‘One scuffed leather coin case Continental appearance. Half inside his pocket, half out, left-side jacket. You saw the coins by his body – seventy-two pence. That’s all the money on him. Carry a wallet at all. did he, sir?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Our guess is they helped themselves to the wallet, started on the purse, then ran. One bunch keys domestic and various, right-hand trousers…’ He ran on but Smiley’s scrutiny did not relax. Some people act a memory, the Superintendent thought, noticing his concentration, others have one, In the Superintendent’s book, memory was the better half of intelligence, he prized it highest of all mental accomplishments; and Smiley, he knew, possessed it. ‘One Paddington Borough Library Card in the name of V. Miller, one box Swan Vesta matches partly used, overcoat left. One Aliens’ Registration Card, number as reported, also in the name of Vladimir Miller. One bottle tablets, overcoat left. What would the tablets be for, sir, any views on that at all? Name of Sustac, whatever that is, to be taken two to three times a day?’
‘Heart,’ said Smiley.
‘And one receipt for the sum of thirteen pounds from the Straight and Steady Minicab Service of Islington, North.’
‘May I look?’ said Smiley, and the Superintendent held it out so that Smiley could read the date and the driver’s signature, J. Lamb, in a copy-book hand wildly underlined.
The next bag contained a stick of school chalk, yellow and miraculously unbroken. The narrow end was smeared brown as if by a single stroke, but the thick end was unused.
‘There’s yellow chalk powder on his left hand too,’ Mr Murgotroyd said, speaking for the first time. His complexion was like grey stone. His voice too was grey, and mournful as an undertaker’s. ‘We did wonder whether he might be in the teaching line, actually,’ Mr Murgotroyd added, but Smiley, either by design or oversight, did not answer Mr Murgotroyd’s implicit question, and the Superintendent did not pursue it.
And a second cotton handkerchief, proffered this time by Mr Murgotroyd, part bloodied, part clean, and carefully ironed into a sharp triangle for the top pocket.
‘On his way to a party, we wondered,’ Mr Murgotroyd said, this time with no hope at all.
‘Crime and Ops on the air, sir,’ a voice called from the front of the van.
Without a word the Superintendent vanished into the darkness, leaving Smiley to the depressed gaze of Mr Murgotroyd.
‘You a specialist of some sort, sir?’ Mr Murgotroyd asked after a long sad scrutiny of his guest.
‘No. No, I’m afraid not,’ said Smiley.
‘Home Office, sir?’
‘Alas, not Home Office either,’ said Smiley with a benign shake of his head, which somehow made him party to Mr Murgotroyd’s bewilderment.
‘My superiors are a little worried about the press, Mr Smiley,’ the Superintendent said, poking his head into the van again. ‘Seems they’re heading this way, sir.’
Smiley clambered quickly out. The two men stood face to face in the avenue.
‘You’ve been very kind,’ Smiley said. ‘Thank you.’
‘Privilege,’ said the Superintendent.
‘You don’t happen to remember which pocket the chalk was in, do you?’ Smiley asked.
‘Overcoat left,’ the Superintendent replied in some surprise.
‘And the searching of him – could you tell me again how you see that exactly?’
‘They hadn’t time or didn’t care to turn him over. Knelt by him, fished for his wallet, pulled at his purse. Scattered a few objects as they did so. By then they’d had enough.’
‘Thank you,’ said Smiley again.
And a moment later, with more ease than his portly figure might have suggested him capable of, he had vanished among the trees. But not before the Superintendent had shone the torch full upon his face, a thing he hadn’t done till now for reasons of discretion. And taken an intense professional look at the legendary features, if only to tell his grandchildren in his old age : how George Smiley, sometime Chief of the Secret Service, by then retired, had one night come out of the woodwork to peer at some dead foreigner of his who had died in highly nasty circumstances.
Not one face at all actually, the Superintendent reflected. Not when it was lit by the torch like that indirectly from below. More your whole range of faces. More your patchwork of different ages, people and endeavours. Even – thought the Superintendent – of different faiths.