The thing about David's criminality is that it's subtle: he doesn't kill, he doesn't steal, he doesn't sell dangerous things like drugs or weapons or pimp out girls. What he does is legal, its just manipulative.
Huh? Did you watch the movie?
THEY STOLE A MAP FROM THAT HOUSE, where they told Jenny to briskly get in the car.
They get into furnished houses, pretending to be prospective buyer, and steal things while the owner is distracted showing them around the house.
It's further confirmed later in her conversation with Danny and Helen in Danny's home:
Danny:
I tried to tell him.
I'm not speaking to him now,
if that's any consolation.
Jenny:
It's a funny world you people live in.
You both watched me
carrying on with a married man
and you didn't think it was worth
saying anything about it.
Danny:
Yes, well,
if you want that conversation...
You watched David and I
help ourselves to a map
and you didn't say much, either.
But if this is not enough proof for you, here is the real story, from the real woman on which this is based, Lynn Barber:
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/jun/07/lynn-barber-virginity-relationshipsSo I gathered from Danny that the property business in which Simon was involved was not entirely honest. But my first hint of other forms of dishonesty came about 15 months into the relationship when I went to a bookshop on Richmond Green. Simon had taken me there several times to buy me books of Jewish history and the works of Isaac Bashevis Singer - I was glad to have them, though I never read them. But on this occasion, I went alone and the bookdealer, who was normally so friendly, asked: "Where's your friend?"
"What friend?"
"Simon Prewalski."
"I don't know anyone of that name," I said truthfully.
"Well, whatever he calls himself. Tell him I'm fed up with his bouncing cheques - I've reported him to the police."
That evening I said to Simon" "Do you know anyone called Prewalski?"
"Yes - my mother, my grandparents, why?"
I told him what the book dealer had said.
Simon said: "Well don't go in there again. Or if you do, don't tell him you've seen me. Say we've broken up."
"But what did he mean about the bouncing cheques?"
"How should I know? Don't worry about it."
So that was a hint, or more than a hint. But soon there was unmistakable proof. Simon and Danny were buying up a street in Cambridge called Bateman Street, so we often stayed there. One weekend I was moaning - I was always moaning - "I'm bored with Bateman Street", so we drove out towards Newmarket. At a place called Six Mile Bottom, I saw a thatched cottage with a For Sale sign outside. "Look, how pretty," I said. "'Why can't you buy nice places like that, instead of horrible old slums?" "Perhaps we can," said Simon, so we bounced up to the cottage and an old lady showed us round. I was bored within minutes, but Simon seemed unconscionably interested in the bedroom corridor which he kept revisiting. Then I saw him going out to the car, carrying something. Eventually we left and went for lunch at a hotel in Newmarket. We were having a rather lugubrious meal when two men came into the dining room and one pointed the other towards our table. The man introduced himself as a detective. He said: "We've had a complaint from a Mrs so and so of Six Mile Bottom. She says a couple visited her cottage this morning and afterwards she noticed that a valuable antique map by Speed was missing from one of the bedrooms." "Oh, Simon!" I said. He shot me a look. "Perhaps we could have this conversation outside," he suggested. He went outside with the policeman. I waited a few minutes and then went to the Ladies, and out the back door and away down the street. I had just enough money for a train back to London. I hoped Simon would go to prison.
He didn't of course; he bounced round to Clifden Road a few days later and took me out to dinner. "How could you steal from an old lady?"
"I didn't steal. She asked me to have the map valued."
"No she didn't - I was with you."
"All right, she didn't ask me. But I recognised that the map was by Speed and I thought if I got it valued for her, it would be a nice surprise."
I knew he was lying, but I let it go. I said: "If you ever really stole something, I would leave you."
He said: "I know you would, Minn."
But actually I knew he had stolen something and I didn't leave him, so we were both lying.
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