I said, rising and packing papers away, ‘please call the garage and tell them to have my car ready to go in two minutes.’
After that I got out fast, leaving her to deal with Jimmy’s bewilderment and her own. If I hurried I could just make it in time.
The prison was in one of the most bleak and depressing parts of town, and I began to realise that it had been a mistake to bring the Rolls. I was attracting too much of the wrong sort of attention.
Then I forgot it. I was going to see Della again, and I was nervous.
I got more nervous when I went in. I’d never been inside a prison before, apart from a few unfortunate misunderstandings in my younger days, when I’d enjoyed myself a little too much. But that had been a few hours in a police cell. This was real. Worst of all, it was real for her.
When a severely uniformed warder said, ‘This way, Mr Smith,’ I was certain that she knew Smith wasn’t my real name. Maybe everyone knew. Half the visitors to this place probably used that name, and they saw through all of us.
I’d had nightmare visions of talking through a glass screen, maybe even having to use a phone, like they do in films. But Della was on remand, and it was a relief to find a room with small tables and nothing between us.
I watched the door and saw when she entered. The shock was enough to make me rise out of my seat and start towards her in instinctive protest. How could they have done this to my Della?
She was in an old sweater and jeans, her hair cut even shorter than I remembered. Where once she’d looked gamine now she merely looked despairing. Her face, which had always been pale, now seemed bleached, and the black smudges of her eyes showed how long she had been without proper sleep.
I wanted to howl. Instead I forced a smile onto my face and took a step towards her.
The result was electrifying. She stopped dead and her face went, if possible, even whiter then before. Then she threw up her hands, as if warding off a monster.
It was the one thing I hadn’t thought of. I’d guessed she might refuse to see me if she knew in advance, but I hadn’t thought of her backing off when I was actually there.
‘Della—’ I said.
‘No—no—I’m sorry, I can’t. Go away, please.’
She turned and ran out. A warder went after her, and another warder stood in front of me when I tried to follow.
‘I’m sorry, you can’t go through that door,’ she said.
‘But I’ve got to see her. Bring her back here.’
‘We can’t force her to see you.’
‘But she’s got to,’ I said, trying to sound firm.
‘No, she hasn’t got to,’ the warder said, also sounding firm, and doing it a lot more successfully.
‘I won’t leave without talking to her. You might tell her that.’
‘I’ll try, but she has the right to refuse.’
She spoke gently, like a mother to a rather stupid child. She looked about eighteen, and wasn’t very large, but she was authority here. Suddenly I felt helpless and afraid—both feelings that I hated.
From the corridor outside I could hear desperate weeping. It tore me apart, and suddenly I didn’t care about who gave the orders so long as I could get to see Della and make things right for her.
‘Please,’ I begged. ‘Ask her to come back. Tell her I love her.’
She smiled. ‘I’ll tell her that.’
I recovered a little. ‘And while you’re at it tell her I won’t leave without seeing her.’
I returned to the table and sat facing the door, my eyes fixed on it. It seemed like an eternity before she appeared, looking at me warily as she approached and sat down.
‘You shouldn’t have come,’ she said.
I tried to make a joke of it. ‘That’s a fine thing to say after the trouble I took to—Della!’
I think my voice shook, and I must have sounded like a total wimp, so I pulled myself together.
‘Never mind that,’ I said briskly.
‘But I do mind it. This was what I was trying to avoid—trouble for you. Oh, why couldn’t you have left it there? I didn’t want you to know all this.’
‘Why not? Why couldn’t you trust me?’
She gave a wan smile that tore my heart. I’d never seen anyone look so ill.
‘Haven’t you heard?’ she asked. ‘I’m a thief.’
‘Don’t talk damned nonsense!’ I said violently.
‘They caught me red-handed.’
‘Oh, yes! With a diamond bracelet worth about a tenth of what you threw back at me. Frankly, my dear, as a jewel thief you have a lot to learn.’
I couldn’t bear it. I tried to remind myself of the bad things about her—but I couldn’t think of any. I just wanted to take her in my arms and promise to make everything all right.
‘I meant it when I said you shouldn’t have come,’ she said tiredly. ‘Why do you think I vanished? Because I knew I’d only damage you. You can’t afford to be seen in a place like this. For pity’s sake, go away.’
‘Cut that!’ I told her firmly. ‘I want the truth and I’m not going until I get it.’
She looked surprised. I’d never spoken to her like that before. But by now I was desperate. She’d teased and tormented me long enough.
‘Della, I know some of it, but I want you to tell me the rest.’
‘What do you know?’
‘About your family. Grace—’
She stopped me with a little gasp of laughter.
‘Oh, well, say no more. I expect she did a thorough job. Detective agency?’
‘I’m afraid so,’ I admitted reluctantly. ‘But what did you expect when she found you’d pawned Charlie?’
She couldn’t look at me then. ‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled. ‘I didn’t want to do it, but I needed the money.’
‘Then why the devil didn’t you take the rest of the jewellery?’ I snapped. ‘You could have sold that and made some real money.’
‘I couldn’t take it,’ she snapped back. ‘It was—too much. I kept Charlie because—well, I told you why.’
‘Sentimental reasons,’ I said, speaking with heavy irony, because it was easier to cope that way. ‘Until the day you sold
