“Would you like to see the dessert menu?”
Margaret feigned disinterest. “I mean, I don’t…”
“No, thank you,” said Catherine and Geoffrey simultaneously, and Margaret’s shoulders slumped.
“Have a dessert, if you like, Margaret,” said Catherine.
“No, no, no. I’m fine. I’m fine.”
“I take it you both read Desmond’s obituary inThe Times,” said Catherine.
Margaret and Geoffrey both mmmed, suggesting, to Catherine, that there was more to say.
“Did you know him, Geoffrey?”
“That I did, that I did.”
“I knew him too,” said Margaret, with a conspiratorial smile.
“Oh, yes?” said Catherine.
“Geoffrey, what did you think of Desmond?” asked Margaret. “Not in here. I mean when you worked with him.”
Geoffrey checked that nobody else was listening in before he spoke ill of the dead. “It doesn’t feel right saying this, not now, but Desmond was corrupt.”
“That’s why I asked,” said Margaret. “I heard allegations in the Home Office.”
“What kind of allegations?” asked Catherine, leaning forward.
“Well, I don’t know,” said Margaret. “Just murmurs. I think I asked them to put it into a report for me but nobody wanted to write anything down. Honestly, it was impossible to get anything done. Ever.”
“He was on the payroll,” said Geoffrey. “Couple of the big London organized crime gangs. The people at the top paid him to turn a blind eye. The foot soldiers, they’d still get cuffed, but the ones at the top, he had them covered.”
“I never really thought about it,” said Catherine. “Sounds like something from a film, but of course that sort of thing happens, I suppose.”
“The world isn’t all roses, I’m afraid, my dear Catherine,” said Geoffrey, as if he were speaking to a grandchild.
I know that perfectly well, thought Catherine. I was a pathologist. I’ve seen things that would turn you green. But she letit slide. Geoffrey meant well and something had just occurred to her.
“Wasn’t Jim, the chap who likes to sing, wasn’t he a bit of a…” She lowered her voice. “Criminal?”
“Jim. Oh, yes, he most certainly was. Top of the tree in his day. Ran North London for a time,” said Geoffrey.
“Lovely voice. Charming man. Shame about the crime,” said Margaret.
“And was he paying Desmond off, do you think?” asked Catherine.
Geoffrey was looking away, into the middle distance, his mind on another time, Catherine supposed. They all had pasts.
“I couldn’t say for sure, but it would surprise me if he wasn’t.”
Margaret looked at Catherine. They were having the same thought at the same time. The three of them were leaning in together now in conspiracy, their heads nearly touching at the center of the table. Catherine spoke first. “Jim and Desmond had a shouting match the other night,” she said.
“Did they now?” said Geoffrey. “What about?”
“Yes! They did!” said Margaret, excited. “I saw it! I don’t know what they were arguing about but they were both rather animated. I’d never seen Desmond like that before. He was always so lovely and placid at baking.”
“Let me introduce you to a little saying,” said Geoffrey. “There’s more to some people than meets the eye.”
