Launch Code

SIX

Toby had learned the year before that Thanksgiving wasn’t just about giving thanks, or even about turkey, it was about football. American football.

Bill’s super-smart TV could pick up any US sporting event. Neither of Bill’s favourite teams were playing that day, neither Navy nor the Philadelphia Eagles, but the Washington Redskins were taking on the Dallas Cowboys, and Bill had spent a lot of time in Washington. Despite her professed hatred of Dallas, Megan was happy to root for the Cowboys, continuing what appeared to be a family tradition of supporting everyone else’s enemy.

Alice had seen Sam out, before returning to the kitchen to supervise washing up. Although she seemed calm and business-like, Toby detected a hint of tension in her shoulders, a slight tightening of her lips.

‘Are you OK?’ he asked.

‘Of course I am,’ she said with a bright smile. ‘Now go and watch the game. We’ve got this.’

The four women were doing the washing up, and the men were doing the TV watching. Toby considered arguing.

‘Don’t argue,’ said his wife, and pushed him out of the room.

Bill, Lars and even Justin vied with each other to explain to Toby what was going on. Toby knew the rules, but not the strategy and tactics, a subject upon which Bill and Lars politely disagreed. Justin was less well informed than the older men, and less sure of his own opinions.

Toby hadn’t spent much time with Justin. Brooke had travelled to England to see her father and elder sister a couple of times without him, and you don’t speak to people much at your own wedding; Toby had attended Justin and Brooke’s in Chicago, and they had both been to his and Alice’s in Holland Park.

Justin was at least five years older than Toby, but he seemed a friendly enough ally. He was tall, with thinning red hair cut short, and brown eyes looking out of a round chubby face with an air of preoccupation, as if he was constantly harassed. The soft face contrasted with the taut, hard torso that nestled beneath his shirt, the neatly constructed muscles of an office worker who spends a lot of time in the gym. Toby suspected, and Alice had confirmed, that it wasn’t Brooke who harassed Justin, but his work. He was employed by an old media company in Chicago that was under attack from new media, and Justin gave the impression of not quite being able to handle it. The gym helped, apparently, just not enough.

But Alice believed he was a good thing for Brooke, who was earning decent money as a dentist, and he treated her well.

Toby was surprised that no one had mentioned that Justin had known the Guth family from his childhood. On the one hand, why should they? On the other, he knew Alice well enough to know that the omission had been intentional.

Another Guth secret.

The women joined them in the living room. During the interminable commercial breaks, Bill reached for a tapestry and began stitching. It was one he had designed himself, a view of Barnholt from the sea, really just swathes of blue and green and grey and the windmill. Toby had been surprised when he had seen Bill working away with needle and yarn on his first trip up to Norfolk.

Alice had explained that it had started when Bill had finished off some needlepoint that her mother had been working on when she died, with Alice showing him how to do it. He found it had helped, and he worked on another that his wife had already bought. Then he began to design his own – all of Norfolk coastal scenes – which became increasingly less precise and more impressionistic. He never did them in London, only in Norfolk. Toby thought they were rather good.

Justin asked Toby a question.

‘Did Sam say anything about my father this afternoon? Craig Naylor?’

Toby was sure that there was a reason that Justin had asked him and not Bill. But Bill answered.

‘Just briefly,’ he said. ‘I told him what had happened.’

Justin glanced at Toby, who nodded.

‘Did he talk about what my father did when the submarine got the orders to launch? What his reaction was?’ Justin was once again asking Toby. Toby wasn’t clear how much Justin knew about the near-launch, but it was obvious he had known more than Toby. Toby felt a flash of jealousy as he realized Brooke must have told her husband more than Alice had told him. Maybe Brooke trusted Justin more than Alice trusted Toby?

‘No, he didn’t,’ said Toby.

‘Craig was in a different part of the submarine,’ said Bill. ‘He was weapons officer, which meant he was down in the missile control centre. The discussion about the launch orders took place in the control room.’

Justin nodded, and the play started again. The Redskins were third down and five at the eleven-yard line.

The Redskins scored twice, then the Cowboys got a field goal. At half time, Alice announced that she had forgotten some of the food she needed for the following day, and she would pop out to Tesco in Hunstanton to pick it up. Toby offered to come too, as did Brooke, but Alice insisted on going alone, and so he turned his attention back to the half-time analysis.