by Clive Barker
The chill had got to his tooth, his wretched, crumbling tooth. If he’d gone to the dentist’s, instead of turning over in his bed and sleeping another hour, he wouldn’t be feeling this discomfort. Well, too late now, he’d go tomorrow. Plenty of time tomorrow. No need for an appointment. He’d just smile at the receptionist, she’d melt and tell him she could find a slot for him somewhere, he’d smile again, she’d blush and he’d see the dentist then and there instead of waiting two weeks like the poor nerds who didn’t have wonderful faces.
For tonight he’d just have to put up with it. All he needed was one lousy punter—a husband who’d pay through the nose for taking it in the mouth—then he could retire to an all-night club in Soho and content himself with reflections. As long as he didn’t find himself with a confession freak on his hands, he could spit his stuff and be done by half ten.
But tonight wasn’t his night. There was a new face on the reception desk of the Imperial, a thin, shot-at face with a mismatched rug perched (glued) on his pate, and he’d been squinting at Gavin for almost half an hour.
The usual receptionist, Madox, was a closet-case Gavin had seen prowling the bars once or twice, an easy touch if you could handle that kind. Madox was putty in Gavin’s hand; he’d even bought his company for an hour a couple of months back. He’d got a cheap rate too—that was good politics. But this new man was straight, and vicious, and he was on to Gavin’s game.
Idly, Gavin sauntered across to the cigarette machine, his walk catching the beat of the muzack as he trod the maroon carpet. Lousy fucking night.
The receptionist was waiting for him as he turned from the machine, packet of Winston in hand.
“Excuse me . .. Sir.” It was a practiced pronunciation that was clearly not natural. Gavin looked sweetly back at him.
“Yes?”
“Are you actually a resident at this hotel... Sir?”
“Actually—”
“If not, the management would be obliged if you’d vacate the premises immediately.”
“I’m waiting for somebody.”
“Oh?”
The receptionist didn’t believe a word of it.
“Well just give me the name—”
“No need.”
“Give me the name—,” the man insisted, “and I’ll gladly check to see if your... contact... is in the hotel.”
The bastard was going to try and push it, which narrowed the options. Either Gavin could choose to play it cool, and leave the foyer, or play the outraged customer and stare the other man down. He chose, more to be bloodyminded than because it was good tactics, to do the latter.
“You don’t have any right—” he began to bluster, but the receptionist wasn’t moved.
“Look, sonny—” he said, “I know what you’re up to, so don’t try and get snotty with me or I’ll fetch the police.” He’d lost control of his elocution: it was getting further south of the river with every syllable. “We’ve got a nice clientele here, and they don’t want no truck with the likes of you, see?”
“Fucker,” said Gavin very quietly.
“Well that’s one up from a cocksucker, isn’t it?”
Touché.
“Now, sonny—you want to mince out of here under your own steam or be carried out in cuffs by the boys in blue?”
Gavin played his last card.
“Where’s Mr. Madox? I want to see Mr. Madox: he knows me.”
“I’m sure he does,” the receptionist snorted, “I’m bloody sure he does. He was dismissed for improper conduct—” The artificial accent was re-establishing itself “—so I wouldn’t try dropping his name here if I were you. O.K.? On your way.”
Upper hand well and truly secured, the receptionist stood back like a matador and gestured for the bull to go by.
“The management thanks you for your patronage. Please don’t call again.”
Game, set and match to the man with the rug. What the hell; there were other hotels, other foyers, other receptionists.
He didn’t have to take all this shit.
As Gavin pushed the door open he threw a smiling “Be seeing you” over his shoulder. Perhaps that would make the tick sweat a little one of these nights when he was walking home and he heard a young man’s step on the street behind him. It was a petty satisfaction, but it was something.
The door swung closed, sealing the warmth in and Gavin out. It was colder, substantially colder, than it had been when he’d stepped into the foyer. A thin drizzle had begun, which threatened to worsen as he hurried down Park Lane towards South Kensington. There were a couple of hotels on the High Street he could hole up in for a while; if nothing came of that he’d admit defeat.
