A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer
‘Munro, Munro and Carmichael,’ announced a voice.
‘Mr Munro, please,’ said Nick.
‘Which Mr Munro?’
Danny checked the card. ‘Mr Fraser Munro.’
‘Who shall I say is calling?’
‘Nicholas Moncrieff.’
‘I’ll put you straight through, sir.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Good morning, Sir Nicholas,’ said the next lilting voice Danny heard. ‘How nice to hear from you.’
‘Good morning, Mr Munro.’ Danny spoke slowly. ‘I’m thinking of travelling up to Scotland later today and I wondered if you might be free to see me some time tomorrow.’
‘Of course, Sir Nicholas. Would ten o’clock suit you?’
‘Admirably,’ said Danny, recalling one of Nick’s favourite words.
‘Then I’ll look forward to seeing you here in my office at ten o’clock tomorrow morning.’
‘Goodbye, Mr Munro,’ said Danny, just stopping himself from asking where his office was. Danny put the phone down. He was covered in sweat. Big Al had been right. Munro was expecting a call from Nick. Why would he have thought for a moment that he might be speaking to someone else?
Danny was among the first to board the train. While he waited for it to depart he turned his attention to the sports pages. The football season was still a month away, but he had high hopes for West Ham, who had finished seventh in the Premier League the previous season. He felt a tinge of sadness at the thought that he would never be able to risk visiting Upton Park again for fear of being recognized. No more ‘I’m forever blowing bubbles’. Try to remember, Danny Cartwright is dead – and buried.
The train pulled slowly out of the station, and Danny watched London pass by giving way to the countryside. He was surprised how quickly they reached full speed. He had never been to Scotland before – the farthest north he had ever been was Vicarage Road, Watford.
Danny felt exhausted, and he’d only been out of prison for a few hours. The pace of everything was so much quicker and, hardest of all, you had to make decisions. He checked Nick’s watch – his watch – a quarter past eleven. He tried to go on reading the paper, but his head fell back.
‘Tickets please.’
Danny woke with a start, rubbed his eyes and handed his rail warrant to the ticket collector. ‘I’m sorry, sir, but this ticket isn’t valid for the express train. You’ll have to pay a supplement.’
‘But I was—’ began Danny. ‘I do apologize, how much will that be?’ asked Nick.
‘Eighty-four pounds.’
Danny couldn’t believe he’d made such a stupid mistake. He took out his wallet and handed over the cash. The ticket collector printed out a receipt.
‘Thank you, sir,’ he said after he’d issued Danny with his ticket. Danny noticed that he called him sir without thinking about it, not mate, as an East End bus driver would have addressed him.
‘Will you be having lunch today, sir?’
Once again, simply because of his dress and accent. ‘Yes,’ said Danny.
‘The dining car is a couple of carriages forward. They’ll begin serving in about half an hour.’
‘I’m grateful.’ Another of Nick’s expressions.
Danny looked out of the window and watched the countryside flying by. After they passed through Grantham he returned to the financial pages, but was interrupted by a voice over the tannoy announcing that the dining car was now open. He made his way forward and took a seat at a small table hoping that no one would join him. He studied the menu carefully, wondering which dishes Nick would have chosen. A waiter appeared by his side.
‘The pâté,’ Danny said. He knew how to pronounce it, although he had no idea what it would taste like. In the past his golden rule had been never to order anything that had a foreign name. ‘Followed by the steak and kidney pie.’
‘And for pudding?’
Nick had taught him that you should never order all three courses at once. ‘I’ll think about it,’ said Danny.
‘Of course, sir.’
By the time Danny had finished his meal, he had read everything The Times had to offer, including the theatre reviews, which only made him think about Lawrence Davenport. But for now, Davenport would have to wait. Danny had other things on his mind. He had enjoyed the meal, until the waiter gave him a bill for twenty-seven pounds. He handed over three ten-pound notes, aware that his wallet was becoming lighter by the minute.
