Jeffrey Archer: A Twist in the Tale

Of these twelve short stories, gathered in my travels from Tokyo to Trumpington, ten are based on known incidents — some embellished with considerable license. Only two are totally the result of my own imagination.

I would like to thank all those people who allowed me to learn some of their innermost secrets.

J. A.

September 1988

If i hadn’t changed my mind that night I would never have found out the truth.

I couldn’t believe that Carla had slept with another man, that she had lied about her love for me — and that I might be second or even third in her estimation.

Carla had phoned me at the office during the day, something I had told her not to do, but since I also warned her never to call me at home she hadn’t been left with a lot of choice. As it turned out, all she had wanted to let me know was that she wouldn’t be able to make it for what the French so decorously call a ‘ cinq à sept.’ She had to visit her sister in Fulham who had been taken ill, she explained.

I was disappointed. It had been another depressing day, and now I was being asked to forgo the one thing that would have made it bearable.

‘I thought you didn’t get on well with your sister,’ I said tartly.

There was no immediate reply from the other end. Eventually Carla asked, ‘Shall we make it next Tuesday, the usual time?’

‘I don’t know if that’s convenient,’ I said. ‘I’ll call you on Monday when I know what my plans are.’ I put down the receiver.

Wearily, I phoned my wife to let her know I was on the way home — something I usually did from the phone box outside Carla’s flat. It was a trick I often used to make Elizabeth feel she knew where I was every moment of the day.

Most of the office staff had already left for the night so I gathered together some papers I could work on at home. Since the new company had taken us over six months ago, the management had not only sacked my Number Two in the accounts department but expected me to cover his work as well as my own. I was hardly in a position to complain, since my new boss made it abundantly clear that if I didn’t like the arrangement I should feel free to seek employment elsewhere. I might have, too, but I couldn’t think of many firms that would readily take on a man who had reached that magic age somewhere between the sought after and the available.

As I drove out of the office car park and joined the evening rush hour I began to regret having been so sharp with Carla. After all, the role of the other woman was hardly one she delighted in. I began to feel guilty, so when I reached the corner of Sloane Square, I jumped out of my car and ran across the road.

‘A dozen roses,’ I said, fumbling with my wallet.

A man who must have made his profit from lovers selected twelve unopened buds without comment. My choice didn’t show a great deal of imagination but at least Carla would know I’d tried.

I drove on toward her flat, hoping she had not yet left for her sister’s and that perhaps we might even find time for a quick drink. Then I remembered that I had already told my wife I was on the way home. A few minutes’ delay could be explained by a traffic jam, but that lame excuse could hardly cover my staying on for a drink.

When I arrived outside Carla’s home I had the usual trouble finding a parking space, until I spotted a gap that would just take a Rover opposite the paper shop. I stopped and would have backed into the space had I not noticed a man coming out of the entrance to her block of flats. I wouldn’t have given it a second thought if Carla hadn’t followed him a moment later. She stood there in the doorway, wearing a loose blue housecoat. She leaned forward to give her departing visitor a kiss that could hardly have been described as sisterly. As she closed the door I drove my car round the corner and double-parked.

I watched the man in my rearview mirror as he crossed the road, went into the newsagent’s and a few moments later reappeared with an evening paper and what looked like a packet of cigarettes. He walked to his car, a blue BMW, appeared to curse, and then removed a parking ticket from his windscreen. How long had the BMW been there? I even began to wonder if he had been with Carla when she phoned to tell me not to come round.

The man climbed into the BMW, fastened his seat belt and lit a cigarette before driving off. I took his parking meter space in part-payment for my woman. I didn’t consider it a fair exchange. I checked up and down the street, as I always did, before getting out and walking over to the block of flats. It was already dark and no one gave me a second glance. I pressed the bell marked ‘Moorland.’

When Carla opened the front door I was greeted with a huge smile which quickly turned into a frown, then just as quickly back to a smile. The first smile must have been meant for the BMW man. I often wondered why she wouldn’t give me a front door key. I stared into those blue eyes that had first captivated me so many months ago. Despite her smile, those eyes now revealed a coldness I had never seen before.

She turned to reopen the door and let me into her ground-floor flat. I noticed that under her housecoat she was wearing the wine-red negligee I had given her for Christmas. Once inside the flat I found myself checking round the room I knew so well. On the glass table in the center of the room stood the ‘Snoopy’ coffee mug I usually drank from, empty. By its side was Carla’s mug, also empty, and a dozen roses arranged in a vase. The buds were just beginning to open.

I have always been quick to chide and the sight of the flowers made it impossible for me to hide my anger.

‘And who was the man who just left?’ I asked.

‘An insurance broker,’ she replied, quickly removing the mugs from the table.

‘And what was he insuring,’ I asked. ‘Your love life?’

‘Why do you automatically assume he’s my lover?’ she said, her voice rising.

‘Do you usually have coffee with an insurance broker in your negligee? Come to think of it, my negligee.’

‘I’ll have coffee with whom I damn well please,’ she said, ‘and wearing what I damn well please, especially when you are on your way home to your wife.’

‘But I had wanted to come to you—’

‘And then return to your wife. In any case you’re always telling me I should lead my own life and not rely on you,’ she added, an argument Carla often fell back on when she had something to hide.

‘You know it’s not that easy.’

‘I know it’s easy enough for you to jump into bed with me whenever it suits you. That’s all I’m good for, isn’t it?’

‘That’s not fair.’

‘Not fair? Weren’t you hoping for your usual at six so you could still be home at seven in time for supper with Elizabeth?’

‘I haven’t made love to my wife in years!’ I shouted.

‘We only have your word for that,’ she spat out with scorn.

‘I have been utterly faithful to you.’

‘Which means I always have to be to you, I suppose?’

‘Stop behaving like a whore.’

Carla’s eyes flashed as she leaped forward and slapped me across the face with all the strength she could muster.

I was still slightly off-balance when she raised her arm a second time, but as her hand came swinging toward me I blocked it and was even able to push her back against the mantelpiece. She recovered quickly and came flying back at me.

In a moment of uncontrolled fury, just as she was about to launch herself on me again, I clenched my fist and took a swing at her. I caught her on the side of the chin, and she wheeled back from the impact. I watched her put an arm out to break her fall, but before she had the chance to leap back up and retaliate, I turned and strode out, slamming the flat door behind me.