‘That’ll depend on how much the tabloids offer me. How’s it going with you anyway? What’s the news on Elanore Phillips? I’ve been meaning to call to ask you.’
‘I’m in seclusion with my script, and that’s going pretty well. As for Elanore, everyone’s fingers are crossed, but the signs are still good. They think she might be all right.’
Mac the Dentist heaved a great sigh. ‘Thank the Lord for that. My blood went cold when I heard about her; it brought your mother back, all of that awful time.’ He paused. ‘Is that what’s been eating you?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘There’s still something up with you, I can tell that. Is Prim still in America, is that it?’
‘No, she came back on Sunday. Hitched a ride with a mate of Miles.’
‘Let me speak to her then.’
‘I can’t; she’s in Barcelona for a couple of days.’
I could almost see his eyes narrowing. ‘Have you two had a fight?’
For a moment, I almost blurted out the whole story, but I kept myself in check. I didn’t want him going back into the surgery and drilling a hole in some poor bastard’s gum. ‘Slightly,’ I admitted. ‘Let’s just say I found out some stuff about her and she found out some stuff about me that puts neither of us in a good light in the eyes of the other.
‘Dad,’ I asked him suddenly, ‘since I’m your son, and Mum’s, how can I be a cruel, ruthless, self-centred bastard?’
‘Who said that about you?’
‘I did.’
‘Hmphh. If it was anyone else, I’d batter the crap out of him. But since it’s you. . You’re not cruel, Oz, or not knowingly so, at any rate. And you’re not a bastard, I promise you. As for the rest, you can’t help it. In truth, I envy you in a way. In the last few years you’ve gone from a state of sloth into one of restlessness; you’ve always got to be moving forward, doing something new.
‘I think you’re running away, son.’
‘From what?’
‘From the hurt, and from the loss. From what happened to Jan, and to your baby. But I tell you this from experience; you can run as fast and as far as you like and it’ll keep pace with you. It’ll be with you until you die.’
‘That’s a coincidence,’ I said to him. ‘Jan told me exactly the same.’
‘When?’
‘Last night.’
‘Did she now?’ I could tell from his voice that he didn’t doubt me, or think me crazy, not one bit. ‘And did she tell you how to cope with it?’
‘She told me to do my best. . Oh aye, and she told me to look after Jonny.’
‘I’m with her on both counts,’ he murmured.
‘About you and Prim; you probably expect me to tell you to forgive and forget, but I’m more of a realist than that. Just concentrate on forgiving each other. Forgetting’s beyond most of us, but as long as we keep on forgiving, it’s usually all right.’
He paused. ‘And speaking of you two,’ he went on. ‘I’m going to a seminar at Glasgow Dental Hospital tomorrow; I’ll look in on your flat while I’m there.’
‘Thanks, Dad.’
‘I might even look in on your wee pal Susie, if I’ve time. She was like a wee wounded bird at your wedding, and when she called me the other week, she still didn’t sound like her usual self.’
I didn’t like to tell him that she did now, so I let it go. We left it at that, and he went off to his eleven fifteen patient.
I went back to the script, and I was feeling mildly exultant again when Prim called, bang on twelve. ‘Hi,’ I said, breezily.
‘Hmmph,’ I heard her sniff. ‘You sound full of yourself. What’s up? Is Susie back?’
‘Chuck it. I’ve had a good morning’s work, that’s all. I needed it, too. It helped bring me back to a degree of sanity.’
‘You mean you’ve stopped thinking that someone’s out to get you, and accepted that Susie staged that wee stunt on the stairs just to get her leg over you?’
‘You can cut that out as well,’ I told her, firmly. ‘No one’s out to get me as such. . other than you, maybe. . but someone is trying to get us both out of this house. I think they’re looking for something, something connected with Capulet.’
‘If you’re right, can’t it be Capulet himself?’
‘No, otherwise he’d know where it was, wouldn’t he? Anyway, enough of that. Are you coming back home?’
‘Maybe tomorrow,’ she said. ‘I’m going to stay another day. Twenty-four hours in the sin-bin isn’t punishment enough. Apart from that, what you asked me last night really threw me. It stirred up a lot more stuff I’d hoped was buried, and I need to think about it before I talk to you.
‘You really didn’t get it from Dad?’ she asked.
‘I promise I didn’t.’
‘Then you’ve either had a call from Fergal. . his name was Fergal Keenan. . or you’re a bloody psychic.’
