Vivian Conroy - A Proposal to Die For

He shut the book and dumped it where he stood, returning to his desk with that slow painful limp. He seemed too old to have been wounded in the recent war, but perhaps it had simply been an accident, a fall, that had changed his life for ever.

Dubois put the brooch back in his pocket and nodded. ‘’Til next time.’

He directed her to the door. Outside she asked in a whisper, ‘Should you not have paid him? He helped us.’

‘I know what I am doing.’ He sounded irritated. Pushing his hands deep into his pockets, Dubois went down the stairs, his shoulders pulled up as if he was cold.

Alkmene followed him closely. ‘Now that you know it is Russian, what will you do?’

‘I will think about it. The best thing you can do when things are unclear is wait until they become clearer.’

‘Somehow that doesn’t sound like your kind of philosophy.’ Alkmene took the last steps, panting. ‘I thought that when you wanted something, you dived right in.’

He looked at her, his face half shadowed in the dim hallway. ‘I did dive right in. I found out about the row at the theatre. I also have dug up more information about the dead man’s body: when it was found, and his financial situation. Did you find anything new?’

No, she had not found out anything more, mostly because she was not sure how to go about it. She itched to know what he had dug up. But she wasn’t about to admit that to Dubois. Smiling, she said innocently, ‘I thought we could…exchange our information.’

‘So you said before. But it seems the deal is becoming more one-sided over time. Besides, sharing has to be one’s free choice, remember?’

It irked her that he threw her own words back in her face like that. She had never met someone who really tried to beat her at her own game.

It is not a game, he had said at Waldeck’s.

Was that the main brunt of his resentment against her? That to her this was still a game providing her with diversion, excitement, while to him it was a serious thing?

Perhaps even a matter of justice?

Sobered, she followed him outside. She wanted to say something meaningful and profound, but she had no idea how she could prevent it from sounding thought-up and untrue.

Dubois turned away from her. ‘I am looking forward to receiving my handkerchief back.’

She was left standing there, in the middle of this rundown street, like Dubois didn’t care whether she ever found her way home or not. But she didn’t bother to run after him like a little girl. She didn’t need him. She knew what she was doing. And she was not about to leave this place until she had done something about that little boy.

She went into one of the small shops and bought vegetables, then went into a bakery that looked neat and bought bread and cookies in a big blue box. They had passed a pawnshop at the start of the street and there she found a wooden horse and cart. The paint was chipped a little, and the horse had once had more hair for manes and tail. But at least you could see what it was without guessing trice. She bought it as well and returned to the house on the corner.

She laboured up the steps once again to the fourth floor and banged on the door.

As the voice came, she repeated what Dubois had said. ‘Three for the fisherman, two for the priest.’

The door opened again, and she stepped in.

Instead of the old man seated at the table, there was a younger man with wild hair and red-rimmed eyes, staring back at her like she was some vision. The little boy had seemed to become even smaller, huddling in his corner as if he was not there.

Alkmene quickly dropped the bread and vegetables on the shabby couch, clutching the box with cookies and the horse and cart.

‘Whatdoyouwant?’ the dishevelled man growled.

‘I am here to make payment,’ Alkmene said in a firmer voice than she felt. She went to the boy and smiled down on him. ‘This is for you. A horse and cart to play with and some cookies to eat.’

She held them out to him, but the dishevelled man moved with lightning speed. He slapped the items from her hands, so that the horse and cart tumbled to the floor.

The box with cookies, being lighter, first sailed up to the ceiling, hitting a beam. It burst open, and cookies rained down over Alkmene’s head and shoulders.

Staring at the mess at her feet, anger raged through her. ‘Why did you have to do that?’ she asked the man.

But he was staring at the boy. ‘What did you do?’ he howled. ‘What made this fancy lady want to reward you? Have you been to the church again, speaking to that vicar who thinks he can change the world? Our world never changes, never…’

He came over to Alkmene, kicking at the horse and cart. The fallen cookies crunched under the soles of his coarse boots.

The boy yelped and cowered against the wall, throwing up his arms to protect his face.

Suddenly a tall figure filled the door. ‘Enough.’ Dubois walked in. He was glowering, not at the man, but at Alkmene. ‘What are you doing here?’ he hissed.

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