Chapter IV

After the trial he had gone off to celebrate with Chris Austin. The judge had been pretty severe but, as Chris had moreorless resigned himself to a heavy penalty of some sort, to get off effectively free had delighted him. Tyler had been pleased that Chris had not got everyone together. Some people still resented the bad feelings, the let-downs, the 'behind the scenes' activity and just not being kept informed. He had known Chris pretty well - but he had known the others too, and their lot had not improved in the slightest. In fact, some, like Harry, had found themselves being dragged further into the mire when the facts started to emerge. Old Keith had had quite a ticking off too. It would have been just typical of Chris to have brought everyone round to a party and to try to recapture the old spirit of the London & Newbury days. The girls would have liked it - but even for them it had been better not to open old wounds and there would have been no way, in Tyler's view, that June would have come anyway. She really had been bitter. The two men found a decent bar on the bridge in Holborn and pretty quickly downed a couple of large gins.
"So what are you going to do now?" John had asked.
"God knows!" Chris had laughed. "I hadn't actually made any plans for obvious reasons." Chris had been gently stroking the glass and looked thoughtful. For an instant the smile had disappeared and the tenseness of a man deep in thought returned. As if to dispel the image he had lifted his gaze and glanced over at another table where two girls were giggling over some joke about the office they worked in. "I know what I'd like to do now," he said, nodding purposefully in the girls' direction.
"Now, just remember - that's what got you into trouble in the first place!" Tyler had said this with the tone of a parent scolding an errant son. "Put that head of yours into gear", he had continued. "Women cost money and you need to earn a living first".
"Yes, I know." Chris had admitted, with a smile. "I don't think I'll have much luck in this country for a while and I reckon I've just about got enough for a few weeks in Greece. It's still pretty warm out there and I could do with a break. Then maybe I'll be able to figure out what to do next." Then, as was always the case when those two got together, the conversation had turned to the events that had gone before and fresh attempts to answer so many unsolved mysteries were proposed, discussed and, true to form, rejected once more.