Page 32 of The Impossible Fortune

Joyce looks around again. ‘What a lot of cats you have, Jasper? Which is your favourite?’

‘Favourite?’ asks Jasper. ‘I can’t bear them.’

‘I see,’ says Joyce.

‘I got one for Christmas once from an aunt,’ says Jasper. ‘And you know how over-enthusiastic one gets when one receives a disappointing present?’

Joyce nods. ‘Joanna bought me a water purifier and the grinning almost killed me.’

‘Every Christmas and every birthday since, they’d come,’ says Jasper. ‘Oh, he’ll love this, old Jasper. This is just the thing for Jasper. My wife found the wholething a hoot, started encouraging them. It was funny, I admit that.’

‘But why still have them all on display?’ Joyce asks.

‘You never know when people are going to come round, do you?’ says Jasper. ‘And if they don’t see their present on display, what would they think?’

Elizabeth finishes her call. ‘Come on, Joyce, work to do. Has Paul got back to us about Holly Lewis?’

Joyce looks at Jasper. He is trying to hide his disappointment that his visitors are leaving.

‘I don’t suppose you could make us a cup of tea, Jasper?’

‘No time, Joyce,’ says Elizabeth.

‘I’m afraid I don’t have any tea,’ says Jasper.

‘Not to worry,’ says Joyce.

‘Or teacups.’

‘Perhaps you should buy a couple of mugs?’ Joyce says. ‘And keep some PG Tips in the cupboard?’

Jasper nods. ‘Where would I buy mugs though?’

‘I saw a lovely charity shop on the high street,’ says Joyce. ‘Near the station. A British Heart Foundation.’

Jasper grimaces, as if this might be beyond him. Joyce hugs him, and feels his initial resistance soften as she does so.

‘We’ll see you soon, Jasper,’ says Joyce.

Jasper nods. ‘Maybe if you find the bomb, you could bring it with you? I’d really like to get my screwdriver in there and have a poke around.’

Joyce looks at Jasper’s tracksuit trousers, sagging and old. She looks at his eyes, pale and watery, glad of the company and sad to see it go.

Joyce knows then that she will be coming back to see Jasper again one day, and she will make sure Elizabeth will be coming too.

How many men like Jasper sit behind beige front doors in quiet bungalows, not knowing how to dress or what to eat or where to go? Wanting above all else not to be a nuisance? Joyce wishes she could save them all.

19

‘And I can still do sit-ups,’ says Ibrahim, topping up his glass of wine at the contemporary upscale restaurant at Coopers Chase. ‘I still have both the muscle mass and the flexibility.’

‘I see,’ says Holly.

There is nothing Ibrahim likes better than somebody new to talk to, but Holly Lewis is not proving the easiest customer. But she has just been summoned to dinner by four pensioners, so perhaps that’s understandable.

Elizabeth brought him up to speed before the dinner. Nick Silver had information. Somebody planted a bomb under his car and then Nick disappeared. The lady opposite them, Holly Lewis, is Nick’s business partner, though even Elizabeth is currently hazy as to exactly what their business might be. Storage. A very profitable business all round. People always needed storage, didn’t they? Ibrahim currently has some pots he’s not sure what to do with, for example.

Also, if Elizabeth is to be believed, Holly Lewis is one of three main suspects in the attempted murder of Nick Silver, so it’s possible he is making small talk with a psychopath.