Horse Under Water

37 Two readings

After I’d had Jean show me the revised notes of the Strutton Plan and I had torn them into small, bitesized pieces and scattered them into the wastepaper basket like pantomime snow, and after we’d been all through it again, and she’d typed it, I thought some more about Smith. Two items about him were still fuzzy. I phoned Kevin, scrambled, and said, ‘That matter I spoke of this morning.’

‘Yes?’ said Kevin.

‘War service?’ I asked.

‘Ah,’ said Kevin, ‘his mother did very well. Too young for Number 1 and too old for Number 2.’

‘O.K.,’ I said, ‘second question: why did you have his file card so handy on your desk?’

‘Simple, old bean,’ said Kevin, ‘he’d sent for your card only that morning.’

‘That’s just great,’ I said, and I heard Kevin chuckle as he hung up. He could just be kidding, I thought. No one in W.O.O.C.(P) had a card on file at Central Register; but I didn’t chuckle.