Daisy was working at the kitchen table of her basement flat, with a bouquet in a vase in front of her. She fingered the flowers and the leaves, stuck her nose in to smell them, and then she went on modelling a representation of the bouquet with tiny pieces of softened beeswax. In the flower shop at the Tube station, where she’d bought it, she’d asked the sales girl to describe it to her. “I want you to wax lyrical, you understand: just try to explain to a blind person like me why people find a bouquet like this so appealing…” The girl had giggled, but she’d done her best, and she’d made a good enough job of it. Daisy had thanked her and given her a tip. Now the idea was to create a tactile representation of all these impressions. “Maybe I’ll become a real impressionist!” she told herself.
The chimes rang out, and after turning down the radio and putting on her dark glasses, Daisy went to the door. It was already late; who could it be at this hour? There was a man standing there, who didn’t say a word and who smelled like he was wearing a uniform of some sort. Only not a military or a police uniform this time. Those she could identify plainly by now. This man was less… crisp; he lacked the professional discipline, he didn’t have his uniform cleaned as often as his military or police colleagues…
“Are you a cab driver? From a company?”
“Yes! you’ve got it in one. Incredible! Mr Thistlehurst told me you would figure it out.”
“Is Bernard with you in the cab?”
“No. He sent me to take you to his place, if you please. He wants me to tell you that the bronze sculpture has arrived, and that he would be much obliged if you would come and inspect it.”
“All right. Just a second, I’ll be with you in a moment.”
Bernard said, “I heard from a colleague at your local police station that you were back home. I take it that you got my message from your son?”
“Yes, yes, thank you. Brilliant way to get in touch with me!”
“Collins’s idea entirely. He sends his regards by the way… Now, the bronze cast of your sculpture arrived, and I thought you might want to inspect it. I’m not even sure if it’s mine to keep. I paid the foundry of course, but how about the artist?”
“The bronze is yours, Bernard. No charge from the artist. And they already returned the plaster master cast to me, so everything is settled…”
They moved over to a low table in the hall, facing the front door of the flat. Daisy whipped a pair of surgical gloves out of her handbag and put them on. As she started prodding the cast of her work with competent fingers, Bernard said to her, “I put it here so that my portrait is the first thing I see when I get home.”
“Nice thought, Bernard… So you like it now? You don’t find it disturbing anymore?”
“Oh no! I love this strapping, mature man with the barely perceptible smile on his lips, looking at the world’s follies with a forgiving glance in his wise eyes… Your original goal has been achieved, my dear. This is how I like to see myself in my mind’s eye, when I’m not looking in the mirror.”
“Yes, well, don’t forget that every criminal you’ve ever met saw himself as an innocent…”
“Thank you for reminding me. But still, it doesn’t happen often that someone else manages to see you the way you see yourself. You went to an awful lot of trouble on my behalf and succeeded in doing just that…”
Daisy didn’t answer at first, then after a while she took off her gloves and said, “The foundry did an outstanding job as well. I’m always thrilled when I touch a bronze version of my work for the first time… There’s something magic about the whole process.”
“All right. Now, as you didn’t come to see me of your own accord after you got back home, am I correct in assuming that our relationship is over?”
“Yes, I’m afraid it is, Bernard. While I lived in hiding, I have moved on… Maybe I should have gotten in touch anyway to let you know, but there you are, I didn’t. Sorry.”
“That’s all right, I’d already drawn my own conclusions… Take a seat, my dear. There are still some topics I need to discuss with you. Can I serve you something to drink?”
“I’ll have a G&T for old times’ sake.”
Daisy sat down in one of the low-slung armchairs, took a sip from her drink, and said, “After I got your message from Jonathan, I assumed I now have your word that you will never submit my deposition to the Crown Prosecution Service. Am I right?”
“Yes, absolutely. And you told me once that you wouldn’t dream of using our relationship against me in a court of law, remember? Now, when Jonathan’s trial starts, you may be called upon to testify about some alleged ‘sexual intercourse’ between us by your son’s counsel, so I’m assuming I have your word of honor about that as well?”
“Absolutely! It’s none of their business. I’m looking forward to asking the gentlemen how exactly they envision sexual intercourse with a paraplegic.”
Bernard chuckled. “Oh, my dear Daisy, I’m sure they’re going to regret bitterly that they ever called you to the stand!”
“And I will not be wearing my dark glasses, of course…”
“Of course not!”
“That is settled, then, my dear Bernard. Anything else on your mind?”
“Yes. There’s something else that makes me feel a bit guilty… When we were drawing up your deposition about Cedric’s death, there is one piece of information that I did not disclose… It’s about the polo accident… You see, it was not really an accident; in fact, not an accident at all.”
“Really? All right, let’s have it, I’m all ears.”
“The thing is, Cedric caused the accident deliberately. He came alongside me while we were in full gallop during a run to the goal, and he put the handgrip of his mallet under my knee and yanked it upwards. I flew off of the saddle; I was upended; I was helpless.
