Brighton Rock: Part VII, Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Ida is on the pier. She’s put back a few beers and is feeling good. The sea rolls in and out. It’s like bath water to her. It sets her singing. Phil Corkery joins her. He’s miserable and cold. He points out that Rose and Pinkie are nearby. Ida knows; she sees it as a stroke of good luck. Phil wishes that Ida would just let the matter drop. Ida muses about how they’ve been unlucky with witnesses—including Rose, Spicer, Prewitt, and Cubitt. The latter took a train out of town that morning. Ida isn’t worried. She has money, thanks to Black Boy, and she’s sure that right will triumph in the end.

Phil wonders how he ever had the courage to send Ida  those postcards. She’s too much woman for him. He says quietly that he really thinks this whole situation is now clearly one for the police. Ida disagrees. Now is when Pinkie and Rose are sure to crack and do something stupid. She tells him Hale’s murder is the business of anyone who knows right from wrong. Phil counters that she’s only in it for the fun. She never really cared about Hale, Phil says. Ida doesn’t see the problem in that. Phil also suggests, shyly, that the two of them have committed a sin by sleeping together out of wedlock. Ida dismisses that idea out of hand, saying it’s just human nature to want to couple and it’s fine.

Ida is still determined to save Rose, and, while Phil goes to buy her another Guinness, she considers all the people she’s saved over the years. The sea pounds at the pier uprights like a boxer’s fist against a punch ball. It’s a sign of bad weather to come.