she knew nothing.
‘Oh. and there’s another thing,’ said Heat. ‘I’ve got a coat
here, probably stolen, and I think it came from here. Your address is on it in
purple ink. I see you have a lot of ink here,‘ said Heat looking at the lines
of small bottles standing ready for someone to buy them.
‘That’s my brother’s coat, then. I wrote that address
myself. He’s been staying with our friend Michaelis in the country.’
Heat almost laughed. ‘Right. And is your brother a large,
heavy man?’
‘Oh no. That must be the thief. Stevie’s tall and thin.’
Heat put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a newspaper
and a piece of blue cloth. He gave the cloth to Winnie.
‘I suppose you recognize this?‘
Winnie's eyes seemed to grow bigger as she took it in her
hands. 'Yes,' she whispered and staggered backwards a little. 'But why is it
pulled out of the coat like this?'
At the moment, Heat began to realize the extraordinary true facts
of the Greenwich bombing. Verloc was ‘the other man’!
***************
Winnie had sat down suddenly and was staring in front of
her. She did not look up when the bell rang and Verloc came in alone. He walked
up to Heat, led him into the back room, and closed the door behind them.
Winnie ran to the door and fell onto her knees with her ear
to the keyhole. She could hear Heats voice clearly.
‘You are the other man Verloc. Two men entered the park.’
'Then arrest me now.’
'Oh, no. I know you’ve been talking to my boss. He’ll have
to manage this little business all by himself. But just remember, it was me who
found out the true story.’
Winnie heard her husband say, ‘I never noticed that she had done
that’. and she knew that he was looking at the coat label.
Now Heat was speaking again. ‘How did you get away?’
‘I was walking away when I heard the bomb explode. It came
too soon and I started running through the fog. No one saw me until I was past
the end of George Street.’
Winnie tried to put her ear closer to the keyhole. Her lips
were blue and her hands were as cold as ice.
Heat spoke again. ‘We think he tripped over a tree root. He
was blown up into little bits. They had to pick him up with a shovel.’
Winnie got up and staggered towards the chair. She picked up
the newspaper that Heat had left there earlier and tried to open it, but
failed. Finally, she threw it on the floor. On the other side of the door Heat
said. ‘What made you do it?’
Thinking of Vladimir, Verloc replied, ‘A real pig made me do
it, a gentleman!’
Heat opened the door and walked past Winnie into the street.
She heard the bell but she did not look up.
Instead she put her hands over her face. In the dark little shop the
only brightness came from the gold wedding ring on Winnie’s left hand which
shone brightly in the darkness.
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