She got up from her garden recliner, went into the kitchen, and came back with two more Rolling Rocks. ‘Go home, Oz. Let the police find the first Mrs January.’
‘The police? I was a policeman and I couldn’t find my arse with both hands. Mike Dylan was a policeman, and he got shot. Ricky Ross was a policeman and he got slung out for screwing the wife of a murder victim, a prime suspect in a case he was investigating. Maddy January’s in trouble because her talent for candid camera photography led her to take a picture of the top man in organised crime in South East Asia. He’s been there for years, and their police are so good that they don’t know his name or what he looks like. Ellie, if I had your confidence I’d do what you say, but I don’t. I’m the best chance this woman’s got of staying alive, even if she doesn’t know it. If I give up on her and she dies, as she will, Susie will never forgive me, Harvey will never forgive me, and I’ll never forgive myself. But you know what frightens me the most?’
‘What?’
‘Jan will never forgive me.’
‘Oz,’ our Ellen whispered, ‘Jan’s gone.’
I found that I was crying softly. ‘You may choose to believe that,’ I told her, ‘but I never will.’
37
I didn’t sleep that night: I knew that if I dropped off I’d dream of Jan, and that if I did, waking up would hurt, maybe more than I could handle at that time.
So instead I read a book, Lethal Intent, the latest Skinner novel, which Ellie had left for me in the guest room. Eventually the pages swam before my eyes, so I laid it down to be resumed later (I’d buy my own copy next chance I had: as an actor I have this secret belief that sharing books and DVDs is morally wrong) and picked up a notepad and pen from the bedside table.
I began to make notes, and to look for unanswered questions flowing from what had happened in Singapore. When I thought about it, there were only two. Had Sammy Goss’s meeting with us in the Crazy Elephant been sheer, blind coincidence? Since I only believe in coincidence when it doesn’t matter a damn, that led on to the second question. How the hell had he known that we’d be there?
I thought about that for a while, but I got nowhere near an answer.
After that I just thought, ready to make random notes about oddities as they occurred, but none did . . . until around four thirty in the morning. I found myself looking at a mind picture, looking for something, and being unable to find it. I switched on my mobile, found the entry for Benny Luker, and hit the call key.
‘Yes,’ he shouted in my ear, over background music that sounded as if it was live.
‘It’s me,’ I said. ‘Where the hell are you?’
‘The Iridium Jazz Club, on Broadway; Mose Allison’s on. The set’s just winding up. Hold on and I’ll find somewhere quieter if that’s possible in here.’
I waited until the music stopped and the background buzz was cut off.
‘Okay, I’m in the gents’. What’s up? Has she been found?’
‘No, but she was in Vietnam on Tuesday. She called her brother from there, and she’s seriously pissed off at me, for some reason. He’s caused some local difficulty, but that’s been dealt with and he’ll be going away for a spell.’
‘Do you know where she headed from there?’
‘No, but Ricky and I have someone working on it, Ollie Coffey, Special Branch.’
‘I remember him.’
‘Yes, well, try and remember this. When we were in Tony Lee’s flat, in his office, we saw a docking station for a palmtop computer, a PDA.’
‘Yes, Hewlett Packard manufacture.’
‘Did you see the unit itself anywhere?’
As he thought about it, or as I thought he thought about it, I heard a toilet flush. ‘Sorry. I took a piss while I’m here. The answer is no, I definitely did not.’
‘No, me neither. So, possibilities: maybe Tony had it and Sammy took it after he’d killed him.’
‘Maybe, or maybe it was in his car, or in his office.’
‘Or maybe Madeleine took it with her. They had a scanner, okay, mostly she used film for photography, but there was an empty folder called “Maddy’s pics” on the computer. What can you store on a PDA?’
‘Quite a lot: they take standard SD cards. I see where you’re going. You think she might have taken some bargaining power along with her.’
‘My, my, we do work well as a team. I’ll keep you informed if Coffey comes up with anything.’
‘Coffey might get his arse kicked, getting involved with this.’
‘Knowingly or not, Maddy incited an attack on Scotland’s newest judge. He can dress that up as possible terrorism.’