The traffic surged around Hyde Park Corner, speeding to Knightsbridge or Victoria, purposeful, shining. He pictured himself standing on the concrete island between the two contrary streams of cars, his fingertips thrust into his jeans (they were too tight for him to get more than the first joint into the pockets), solitary, forlorn.
A wave of unhappiness came up from some buried place in him. He was twenty-four and five months. He had hustled, on and off and on again, since he was seventeen, promising himself that he’d find a marriageable widow (the gigolo’s pension) or a legitimate occupation before he was twenty-five.
But time passed and nothing came of his ambitions. He just lost momentum and gained another line beneath the eye.
And the traffic still came in shining streams, lights signalling this imperative or that, cars full of people with ladders to climb and snakes to wrestle, their passage isolating him from the bank, from safety, with its hunger for destination.
He was not what he’d dreamed he’d be, or promised his secret self.
And youth was yesterday.
Where was he to go now? The flat would feel like a prison tonight, even if he smoked a little dope to talke the edge off the room. He wanted, no, he needed to be with somebody tonight. Just to see his beauty through somebody else’s eyes. Be told how perfect his proportions were, be wined and dined and flattered stupid, even if it was by Quasimodo’s richer, uglier brother. Tonight he needed a fix of affection.
• • •
The pickup was so damned easy it almost made him forget the episode in the foyer of the Imperial. A guy of fifty-five or so, well-heeled: Gucci shoes, a very classy overcoat. In a word: quality.
Gavin was standing in the doorway of a tiny arthouse cinema, looking over the times of the Truffaut movie they were showing, when he became aware of the punter staring at him. He glanced at the guy to be certain there was a pickup in the offing. The direct look seemed to unnerve the punter; he moved on; then he seemed to change his mind, muttered something to himself, and retraced his steps, showing patently false interest in the movie schedule. Obviously not too familiar with this game, Gavin thought; a novice.
Casually Gavin took out a Winston and lit it, the flare of the match in his cupped hands glossing his cheekbones golden. He’d done it a thousand times, as often as not in the mirror for his own pleasure. He had the glance up from the tiny fire off pat: it always did the trick. This time when he met the nervous eyes of the punter, the other didn’t back away.
He drew on the cigarette, flicking out the match and letting it drop. He hadn’t made a pickup like this in several months, but he was well satisfied that he still had the knack. The faultless recognition of a potential client, the implicit offer in eyes and lips, that could be construed as innocent friendliness if he’d made an error.
This was no error, however, this was the genuine article. The men’s eyes were glued to Gavin, so enamored of him he seemed to be hurting with it. His mouth was open, as though the words of introduction had failed him. Not much of a face, but far from ugly. Tanned too often, and too quickly: maybe he’d lived abroad. He was assuming the man was English: his prevarication suggested it.
Against habit, Gavin made the opening move.
“You like French movies?”
The punter seemed to deflate w
ith relief that the silence between them had been broken.
“Yes,” he said.
“You going in?”
The man pulled a face.
“I... I... don’t think I will.”
“Bit cold...”
“Yes. It is.”
“Bit cold for standing around, I mean.”
“Oh-yes.”
The punter took the bait.
“Maybe... you’d like a drink?”
Gavin smiled.
“Sure, why not?”
“My flat’s not far.”
“Sure.”
“I was getting a bit cheesed off, you know, at home.”
“I know the feeling.”
Now the other man smiled. “You are ... ?”
“Gavin.”
The man offered his leather-gloved hand. Very formal, businesslike. The grip as they shook was strong, no trace of his earlier hesitation remaining.
“I’m Kenneth,” he said, “Ken Reynolds.”
“Ken.”
“Shall we get out of the cold?”
“Suits me.”
“I’m only a short walk from here.”