According to Nick’s diary, Mr Munro believed that if the estate in Scotland and the London house were placed on the market, they would fetch handsome sums, although he had cautioned that it could be several months before a sale was completed. Danny knew that he couldn’t survive for several months on less than two hundred pounds.
He returned to his seat, and began to give some thought to his meeting with Munro the following morning. When the train stopped at Newcastle upon Tyne, Danny unbuckled the leather straps around the suitcase, opened it and found Mr Munro’s file. He extracted the letters. Although they contained all of Munro’s replies to Nick’s questions, Danny had no way of knowing what Nick had written in his original letters. He had to try to second-guess what questions Nick must have asked after reading Munro’s answers, with only the dates and the diary entries as reference points. After reading the correspondence again, he wasn’t in any doubt that Uncle Hugo had taken advantage of the fact that Nick had been locked up for the past four years.
Danny had come across customers like Hugo when he worked at the garage – loan sharks, property dealers and barrow boys who thought they could get the better of him, but they never did, and none of them ever discovered that he couldn’t read a contract. He found his mind drifting to the A levels he’d taken only days before being released. He wondered if Nick had passed with flying colours – another Nick expression. He had promised his cellmate that if he won his appeal, the first thing he would do was study for a degree. He intended to keep that promise and take the degree in Nick’s name. Think like Nick, forget Danny, he reminded himself. You are Nick, you are Nick. He went over the letters once again as if he was revising for an exam; an exam he couldn’t afford to fail.
The train arrived at Waverley station at three thirty, ten minutes late. Danny joined the crowd as they walked along the platform. He checked the departure board for the time of the next train to Dunbroath. Another twenty minutes. He bought a copy of the Edinburgh Evening News and satisfied himself with a bacon baguette from Upper Crust. Would Mr Munro realize that he wasn’t upper crust? He went in search of his platform, then sat down on a bench. The paper was full of names and places he had never heard of: problems with the planning committee in Duddlingston, the cost of the unfinished Scottish Parliament building and a supplement giving details of something called the Edinburgh Festival, which was taking place the following month. Hearts’ and Hibs’ prospects in the forthcoming season dominated the back pages, rudely replacing Arsenal and West Ham.
Ten minutes later Danny climbed on board the cross-country train to Dunbroath, a journey that took forty minutes, stopping at several stations whose names he couldn’t even pronounce. At four forty, the little train trundled into Dunbroath station. Danny lugged his case along the platform and out on to the pavement, relieved to see a single taxi waiting on the stand. Nick climbed into the front seat while the driver put his case in the boot.
‘Where to?’ asked the driver once he was back behind the wheel.
‘Perhaps you can recommend a hotel?’
‘There is only one,’ said the taxi driver.
‘Well, that solves the problem,’ said Danny, as the car moved off.
Three pounds fifty later, plus a tip, and Danny was dropped outside the Moncrieff Arms. He walked up the steps, through the swing doors and dumped his suitcase by the reception desk.
‘I need a room for the night,’ he told the woman behind the counter.
‘Just a single?’
‘Yes, thank you.’
??
‘But I don’t . . .’ began Danny. ‘I’ll be paying cash,’ said Nick.
‘Of course, sir.’ She swivelled the form round, checked the name and tried to hide her surprise. She then disappeared into a back room without another word. A few moments later a middle-aged man wearing a plaid sweater and brown corduroys emerged from the office.
‘Welcome home, Sir Nicholas. I’m Robert Kilbride, the hotel manager, and I do apologize, but we weren’t expecting you. I’ll transfer you to the Walter Scott suite.’
Transfer is a word every prisoner dreads. ‘But—’ began Danny, recalling how little cash was left in his wallet.
‘At no extra cost,’ added the manager.
‘Thank you,’ said Nick.
‘Will you be joining us for dinner?’