‘She’s really in bother now, isn’t she?’
‘Indeed. Go on, get back to old man Mose. Are you on your own, or are you trying to gain ground with your lovely editor?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘Just a friend. Hey, what time is it with you?’
‘Going on five.’
I heard his sigh, all the way from the crapper in the Iridium Jazz Club. ‘Pal, when this is over, you really must get yourself a life.’
And then he was gone, and I was left to wonder.
38
I went back to Edinburgh with Ellie next morning, but not before I’d gone down to the Old Course with Jonny, to meet his employer for the day, and to walk the first few holes with them. He was a nice lad, and he welcomed the attention; he even welcomed the early-duty photographers who spotted me and focused on us. I apologised, but he told me not to be worried. ‘My sponsors will love it,’ he said.
Being a youngster, playing with two other young Americans, he had an early time, but that suited me, since I’d been up with the lark; in fact, slightly before the chirpy wee bastard.
I hadn’t been alone. ‘Who were you calling in the middle of the night?’ Jonny asked me, as we strode down the first, after the boss’s opening six-iron. He’d asked my nephew what he should hit; like an old pro caddy, the lad just took the club from the bag and handed it to him. ‘Leave yourself a full wedge,’ he’d said.
‘America,’ I told him. ‘Business.’
‘At five in the morning? I’ll need to talk to Aunt Susie about you. She needs to get you under control.’
He was dead right. I left them on the fifth tee, at which point Jonny’s boss was two under par, and headed back for breakfast.
When we reached the Western General two and a half hours later, Harvey was sitting up in bed. His eyes were blackening up nicely and his cracked ribs meant that he couldn’t get comfortable, whatever way he tried, but otherwise he was fine, back to his normal self.
‘Well,’ he said, greeting us. ‘Bloody Trevor, eh? Stupid lad. I just had the Lord President on the phone: he’s absolutely livid and is insisting that he be charged with gross contempt. I tried to intercede, but he’s adamant’ He looked at me. ‘Why did he do it, Oz? All to do with Maddy, I expect.’
‘Yes, as far as I can see, she’s blaming us for disturbing her happy life.’
‘Silly bitch. Is there anything more we can do to help her?’
‘I’ve got someone working on it. You forget about it, though, you’ve got an installation to prepare for, and a practice to wind up.’
‘Yes, indeed. The LP told me that the announcement’s been accelerated, in view of what happened. It’s being made this morning. God knows what Madeleine will do when she reads about it’
I grinned at him; couldn’t help it. ‘I don’t think it’s going to be the top item on the news in Ho Chi Minh City, Harvey.’
I left the two of them there, eventually, and went out to Crewe Road to look for a taxi. I had no clear idea where I wanted to go, but finally when one stopped I was forced to it. I decided on Ricky Ross’s office and gave the driver his address. Ricky was with a client, but his secretary was happy to lend me a desk and a phone. I began by calling a travel agent to book a scheduled one-way flight to Nice. Eventually he found me one that left at six thirty and got me there at midnight; it meant going to Fra
nkfurt again, but I booked it anyway.
Next I called Alison Goodchild at her office and told her that the threat to Harvey was probably still active, but that if it happened the family reaction was going to be ‘So fucking what?’ as politely and eloquently as she cared to put it.
Finally I dug out the list of numbers I had acquired over the previous few days and called Janine Raymond, Madeleine’s mum. She really did sound like a vicar’s daughter, very soft-spoken, very polite and very sorry for Harvey when I explained to her what had happened to him.
She sounded sad, but not surprised. ‘My younger children have been a great disappointment to me as adults, Mr Blackstone,’ she admitted. ‘I rarely see or hear from either of them.’
I didn’t tell her how much trouble Maddy was in, but asked when she had last been in touch.
‘I had a postcard from Singapore three months ago,’ she said. ‘Thankfully, Theresa is everything a daughter should be. She calls me every weekend without fail, and we see each other twice every year. It’s a pity she’s so far away.’
‘Where is she, Mrs Raymond?’ I asked.
‘New Jersey,’ she replied. ‘She has a chair in philosophy at Princeton University. I go there every Thanksgiving; it’s a lovely place, not like you expect America to be.’
