Chapter 9

The Colonel slammed the front door behind him and marched into his study, slamming that door shut, too. He sat behind his desk. Ellen had laid out the morning newspaper for him. He put on his reading glasses and glanced at the cover stories, but he couldn’t concentrate. Who was that young man? What gave him the right to say those things? The Colonel had always looked after his family—always done right by them. So what if he’d been a little cold at times? It was good for the children. It gave them backbone. Gave them character.

Ellen came in with his coffee. She put it on the desk next to the paper. “I take it things didn’t go well with Beth.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it was the way the whole building shook when you slammed the doors. Or maybe it’s just the look on your face.”

The Colonel huffed and turned the newspaper over to read the sports pages. “For your information, she wasn’t there.”

“So what took you so long? You didn’t drive out to the office, did you? You know she hates that.”

The Colonel looked up at his wife. “That... Englishman is staying at her house. Her house, Ellen. And, in all likelihood, they are sharing the same bed. Getting up to all sorts. I certainly wouldn’t put it past him. Didn’t we raise our daughter to know better than to let strange men stay the night?”

“I’ve told you, Bobby, he’s not a stranger. He’s her closest friend.”

“Pah. Closest friend indeed. He’s from the other side of the Atlantic, for Christ’s sake. How can they be close?”

“Well, they exchange e-mails every day and they chat every night.”

“Chat? You mean she’s been running up a huge phone bill?” Ellen shook her head. “No, Bobby. I mean on the Internet. Beth calls it Instant Messaging or something.”

“And what the hell’s that?”

“I think it works like this, she types something and it appears on his screen straight away. And when he types something, she sees it.”

“And she thinks this is knowing someone well, does she?”

“Oh, that’s not all. I know that they use these fancy Internet phones that you can make free calls with as well.”

“Okay, so tell me this, when he showed up the other day, how did she know it was him? Huh? Tell me that. I mean, talking on the phone and sending each other these instant things is all well and good, but how did she know what he looked like? You can’t tell me she recognized his voice?”

“Oh Bobby, have you never used a computer? They have sent each other hundreds of pictures. I’ve seen some of the ones he sent her. I think he’s rather handsome, actually. Oh, and they use those webcam things.”

“Webcams? This is silly. How does she know he is who he claims he is? How does she know he’s not some mad rapist? Don’t paedophiles use the Internet to groom their victims these days? How do we know he’s not one of those?”

“Because paedophiles like young children, and Beth hardly qualifies for that. As you reminded her when you asked why you didn’t have grandchildren yet.”

“He claims to have a doctorate in economics or some such. How do we know he’s not lying?”

“Bobby, Beth’s not stupid. She knows how to handle herself. She hid behind an alias until she felt she knew him. Then she only told him enough about herself to get him to tell her about himself—then she looked him up.”

“Looked him up? How?”

Ellen sighed. “On the Internet. She put his name into a search engine and found his entry on his company’s website. He’s genuine—or as genuine as we can expect him to be.”

The Colonel sipped his coffee and put the cup back down. “And how do you know all this, Ellen?”

“Because I asked Beth all the same questions you’ve just asked me. She knows what she’s doing, Bobby. Just leave her to it. Either they’ll hit it off and she might actually have found the man she’s meant to be with, or they won’t, in which case he’ll fly back to England and we’ll never see him again.”

“Oh, I shouldn’t worry about him sticking around for much longer,” said the Colonel.

“What have you done, Bobby?”

“I set him straight. I told him to get out of town and leave my Lizzie alone.”

“He said what?” Beth’s face twisted with anger. She was sitting on the couch next to Chris.