Donna Tartt - The Secret History

Suddenly, his face changed. To my great surprise he cursed loudly and slammed down the receiver so hard that it jangled.

'What is it?'

He was staring at the phone. 'God damn him,' he said. 'He hung up on me,' 'What's the matter?'

'He wants us to go out with that damn search party again. Now.

I'm not like he is. I can't just stay up for five or six days at a '

'Now? But it's so early.'

'It started an hour ago, so he says. Damn him. Doesn't he ever sleep?'

We had not spoken about the incident in my room several nights before and, in the drowsy silence of the car, I felt the need to make things plain.

'You know, Francis,' I said.

'What?'

It seemed the best thing was just to come right out and say it.

'You know,' I said, 'I'm really not attracted to you. I mean, not that-'

'Isn't that interesting,' he said coolly. 'I'm really not attracted to you, either.'

'But-'

'You were there.'

We drove the rest of the way to school in a not very comfortable silence.

Unbelievably, things had escalated even more during the night.

There now were hundreds of people: people in uniforms, people with dogs and bullhorns and cameras, people buying sweet rolls from the concessions truck and trying to peek into the dark windows of the news vans – three of them, one from a station in Boston – parked on Commons lawn, along with the overflow of vehicles from the parking lot.

We found Henry on the front porch of Commons. He was reading, with absorbed interest, a tiny, vellum-bound book I written in some Near Eastern language. The twins – sleepy, ^-, red nosed, rumpled – were sprawled on a bench like a couple of ™ teenagers, passing a cup of coffee back and forth.

Francis half nudged, half kicked the toe of Henry's shoe.

Henry started. 'Oh,' he said. 'Good morning.'

'How can you even say that? I haven't had a wink of sleep. I haven't eaten anything in about three days.'

Henry marked his place with a ribbon and slipped the book in his breast pocket. 'Well,'he said amiably, 'go get a doughnut, then.'

'I don't have any money.'

'I'll give you the money, then.'

'I don't want a goddamn doughnut.'

I went over and sat down with the twins.

'You missed quite a time last night,' said Charles to me. J['So I hear.' *jt\ 'Hugh's wife showed us baby pictures for an hour and a half.'

'Yes, at least,' said Camilla. 'And Henry drank a beer from a can.'

Silence.

'So what did you do?' Charles said.

'Nothing. Watched a movie on TV.'

They both perked up. 'Oh, really? The thing about the planets colliding?'

'Mr Corcoran had it on but somebody switched channels before it was over,' said Camilla.

'How'd it end?'

'What's the last part you saw?'

'They were in the mountain laboratory. The young enthusiastic scientists had all ganged up on that cynical old scientist who didn't want to help.'

I was explaining the denouement when Cloke Raybum abruptly shouldered through the crowd. I stopped talking, thinking he was headed for the twins and me, but instead he only nodded to us and walked up to Henry, who now was standing on the edge of the porch.

'Listen,' I heard him say. 'I didn't get a chance to talk to you last night. I got hold of those guys in New York and Bunny hasn't been there.'

Henry didn't say anything for a moment. Then he said: 'I thought you said you couldn't get in touch with them.'

'Well, it's possible, it's just like a big headache. But they hadn't seen him, anyway.'

'How do you know?'

'What?'

'I thought you said you couldn't believe a word they said.'

He looked startled. 'I did?'

'Yes.'

'Hey, listen to me,' said Cloke, taking off his sunglasses. His eyes were bloodshot and pouchy. 'These guys are telling the truth. I didn't think of this before – well, I guess it hasn't been that long – but anyway, the story's all over the New York papers.

If they really did something to him, they wouldn't be sticking around their apartment taking phone calls from me… What is it, man?' he said nervously when Henry didn't respond. 'You didn't say anything to anybody, did you?'

Henry made an indistinct noise in the back of his throat, which might have meant anything.

'What?'

'No one has asked,' said Henry.

There was no expression on his face. Cloke, his discomfiture evident, waited for him to continue. Finally, he put on his sunglasses again in a slightly defensive manner.

'Well,' he said. 'Um. Okay, then. See you later.'

After he'd gone Francis turned to Henry, a bemused look on his face. 'What on earth are you up to?' he said.

But Henry didn't answer.

The day passed like a dream. Voices, dogs barking, the whap of a helicopter overhead. The wind was strong and the roar of it in I the trees was like an ocean. The helicopter had been sent from „- the New York State Police headquarters in Albany; it had, we ™ were told, a special infrared heat sensor. Someone had also volunteered something called an 'ultra-light' aircraft which swooped overhead, barely clearing the tops of the trees. There were real ranks now, squadron leaders with bullhorns; we marched over the snowy hills wave upon wave.

Cornfields, pastures, knolls heavy with undergrowth. As we approached the base of the mountain the land took a downward slope. A thick fog lay in the valley below, a smoldering cauldron of white from which only the treetops protruded, stark and Dantesque. By degrees, we descended, and the world sank from view. Charles, beside me, stood out sharp and almost hyper realistic with his ruddy cheeks and labored breaths but further down, Henry had become a wraith, his large form light and strangely insubstantial in the mist.

When the ground rose several hours later, we came up on the rear of another, smaller party. In it were some people I was surprised and somehow touched to see. There was Martin Hoffer, an old and distinguished composer on the music faculty; the middle-aged lady who checked IDs in the lunch line, looking inexplicably tragic in her plain cloth coat; Dr Roland, the blares of his nose-blowing audible even at a distance.

'Look,' said Charles. 'That's not Julian, is it?'

'Where?'

'Surely not,' said Henry.

But it was. Rather characteristically, he pretended not to see us until we were so close it was impossible for him to ignore us any longer. He was listening to a tiny, fox-faced lady whom I knew to be a housekeeper in the dorms.

'Goodness,' he said, when she had finished talking, drawing back in mock surprise. 'Where did you come from? Do you know Mrs O'Rourke?'

Mrs O'Rourke smiled shyly. 'I seen all of you before,' she said.

The kids think the maids don't notice them, but I know you all by sight.'

'Well, I should hope so,' said Charles. 'You haven't forgotten me, have you? Bishop House, number ten?'

He said this so warmly that she flushed with pleasure.

'Sure,' she said. 'I remember you. You was the one was always running off with my broom.'

During this exchange Henry and Julian were talking softly.

'You should have told me before now,' I heard Julian say.

'We did tell you.'

'Well, you did, but still. Edmund's missed class before,' said Julian, looking distressed. 'I thought he was playing sick. People are saying that he's been kidnapped but I think that's rather silly, don't you?'

'I'd rather one of mine be kidnapped than out in this snow for six days,' said Mrs O'Rourke.

'Well, I certainly hope that nothing has happened to him. You know, don't you, that his family is here? Have you seen them?'

'Not today,' said Henry.

'Of course, of course,' said Julian hastily. He disliked the Corcorans. 'I haven't been to see them either, it's really not the time to intrude… This morning I did run into the father quite by accident, and one of the brothers as well. He had a baby with him. Riding it on his shoulders as if they were on their way to a picnic.'