The Language Of Bees Part 7

"I will admit, I had expected to have some results for our labours by now."

"It's hopeless, isn't it?"

"Certainly today's lack of results calls for a reconsideration of method for tomorrow."

"Maybe she got it in her mind to go to Paris. Or Rome. She once asked me about Rome."

"Recently?"

"A year, year and a half ago."

"It would help if you could estimate how much money she might have taken with her."

"I told you, I don't keep track of money, Yolanda does. It's how ... it's one way I prove that I trust her. All I know is, she didn't take anything from the bank, but she may have h.o.a.rded any amount of cash. She likes cash."

"Or she could have had another bank account entirely."

"Yes, so? Look, I do do trust her. I gave her my word when I married her, that she could live her life as she wished. She's my wife, and the mother of my child; if it makes her feel better to have her own bank account-her own life-it's her affair." trust her. I gave her my word when I married her, that she could live her life as she wished. She's my wife, and the mother of my child; if it makes her feel better to have her own bank account-her own life-it's her affair."

"Most generous of you."

"d.a.m.n it, I knew it would be a mistake to bring you into this."

"Damian-Damian! Sit down. Please."

"I want some air. I'll be back in an hour."

"Wait, I need to let you out."

"Better now?"

"Look, I'm sorry, I get... when I get upset it's best for everyone if I just take a walk. And it doesn't help that I'm not painting. Painting bleeds off a lot of steam." just take a walk. And it doesn't help that I'm not painting. Painting bleeds off a lot of steam."

"Or drinking."

"I'm not drunk."

"Do you 'get upset' often?"

"No more than any other man. Why do you ask?"

"How did you come to have contusions on your hands and a scratch across your face?"

"My hands are always bashed about, but a scratch-you mean this?"

"It was less than a day old when I saw you in Suss.e.x Monday night."

"What are you saying? Are you accusing-"

"I am merely asking-"

"-me of doing something-"

"-how you came-"

"-to my wife? To-"

"-to bear signs-"

"-my child?" child?"

"-of violence."

"How could you believe that I would harm either of them?"

"I did not say that I so believe. Damian, think: I do not know you. Circ.u.mstances have made us virtual strangers. Were you a stranger in fact, come to me saying that his wife and child had vanished yet he didn't want to go to the police, that is the first question that I should have to ask."

"Did I kill my wife, you mean?"

"Did you?"

"You think I would have come to you-you, of all men-for help, if I had done that myself? For G.o.d's sake, man, I'm a painter, not an actor!"

"You are the child of two performers, a man and a woman practiced in easy deception and a.s.sumed faces. I put it to you again: Did you harm your wife?"

"No! No, no, no, for G.o.d's sake you have to believe me. I would not harm Yolanda, I would not touch a hair on Estelle's precious head, not if I was drunk or insane with drugs I would not. I would sooner-I'd sooner cut off the hand I paint with than use it to hurt either of them." harm Yolanda, I would not touch a hair on Estelle's precious head, not if I was drunk or insane with drugs I would not. I would sooner-I'd sooner cut off the hand I paint with than use it to hurt either of them."

"Very well."

"You believe me?"

"I do not think I'm yet decrepit enough that I cannot hear truth in a man's vow."

"Thank G.o.d for that."

"So how did you come by the scratch on your face?"

"Your orchard wants grazing."

"I'm sorry?"

"The trees around your house. They would benefit from having a cow turned loose in there from time to time, to prune the lower branches. That was what Mother used to do in France, so they didn't poke one's ruddy eye out when one decided to take a stroll through the garden in the moonlight."

"I see. I apologise for my neglect, I have been away-what? Why are you laughing?"

"Oh, it's-it just hit me, how your audience would react if they could hear us talking about pruning apples."

"My audience? How do you think your admirers would react were I to photograph The Addler, master of Surrealism, sitting in an overstuffed chair wearing a Victorian smoking-gown and puffing on one of his father's ancient clay pipes?" audience? How do you think your admirers would react were I to photograph The Addler, master of Surrealism, sitting in an overstuffed chair wearing a Victorian smoking-gown and puffing on one of his father's ancient clay pipes?"

"I should think they would find it the very definition of Surreal."

"Ah, Damian. Your laugh ..."

"What about my laugh?"

"It reminds me of your mother."

"Do you wish the lights left on again?"

"Yes please."

"May I turn off the one overhead?"

"Here, let me. You don't mind?"

"They are electric, we won't suffocate."

"I shouldn't bet on that."

"If you can make it through the night, we shall go elsewhere tomorrow. A place with a window."

"I'll live."

"Damian?"

"Hmm?"

"I suggest that we part our ways tomorrow, temporarily."

"Why?"

"The places I need to go, it may be good if you do not have to see them. To have them linked in your mind with your wife ...

"Damian? Are you asleep?"

"Why should I link these places with Yolanda? Simply because I was living in a bordello when I met her?"

"Damian, there is no such thing as a willing child prost.i.tute."

"Huh. You guessed. About Yolanda."

"I do not guess. I hypothesise, I put forth a theory, and I receive confirmation. As, indeed, I have now done."

"Yes. Well. I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"It is hardly astonis.h.i.+ng, that a man would not care to reveal the darker details of his wife's past."

"It was ugly. It's left her more fragile, more vulnerable, than one would suspect. But you're right, I didn't want her past or her ... susceptibilities to be in front of your eyes, the first time you met her."

"Drugs?"

"Not in a long time."

"You are certain?"

"I would know."

"What else are you not telling me?"

"What do you mean?"

"You are concealing something about your wife."

"There's nothing."

"I don't believe that."

"Nothing you need to know. Nothing that would explain her disappearance."

"That is a conclusion you need to leave to me."

"I'm not telling you any more. You don't need to know."

"Damian-"

"No! G.o.d, I should have gone back to Shanghai months ago."

"Are you about to go storming out again tonight? Because I have to say, both concealing information and abandoning the investigation slow matters down considerably. Why don't you have a drink instead?"

"Are you always such a cold-hearted b.a.s.t.a.r.d? What did my mother ever see in you?"

"I often wondered that myself. Now, is that light sufficient?"

"Yes."

"I still think it best that you not accompany me tomorrow. You do not need to have those raw images before your own eyes the next time she stands in front of you."

"I'm beginning to wonder if we will find her."

"We will find her in the end."

"Christ, I almost believe you. But no, I will go with you."

"As you wish."

"Good night."

"Good night, Damian."