As the coffee machine went into its familiar sounds of hoarsely gasping finale, I ducked away from the kitchen and went quickly to my study. Spoder was sitting outside with his back to me. I turned on my desktop, then as soon as I could I glanced at the emails that had come in during the interim. There were four: three were routine messages, one was from Jo, confirming she would be in contact as usual that evening.

Before powering down, I clicked on my bank’s icon and did the final check of the day on my account. I had already been in and out of the website about five times. Although I maintained an aura of indifference to the financial crash, I had become a compulsive checker of the health or otherwise of my own account.

I immediately wished I had not looked at all: large capital letters informed me that the bank had encountered what it called insurmountable problems. Official administrators had been called in, and all personal and business accounts were frozen. They assured savers and investors that their accounts were safe and guaranteed. There was nothing about current accounts.

I knew I was broke. Like hundreds of thousands of other citizen serfs on Raba I no longer had access to any of my money, apart from the increasingly worthless cash in my pocket. It was not a surprise after all the warning signs from elsewhere, but it was a substantial shock.

I went back to Spoder, put down the tray of coffee things. I wondered briefly about whichever bank it was where Spoder kept his own money, if he too had been affected. I did not ask. It was now late afternoon, but the sun, lowering towards the horizon, still gave out a powerful heat. The insects in the trees had not yet started their evening stridulation.

For a long time Spoder said nothing at all. I waited in the silence, thinking, inevitably, about money. Or the lack of it.

Then: ‘The problem is, sir, that I don’t know how to start. And I don’t know how to say what I have to. I can only speak plainly: I am a lawbreaker and a fugitive from justice.’

The Story of DI Spoder (ret’d)

22

The Story of DI Spoder (ret’d)

(I have tried to reproduce exactly what Spoder told me.)