“Of course Cedric just pretended that this had never happened. He came to see me in hospital and commiserated with me on the ‘tragic accident’. I would have liked to close my hands around his scraggly neck and strangle him to death. But of course I couldn’t, and I didn’t tell anyone what had happened, because you were not supposed to rat on a schoolmate.
“Later I came to the conclusion that if only I had ratted on Cedric and caused him enough trouble, he would have thought twice about poisoning Ralph Prendergast during the war. So in a way I’m also responsible for what happened then.
“After I came out of the hospital, I managed to pass my A levels, and to make a long story short, I sought a job with the Metropolitan Police. As everybody was out there fighting the war, they welcomed a wheelchair-bound young man like me with open arms. I did the required courses, and within a couple of years I managed to build up a reputation as an outstanding investigator. And you know why? It’s because I was extremely motivated. After what had happened with Cedric, I was never going to let anyone get away with anything. With that in mind, I thought nothing of working twelve hours a day or more, and of juggling half a dozen cases at the same time, single-handedly. At the Met they were delighted.
“Then, when I heard that Cedric was dead, in 1950, I rejoiced. And I started speculating, as I told you. The fact that I came to the conclusion that you could have been involved somehow, was entirely the result of wishful thinking at first. I wanted to believe that you, my imaginary angel of mercy, had somehow ridden the world of this evil creature. Then thinking about it some more, it started to make sense, it fitted the facts… Once again I had to conclude that my wishes, my dreams, did not preclude the reality of the thing, where you were concerned. There were some concrete elements, and many signs that pointed in your direction, and that is how I came to the conclusion that you, my dear, had killed Cedric…”
“All right,” Daisy said, “but does this mean that all along you had no intention of submitting my confession to the prosecutor?”
“Well, no, I wouldn’t put it that way. It was not that simple. I can assure you that it was a struggle for me as well… in the light of what I just told you about not wanting to let anyone get away with anything.”
“Yes, but by the time you had drawn up my deposition, you could have told me this story straight away. I mean, I just don’t understand how you could leave me in doubt like you did… I could have forgiven you this whole charade if only you had told me the very moment I put my signature under that document… Even waiting for half a minute was damnable. So how could you let me walk out the door without saying a word? What were you thinking, Bernard? What was the idea?”
Bernard said nothing. He looked very pained, but Daisy couldn’t see that. So she shouted in a very unladylike manner, “Answer me, dammit! Be a man!”
“Well, you walked out so fast… You were being so tetchy, so obstinate… I wanted the whole thing to really sink in, I guess…”
“Well, of all the heartless things you could do to me, Bernard… You left me dangling! What choice did I have but to hide?”
They were silent for a moment. Then Daisy said calmly, “When I was in hiding, I had a lot of time to think things over… I’ve come to the conclusion that in a case like this, we’re both going to have to pay a price. Not only the sinner needs to atone for her crimes if she wants to achieve redemption, but the confessor needs to atone as well for the pain he has inflicted on the penitent…”
Daisy finished her drink, and then she got up, gathered her things, and asked Bernard to call a cab, “I’m off now… I’ll see you in court, whether I have to take the stand or not… I’ll be there for Jonathan’s sake. But apart from that, I don’t think we shall be seeing one another again… So take care of yourself. Oh, and listen to the news on the radio, there’s some interesting stuff going on tonight… goodbye!”
After Daisy had pulled the door shut behind her, Bernard remained alone in the silent flat. He wheeled over to his stereo tower and switched the radio on. It was still tuned to the BBC news channel where Daisy had left it on her last visit.
“…at a press conference today, Günter Schabowsky, an East German government spokesman, presented the far-reaching changes to the travel regulations between East and West planned by the authorities, and then he declared that these measures would ‘take effect immediately, without delay’. This sensational news was broadcast on the evening bulletins of the major West German television stations, which means that it was seen by nearly everyone in East Germany as well.
“After hearing the news, East Germans began gathering at the Wall, at the six checkpoints between East and West Berlin, demanding that border guards immediately open the gates. The guards were overwhelmed and vastly outnumbered; they made many hectic telephone calls to their superiors without getting any clarity about the situation.
“However, thousands of people kept demanding to be allowed to cross the border, ‘as Schabowski himself has said we can’. It soon became clear that no one among the East German authorities would take personal responsibility for issuing orders to use lethal force, so at 10:45 p.m., they finally yielded, allowing the guards to open the checkpoints and let people through with little or no identity checks.
As the Ossis swarmed forward, they were greeted by Wessis waiting with flowers and champagne amid wild rejoicing. Soon after that a crowd of West Berliners jumped on top of the Wall, and were joined by East German youngsters. They danced together to celebrate their new freedom.
“There were even people who started chipping at the wall, using various hand tools, who were immediately dubbed Mauerspechte, ‘wall woodpeckers’. They have started demolishing pieces of the Wall and are creating several unofficial border crossings of their own…
“The Berlin Wall is falling as we speak!”
Bernard marvelled at what he was hearing on the radio. Daisy had been right all along! And as the excited voices of different correspondents on the scene prattled on, tears started to trickle down the old detective’s rugged cheeks.