Yes, said Nick. ‘No,’ said Danny, remembering his diminishing reserves. ‘I’ve already eaten.’
‘Of course, Sir Nicholas. I’ll have a porter take your case up to the room.’
A young man accompanied Danny to the Walter Scott suite.
‘My name’s Andrew,’ he said as he unlocked the door. ‘If you need anything, just pick up the phone and let me know.’
‘I need a suit pressed and a shirt washed in time for a ten o’clock meeting tomorrow morning,’ said Danny.
‘Of course, sir. You’ll have them back well in time for your meeting.’
‘Thank you,’ said Danny. Another tip.
Danny sat on the end of the bed and turned on the television. He watched the local news, delivered in an accent that reminded him of Big Al. It wasn’t until he switched channels to BBC2 that he was able to follow every word, but within a few minutes he had fallen asleep.
39
DANNY WOKE to find he was fully dressed and the credits were running at the end of a black and white film starring someone called Jack Hawkins. He switched it off, undressed and decided to take a shower before going to bed.
He stepped into a shower which sent down a steady stream of warm water that didn’t turn itself off every few seconds. He washed himself with a bar of soap the size of a bread roll, and dried himself with a large fluffy towel. He felt clean for the first time in years.
He climbed into a bed with a thick comfortable mattress, clean sheets and more than one blanket before resting his head on a feather pillow. He fell into a deep sleep. He woke. The bed was too comfortable. It even changed shape when he moved. He peeled off one of the blankets and dumped it on the floor. He turned over and fell asleep again. He woke. The pillow was too soft, so it joined the blanket on the floor. He fell asleep again, and when the sun rose accompanied by a cacophony of unrecognizable bird tunes, he woke again. He looked around, expecting to see Mr Pascoe standing in the doorway, but this door was different: it was wooden, not steel, and it had a handle on the inside that he could open whenever he pleased.
Danny climbed out of bed and walked across the soft carpet to the bathroom – a separate room – to take another shower. This time he washed his hair, and shaved with the aid of a circular glass mirror that magnified his image.
There was a polite tap on the door, which remained closed, instead of being heaved open. Danny put on a hotel dressing gown and opened the door to find the porter standing there holding a neat package.
‘Your clothes, sir.’
‘Thank you,’ said Danny.
‘Breakfast will be served until ten o’clock in the dining room.’
Danny put on a clean shirt and a striped tie before trying on his freshly pressed suit. He looked at himself in the mirror. Surely no one would doubt that he was Sir Nicholas Moncrieff. Never again would he have to wear the same shirt for six days in a row, the same jeans for a month, the same shoes for a year – that was assuming Mr Munro was about to solve all his financial problems. That was also assuming Mr Munro . . .
Danny checked the wallet that had felt so thick only yesterday. He cursed; he wouldn’t have much left once he had settled the hotel bill. He opened the door, and once he’d closed it he immediately realized that he’d left the key inside. He would have to ask Pascoe to open the door for him. Would he end up on report? He cursed again. Damn. A Nick curse. He went off in search of the dining room.
A large table in the centre of the room was brimming over with a choice of cereals and juices, and the hotplate offered porridge, eggs, bacon, black pudding and even kippers to order. Danny was shown to a table by the window and offered a morning paper, the Scotsman. He turned to the financial pages to find that the Royal Bank of Scotland was expanding its property portfolio. While he was in prison, Danny had watched with admiration the RBS’s takeover of the NatWest Bank; a minnow swallowing a whale, and not even burping.
He looked around, suddenly fearful that the staff might be commenting on the fact that he didn’t have a Scottish accent. But Big Al had once told him that officers never do. Nick certainly didn’t. A pair of kippers was placed in front of him. His father would have considered them a right treat. First thoughts of his father since he had been released.
‘Would you care for anything else, sir?’
‘No, thank you,’ said Danny. ‘But would you be kind enough to have my bill ready?’
