|
'Charles, please let me explain. I've not come here to make life difficult for you, and when I leave here your privacy will continue to be respected so far as I am concerned. I think the press owe you that.'
'I think they probably do...'
'But I would like your help. Don't say anything for the moment, just let me talk a little.' He nodded in encouragement.
'Your brother, the Prime Minister, has been forced to resign because of allegations that he helped you to speculate in shares and make a quick profit.'
He started to wave his hand to bring her to a halt but she pressed on.
'Charles, none of those allegations make any sense to me. You and your brother risking the office of Prime Minister for a measly few thousand pounds - it doesn't add up. What's more, I also know that someone has deliberately been trying to undermine your brother for some time by leaking damaging material to the press. But I only have suspicions. I came to see if you could point me towards something more tangible.'
'Miss Storin - Mattie, as we seem to be old friends -'I am a drunk. I cannot even remember meeting you. How can I, of all people, be of help? My word carries no weight whatsoever.'
'I'm neither a judge nor a prosecutor, Charles. I'm just trying to piece together a puzzle from a thousand scattered shards'
He looked far over the hills towards Dover and the Channel beyond, searching in the distance.
'Mattie, I've tried so hard to remember, believe me. The thought that I have disgraced Henry and forced him into resignation is almost more than I can stand. But I know nothing about buying and selling shares, nothing at all. I don't know what the truth is. I can't help you, I'm afraid.'
'Wouldn't you have remembered something about buying the shares, if you had indeed bought them?'
'For the last month I have been a very sick...' - he laughed gently -'... a very drunk man. There are many things I have absolutely no recollection of.'
'Wouldn't you have remembered where you got the money to buy the shares, or what you did with the proceeds?'
'I admit that it's hugely unlikely I would have had a small fortune lying around without my remembering it or, more likely, spending it on alcohol. I have no idea where the money could have gone. Even I can't drink away ?50,000 in just a few weeks.'
'What about the false address in Paddington?'
'A complete mystery. I don't even know where Praed Street in Paddington is when I'm sober, so it is preposterous to suppose I would have found my way there drunk. It's the other side of London from where I live.'
'But you used it - so they say - for your bank and subscription to the Party's literature service.'
Charles Collingridge roared with laughter. 'Mattie, you're beginning to restore my faith in myself. No matter how drunk I was, I cannot conceive I could possibly have shown any interest in the Party's literature service. I object when political propaganda is pushed through my letter box at election time; having to pay for it every month would be an insult!'
'Have you ever contributed to the Party's literature service?' 'Never!'
The sun was setting and a warm, red glow filled the sky, lighting up his face. He seemed visibly to be returning to health, and to be content.
'I can't prove it, but I don't believe I am guilty of the things they say I have done. It would mean a lot to me if you believed that, too.'
'I do, Charles, very much. And I'm going to try to prove it for you.'
She rose to leave.
'I've enjoyed your visit, Mattie. Now that we are such old friends, please come again.'
'I shall. But in the meantime, I've got a lot of digging to do.'
It was late by the time she got back to London that evening. The first editions of the Sunday newspapers were already on the streets. She bought a heavy pile of them and, with magazines and inserts slipping from her laden arms, she threw them on the back seat of her car. It was then she noticed the Sunday Times headline.
'Now why is Harold Earle making such a fuss about environmental matters?' she asked herself. The Education Secretary, not a noted Greenpeace lover, had just announced his intention to stand for the leadership and simultaneously had made a speech entitled 'Clean Up Our Country.'
'We have talked and talked endlessly about the problems of our inner cities, while those who live in them have been forced to watch their neighbourhoods continue to decline. In the meantime, the impoverished state of our inner cities has been matched by the deplorable degeneration of far too much of our rural countryside,' the Sunday Times reported him as saying. 'For too long we have neglected such issues, to our cost. Recycled expressions of concern are no substitute for positive action, and it is time we backed our fine words with finer deeds. The opinion polls show that the environment is the most important non-economic issue on which the voters say we have failed. After more than twelve years in office, this is unacceptable, and we must wake up to these concerns'
79/134 首页 上一页 77 78 79 80 81 82 下一页 尾页
|