A wave of musty, centrally-heated air hit them as Reynolds opened the door of this apartment. Climbing the three flights of stairs had snatched Gavin’s breath, but Reynolds wasn’t slowed at all. Health freak maybe. Occupation? Something in the city. The handshake, the leather gloves. Maybe Civil Service.
“Come in, come in.”
There was money here. Underfoot the pile of the carpet was lush, hushing their steps as they entered. The hallway was almost bare: a calendar hung on the wall, a small table with telephone, a heap of directories, a coatstand.
“It’s warmer in here.”
Reynolds was shrugging off his coat and hanging it up. His gloves remained on as he led Gavin a few yards down the hallway and into a large room.
“Let’s have your jacket,” he said.
“Oh ... sure.”
Gavin took off his jacket, and Reynolds slipped out into the hall with it. When he came in again he was working off his gloves; a slick of sweat made it a difficult job. The guy was still nervous: even on his home ground. Usually they started to calm down once they were safe behind locked doors. Not this one: he was a catalogue of fidgets.
“Can I get you a drink?”
“Yeah; that would be good.”
“What’s your poison?”
“Vodka.”
“Surely. Anything with it?”
“Just a drop of water.”
“Purist, eh?”
Gavin didn’t quite understand the remark.
“Yeah,” he said.
“Man after my own heart. Will you give me a moment—I’ll just fetch some ice.”
“No problem.”
Reynolds dropped the gloves on a chair by the door, and left Gavin to the room. It, like the hallway, was almost stiflingly warm, but there was nothing homely or welcoming about it. Whatever his profession, Reynolds was a collector. The room was dominated by displays of antiquities, mounted on the walls, and lined up on shelves. There was very little furniture, and what there seemed odd: battered tubular frame chairs had no place in an apartment this expensive. Maybe the man was a university don, or a museum governor, something academic. This was no stockbroker’s living room.
Gavin knew nothing about art, and even less about history, so the displays meant very little to him, but he went to have a closer look, just to show willing. The guy was bound to ask him what he thought of the stuff. The shelves were deadly dull. Bits and pieces of pottery and sculpture: nothing in its entirety, just fragments. On some of the shards there remained a glimpse of design, though age had almost washed the colors out. Some of the sculpture was recognizably human: part of a torso, or foot (all five toes in place), a face that was all but eaten away, no longer male or female. Gavin stifled a yawn. The heat, the exhibits and the thought of sex made him lethargic.
He turned his dulled attention to the wall-hung pieces. They were more impressive then the stuff on the shelves but they were still far from complete. He couldn’t see why anyone would want to look at such broken things; what was the fascination? The stone reliefs mounted on the wall were pitted and eroded, so that the skins of the figures looked leprous, and the Latin inscriptions were almost wiped out. There was nothing beautiful about them: too spoiled for beauty. They made him feel dirty somehow, as though their condition was contagious.
Only one of the exhibits struck him as interesting: a tombstone, or what looked to him to be a tombstone, which was larger than the other reliefs and in slightly better condition. A man on a horse, carrying a sword, loomed over his headless enemy. Under the picture, a few words in Latin. The front legs of the horse had been broken off, and the pillars that bounded the design were badly defaced by age, otherwise the image made sense. There was even a trace of personality in the crudely made face: a long nose, a wide mouth; an individual.
Gavin reached to touch the inscriptions, but withdrew his fingers as he heard Reynolds enter.
“No, please touch it,” said his host. “It’s there to take pleasure in. Touch away.”
Now that he’d been invited to touch the thing, the desire had melted away. He felt embarrassed; caught in the act.
“Go on,” Reynolds insisted.
Gavin touched the carving. Cold stone, gritty under his fingertips.
“It’s Roman,” said Reynolds.
“Tombstone?”
“Yes. Found near Newcastle.”
“Who was he?”
“His name was Flavinus. He was a regimental standard bearer.”
What Gavin had assumed to be a sword was, on closer inspection, a standard. It ended in an almost erased motif: maybe a bee, a flower, a wheel.
“You an archaeologist, then?”
“That’s part of my business. I research sites, occasionally oversee digs; but most of the time I restore artifacts.”