I left it at that: if I’d pressed her for a phone number she’d have twigged that I hadn’t just called her to tell her the bad news about Trevor.
I was at a loose end, for the first time in a couple of weeks, but fortunately, before I could get up to any mischief, Ross came back from his meeting and announced that he was taking me for an early lunch. I was expecting the Doric Tavern, or the New York Steam Packet, but I must be a good client for he forked out for Oloroso, on the roof of the building at the corner of Castle Street and George Street.
We were able to eat outside: good, in that the weather was kind enough to allow it, but bad, in that it means the mobile-phone reception is full strength. It was like a pop concert up there; however good the food was, it was beginning to get on my tits, till Ricky’s cell played a tune that sounded suspiciously like the chorus of ‘The Ball o’ Kirriemuir’. He laid down a forkful of distressed spinach or some such, and answered its summons.
‘Indeed,’ he said, then nodded and muttered for about half a minute, until he looked at me. ‘Yes, he’s here.’ He passed the phone across. ‘Ollie Coffey.’
‘Oz,’ said my former colleague. ‘I’ve got some more on the fugitive lady.’
That got my attention. I hadn’t really expected him to come up with anything, for he’s pretty low down in the food chain of the intelligence community. ‘Do tell,’ I invited.
‘She caught a plane from Ho Chi Minh to Tokyo, about two hours after she called her brother on Wednesday. There, she boarded another flight to Los Angeles, which got her in yesterday morning local time, yesterday evening BST. The only problem is she doesn’t appear to have got off. Madeleine January boarded the flight at Narita Airport, but she didn’t fill in a US landing card or Customs declaration.’
‘So she’s got two passports.’
‘She must have. Given time, the US immigration service will be able to come up with the name under which she was admitted, but LAX is a hell of a big airport and they don’t have a lot of time on their hands.’
‘She’s gone anyway. That’s eighteen hours ago.’
‘Yes, but,’ DCI Coffey had the air of a man who was desperately pleased with himself, ‘about half an hour ago, her brother’s cell-phone rang. The detective constable on whose desk it was sat at the time showed remarkable initiative. He answered it, told the female caller that Trevor was in the bog and that he’d left his phone. He told her to call back in ten minutes, then hung up before she had a chance to ask who the hell he was. Okay?’
‘Okay.’
‘Right, so we then take the phone to Trevor’s cell. By this time, he’s worked out that his brief had better have something to offer the judge in mitigation, and also, I think, that we’re the good guys. So he plays along. He tells her that everything’s kosher and he’s still in England, and he keeps her on the line so that we can pinpoint the origin of the call . . . the fatal weakness of cell-phones, as you probably know. It was made from the Shoreham Hotel, number thirty-three West Fifty-fifth Street, New York City.’
‘Yes!’ I hissed. ‘Ollie, that selection panel was right: they did pick the right guy for the accelerated promotion course. Thanks, mate, the fucking Milky Bars are on me. Plus, you are now owed a big-time favour by a High Court judge, which you can put in the bank for future use. Cheers, mate.’
I closed the phone and tossed it back across the table to Ricky, then fished my own from my pocket. Ten minutes later my Nice flight was cancelled and I was on the two-ten British Airways shuttle to Heathrow, connecting to JFK. I’d brought enough bloody luggage for two nights, maximum, and I was going to New York: happily I also had all my credit cards and fifty thousand in readies, which for some blessed reason I’d brought with me, possibly because Susie’s parting words, not entirely in jest, had been ‘Don’t come back until you’ve found this woman and got her out of our bloody lives!’
39
It was tight, but Ricky got me to the airport in time; I was the last person to board the flight and got the usual friendly glares from my fellow passengers, but I ignored them all. I called Dylan’s mobile from the devil’s playground that is Heathrow on the move between terminals.
When he answered, I could hear more background noise. ‘Benny, where are you this time?’
‘The Carnegie Deli, having a late breakfast.’
‘I thought you lived in the Village.’
‘I do, but I’m with the friend I told you about. She’s staying in the Algonquin.’
‘You got a spare room?’