‘Of course, sir,’ came back the immediate reply.
He was just about to leave the dining room when he remembered he had no idea where Mr Munro’s office was. According to his business card it was 12 Argyll Street, but he couldn’t ask the receptionist for directions, because everyone thought he’d been brought up in Dunbroath. Danny picked up another key from reception and returned to his room. It was nine thirty. He still had thirty minutes to find out where Argyll Street was.
There was a knock on the door. It was still going to be a little time before he didn’t leap up and stand at the end of the bed and wait for the door to be opened.
‘Can I take your luggage, sir?’ asked the porter. ‘And will you need a taxi?’
‘No, I’m only going to Argyll Street,’ Danny risked.
‘Then I’ll put your case in reception and you can pick it up later.’
‘Is there still a chemist shop on the way to Argyll Street?’ Danny asked.
‘No, it closed a couple of years ago. What do you need?’
‘Just some razor blades and shaving cream.’
‘You’ll be able to get those at Leith’s, a few doors down from where Johnson’s used to be.’
‘Many thanks,’ said Danny, parting with another pound, although he had no idea where Johnson’s used to be.
Danny checked Nick’s watch: 9.36 a.m. He walked quickly downstairs and headed for reception, where he tried a different ploy.
‘Do you have a copy of The Times?’
‘No, Sir Nicholas, but we could pick one up for you.’
‘Don’t trouble yourself. I could do with the exercise.’
‘They’ll have one at Menzies,’ said the receptionist. ‘Turn left as you go out of the hotel, about a hundred yards . . .’ She paused. ‘But of course you know where Menzies is.’
Danny slipped out of the hotel and turned left, and soon spotted the Menzies sign. He strolled inside. No one recognized him. He bought a copy of The Times, and the girl behind the counter, much to his relief, addressed him as neither ‘sir’ nor ‘Sir Nicholas’.
‘Am I far from Argyll Street?’ he asked her.
‘A couple of hundred yards. Turn right out of the shop, go past the Moncrieff Arms . . .’
Danny walked quickly back past the hotel, checking every intersection until he finally saw the name Argyll Street carved in large letters on a stone slab above him. He checked his watch as he turned into the street: 9.54. He still had a few minutes to spare, but he couldn’t afford to be late. Nick was always on time. He recalled one of Big Al’s favourite lines: ‘Battles are lost by armies who turn up late. Ask Napoleon.’
As
Danny took a deep breath, opened the door and marched in. The girl behind the reception desk looked up. He hoped she couldn’t hear his heart pounding. He was about to give his name when she said, ‘Good morning, Sir Nicholas. Mr Munro is expecting you.’ She rose from her seat and said, ‘Please follow me.’
Danny had passed the first test, but he hadn’t opened his mouth yet.
‘Following the death of your partner,’ said a woman officer standing behind the counter, ‘I’m authorized to pass over all of Mr Cartwright’s personal belongings to you. But first I need to see some form of identification.’
Beth opened her bag and pulled out her driving licence.
‘Thank you,’ said the officer, who checked the details carefully before passing it back. ‘If I read out the description of each item, Miss Wilson, perhaps you’d be kind enough to identify them.’ The officer opened a large cardboard box and removed a pair of designer jeans. ‘One pair of jeans, light blue,’ she said. When Beth saw the jagged tear where the knife had entered Danny’s leg, she burst into tears. The officer waited until she had composed herself, before she continued. ‘One West Ham shirt; one belt, brown leather; one ring, gold; one pair of socks, grey; one pair of boxer shorts, red; one pair of shoes, black; one wallet containing thirty-five pounds and a membership card for the Bow Street Boxing Club. If you’d be kind enough to sign here, Miss Wilson,’ she said finally, placing a finger on a dotted line.
Once Beth had signed her name she put all Danny’s possessions neatly back in the box. ‘Thank you,’ she said. As she turned to leave she came face to face with another prison officer.