“Like these?”
“Roman Britain’s my personal obsession.”
He put down the glasses he was carrying and crossed to the pottery-laden shelves.
“This is stuff I’ve collected over the years. I’ve never quite got over the thrill of handling objects that haven’t seen the light of day for centuries. It’s like plugging into history. You know what I mean?”
“Yeah.”
Reynolds picked a fragment of pottery off the shelf.
“Of course all the best finds are claimed by the major collections. But if one’s canny, one manages to keep a few pieces back. They were an incredible influence, the Romans. Civil engineers, roadlayers, bridge builders.”
Reynolds gave a sudden laugh at his burst of enthusiasm.
“Oh hell,” he said, “Reynolds is lecturing again. Sorry. I get carried away.”
Replacing the pottery shard in its niche on the shelf, he returned to the glasses, and started pouring drinks. With his back to Gavin, he managed to say:? “Are you expensive?”
Gavin hesitated. The man’s nervousness was catching and the sudden tilt of the conversation from the Romans to the price of a blowjob took some adjustment.
“It depends,” he flannelled.
“Ah ...” said the other, still busying himself with the glasses, “you mean what is the precise nature of my—er—requirement?”
“Yeah.”
“Of course.”
He turned and handed Gavin a healthy-sized glass of vodka. No ice.
“I won’t be demanding of you,” he said.
“I don’t come cheap.”
“I’m sure you don’t,” Reynolds tried a smile, but it wouldn’t stick to his face, “and I’m prepared to pay you well. Will you be able to stay the night?”
“Do you want me to?”
Reynolds frowned into his glass.
“I suppose I do.”
“Then yes.”
The host’s mood seemed to change, suddenly: indecision was replaced by a spurt of conviction.
The double-edged mark didn’t escape Gavin: the guy was obviously tied up in knots about what he was doing.
“I’ll drink to that,” said Gavin and took a gulp of the vodka.
The drinks came fast after that, and just about his third vodka Gavin began to feel mellower than he’d felt in a hell of a long time, content to listen to Reynolds’ talk of excavations and the glories of Rome with only one ear. His mind was drifting, an easy feeling. Obviously he was going to be here for the night, or at least until the early hours of the morning, so why not drink the punter’s vodka and enjoy the experience for what it offered? Later, probably much later to judge by the way the guy was rambling, there’d be some drink-slurred sex in a darkened room, and that would be that. He’d had customers like this before. They were lonely, perhaps between lovers, and usually simple to please. It wasn’t sex this guy was buying, it was company, another body to share his space awhile; easy money.
And then, the noise.
At first Gavin thought the beating sound was in his head, until Reynolds stood up, a twitch at his mouth. The air of well-being had disappeared.
“What’s that?” asked Gavin, also getting up, dizzy with drink.
“It’s all right—” Reynolds, palms were pressing him down into his chair. “Stay here—”
The sound intensified. A drummer in an oven, beating as he burned.
“Please, please stay here a moment. It’s just somebody upstairs.”
Reynolds was lying, the racket wasn’t coming from upstairs. It was from somewhere else in the flat, a rhythmical thumping, that speeded up and slowed and speeded again.
“Help yourself to a drink,” said Reynolds at the door, face flushed. “Damn neighbors...”
The summons, for that was surely what it was, was already subsiding.
“A moment only,” Reynolds promised, and closed the door behind him.
Gavin had experienced bad scenes before: tricks whose lovers appeared at inappropriate moments; guys who wanted to beat him up for a price—one who got bitten by guilt in a hotel room and smashed the place to smithereens. These things happened. But Reynolds was different: nothing about him said weird. At the back of his mind, at the very back, Gavin was quietly reminding himself that the other guys hadn’t seemed bad at the beginning. Ah hell; he put the doubts away. If he started to get the jitters every time he went with a new face he’d soon stop working altogether. Somewhere along the line he had to trust to luck and his instinct, and his instinct told him that this punter was not given to throwing fits.