‘No, that’s why she’s in the Algonquin.’
My favourite New York hotel. ‘Okay,’ I said, ‘book me in there too, for tonight, maybe tomorrow as well. Meet me in the Blue Bar at seven thirty.’
‘Are you serious?’
‘Of course I’m fucking serious. See you later.’
When I called Susie from the departure gate a few minutes later the idea that I might be kidding never crossed her mind. ‘You’re taking me at my word, aren’t you?’ she said.
‘I always do, love, I always do. But I promise you now: when I get home this time, we’re going away. Maybe Los Angeles, maybe Spain, but wherever it is, we’re not going to tell anybody, not even family, where the hell we’re at.’
The New York flight gave me plenty of thinking time, if I’d been able to take advantage of it, but to be honest my brain was numb. All I could focus on was number thirty-three West Fifty-fifth Street, and whether Maddy January was still there. Eventually, as a distraction, I tried to watch Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith, or Taking the Pith, as a perceptive critic christened it. Ten minutes of that and I was asleep.
The immigration queue at JFK can be a real bugger, even when you have a permanent visa like me, but when you travel upstairs in a jumbo, you’re first off the plane so I got through quickly. I rated a ‘Have a nice day, Mr Blackstone,’ from the desk officer. She didn’t even ask me about the fifty grand declared on my landing card: she probably thought it was just walk-about money for a movie star. (To some I know, it is.)
There were the usual guys outside touting limos, but they can take you anywhere, and very often anywhere other than the place you want to go, then charge you a few hundred dollars for the privilege. I chose an ordinary Yellow Cab, and the driver had me at number fifty-nine West Forty-fourth in just over half an hour.
Mike had booked me a suite, more than I needed for a short stay, but it was pretty classy so I didn’t mind. I dumped my stuff, shaved, and rode the lift down to the Blue Bar. There was a table with a spare Budweiser; Dylan was there, and so was his friend.
‘Hi,’ she said, her cheeks turning a nice shade of pink beneath the Mediterranean tan she’d acquired.
&n
bsp; ‘Primavera.’ I chuckled as I picked up the beer and took a long swig. ‘Why am I not surprised?’
‘I was bored up in Perthshire.’ She pouted. ‘I’ve been here since Tuesday. Our Benny got a hell of a shock when I called him.’
‘I’d a notion it was you when he mentioned the Algonquin.’ When we were together, Prim and I had a couple of holidays in New York, and we’d stayed there. ‘How did you get into the country?’ I asked her. ‘They’re a bit fussy about admitting convicted felons.’
‘No problem,’ she replied cheerfully. ‘I lied on the landing card.’
‘Imagine,’ said Dylan, mournfully. ‘I get home midday Wednesday, jetlagged and full of hell, and at five o’clock this one phones me, to be taken out on the town. I’m glad to see you, pal, for lots of reasons.’ Then he looked me in the eye, serious all of a sudden. ‘Has she surfaced?’
‘Right here in good old New York.’ I glanced at the Breitling. ‘About twelve hours ago, eleven blocks away from here.’ I drained the Bud in a second pull. ‘Fancy seeing if she’s still there?’
‘Sounds interesting; I’ll go along with it.’
‘Me too,’ said Prim, ‘whatever it is you’re talking about.’
‘Maddy January,’ I told her.
‘Then I’m definitely coming.’
‘I’m not so sure. She might turn nasty.’
‘It won’t be anything you two big strong boys can’t handle, I’m sure. Come on.’ She slid out from behind the table and headed for the door.
‘Eh, honey,’ I called after her, ‘I hate to point this out, but you don’t know where we’re going.’
We followed her, though.
It was a powerfully warm evening, more humid than Monaco but nothing like Singapore. We started walking, on the look-out for a lit-up taxi but at that time on a Friday evening they can be hard to come by. We’d reached Sixth Avenue and Forty-eighth by the time we spotted one, but by then we were half-way there, so we decided to continue on foot. We strolled on, past Radio City. I was astonished to see that the Moody Blues were scheduled to appear there on the following Thursday. I found myself wondering if they’d written any new stuff since I was five years old. I said as much to Dylan.
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