Hidden Man by Charles Cumming

advising caution. He placed his chopsticks to one side, put his napkin on the table, and was quiet.
    ‘You lookworried about something.’
    Mark had also finished eating.
    ‘I do?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    Keen frowned and said, ‘No, I’m fine. Just digesting.’
    ‘Is it Ben?’
    The question tookhim by surprise, if only because, for once in Mark’s company, Keen had not been thinking about Ben. It was a rare occasion on which the two failed to discuss the possibility of reconciliation. Their last two meetings, for example, had descended into an awkward row about Ben’s stubborn refusal to put the past behind him. Mark had been sympathetic to his father’s position, but his first loyalty was to his brother.
    ‘Have you thought any more about that?’ If this was an opportunity to reopen the subject, then Keen would grasp it.
    ‘Not much,’ Mark said.
    ‘I see.’
    ‘But you’re still eager to make amends, to tell him how sorry you are?’
    ‘Something like that.’ Keen wondered if Mark had a plan, but his manner seemed dismissive and offhand. ‘Have you seen him lately?’
    ‘Matter of fact, I have.’ Mark finished off the last of the wine. ‘Had dinner with him the night I got back. Brother cooked up a green curry and spent most of the evening arguing with Alice.’
    ‘That seems to happen a lot.’
    ‘All the time lately.’
    ‘Are they unhappy?’
    Mark breathed in deeply and puffed out his cheeks.
    ‘Who knows?’ he said. ‘Sometimes I wonder what he sees in her, beyond the looks, the lifestyle.’
    ‘Yes, you’ve said that before. But Alice was very helpful to Ben when your mother died, wasn’t she? Isn’t that the case?’
    ‘That was the case.’ Mark paused briefly. He was reluctant to betray Ben’s confidence, but the wine had got the better of him. ‘But there’s more to it than that,’ he said.
    ‘Expand.’
    A waiter placed two steaming napkins on a plate in front of them. Mark turned his hands heavily through the cloth and then wiped his mouth.
    ‘It’s like this,’ he said. ‘They’ve been together a long time. Brother helped to get her career startedand Alice supported him when he wanted to get into painting. Far as I can tell they have great sex, you know, so that helps when things turn nasty. And besides, a part of me reckons they love all the arguments, that they feed off the aggro and tension.’
    Keen leaned backin his chair.
    ‘Interesting,’ he said, with apparent empathy. ‘So you don’t suppose he’s any closer to the idea of meeting up?’ He was aware that the question was cack-handed, yet determined to make an approach. ‘You don’t thinkhe’d be amenable to, say, a drinkor perhaps dinner?’
    Mark laughed and stared at the ceiling.
    ‘Is that what this is about?’ he said. ‘You want to have this conversation every time we meet up?’
    ‘Until he’s prepared to forgive and forget, yes.’
    Keen had not intended to sound angry, but his words had a remarkable effect. Mark, ever the conciliator, resolved to calm his father down.
    ‘All right, all right,’ he said. ‘You just have to understand that Ben is stubborn, that he’s very set in his ways. For him to agree even to talkto you would mean a betrayal of Mum. That’s how he feels about things. We’ve spoken about this. In his mind, it’s either you or her.’
    Keen managed to look appropriately dismayed, but he had been taken with a sharp, persuasive idea. Earlier in the day he had collected a signet ring from a jeweller in Paddington who had reset the bloodstone. The box was in his briefcase. He could use this as alever, something to play on Mark’s sense of decency.
    ‘I had your photograph framed,’ he said.
    ‘My photograph?’
    ‘Of Ben’s wedding. It’s hanging in the flat.’ Two weeks earlier, Mark had given him a photograph of Ben’s wedding day, taken moments after he had first emerged from the church with Alice at his side. Keen had had the picture enlarged and framed and it