‘Maybe there’s more to life than we can see and touch,’ I said.
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘I’ll tell you when I see you. Go on, make it today.’
‘No! Tell you what, the day after tomorrow, for sure. I’ll be back for lunch; book somewhere expensive.’
She hung up. Again, I thought about Susie’s advice to drive down to Barcelona. I might have done it too, if the doorbell hadn’t rung.
I hadn’t a clue who it might be as I walked to answer its call; Lionell, maybe come to start his painting of the house, or Shirley, come to investigate Prim’s renewed absence. The last person I expected to find was Veronique Sanchez i Leclerc.
It was a cold, grey day outside and she was wrapped up in a heavy coat, with a silk scarf round her head. She still looked beautiful, though; nervous, agitated, but beautiful.
‘Vero,’ I exclaimed, surprised, but secretly pleased to see her. ‘Come on in. Where’s Alejandro? You haven’t left him in the car, have you?’
‘No,’ she replied, in Spanish. ‘He is with my mother.’
‘Sit down,’ I told her. ‘Or come with me if you like, while I make us some coffee.’ I remembered that my script was spread all over the coffee table, and began to worry about the draught from the door. ‘Go on through to the kitchen while I tidy up these papers.’ She nodded and walked through without a word, past the staircase. I was sure that on the night of the party she had never left the living room, other than to put Alejandro to bed upstairs.
When I rejoined her, she had laid her coat and scarf on a kitchen stool and was cleaning out the percolator, flushing the used grounds from the receptacle into the waste disposal in one of the twin sinks. I took the Bonka from the cupboard and handed it to her, together with the measuring tool. ‘Here,’ I said. ‘You do it. I never seem to get the strength right in that thing.’
She smiled at me faintly, then measured out three and a half scoops, filled the water container up to the valve, and put it on one of the fast rings on the hob. I felt as if I was watching her in her own kitchen.
‘This is a pleasant surprise,’ I began, breaking the silence once more.
‘Prim is not here?’ she asked.
‘No. She’s in Barcelona. . shopping,’ I added. ‘Why? Was it her you came to see?’
‘No, I came to see you rather than her. I am worried about the girl.’
‘What girl?’ Then it dawned. ‘You mean Gabrielle? But I thought that Ramon was taking her to the Filipino Consulate yesterday, for her flight home.’
She nodded, vigorously. ‘Yes, he did, late yesterday afternoon. But on the way south he called into his office in Girona, to pick something up. He left her in the car while he went inside, and when he came out, she was gone. He doesn’t know whether she just ran off or whether someone took her.
‘He has had all his men looking for her ever since; last night he stayed in Girona and went round all of the clubs in the area, just in case he might find her in one of them. He called me this morning to say that she is still missing.’
Given that he had
been reluctant to investigate the stiff in my pool, I was surprised that Fortunato had pulled out all the stops for one runaway Filipina, but I guessed that he felt himself to blame for losing her, and wanted to find her before he had to answer some awkward questions.
‘So what brings you here, Vero?’
She looked at me with her big amber eyes. ‘I thought that if she has run away, she would know very few places to go. In fact this would almost be the only place she would know. So I came to ask whether she had returned here, and to warn you, in case she does.’
‘Is your telephone out of order?’ I asked her, as I switched off the hob and filled two mugs with coffee, handing one to her. ‘I know mine isn’t, because I’ve had a couple of calls already this morning. You could have phoned to tell me all that, but you didn’t. You parked the baby with your mother and you came here.’
I smiled at her, wanting to put her at her ease as much as I could, while finding out why she had really come. ‘Did you hope to see Prim, on her own, maybe? So you could thank her for kicking Ramon out of her life and sending him back to you?’
She returned my grin, contriving to look awkward and embarrassed. ‘Something like that, perhaps. Yes, I used Gabrielle as an excuse.’
‘Then it’s probably as well she isn’t here, because she couldn’t have gone along with it, not any more. Ramon knew about the kid and Ramon made her abort it. She didn’t kick Ramon out, he walked out, and damn near broke her in the process.
‘But you’re not stupid. None of that is news to you, is it?’
She shot me a narrow-eyed look that scored up one to me.
‘So come on, what’s this visit really about? I know I’m a damned attractive guy, and I’m in the movies and on the telly and all that stuff, but you’re no groupie. Not that I’d say no if the offer was made, you understand. . I have absolutely no moral fibre, as my wife will tell you.
‘Let me take a guess. You’re here because you wanted to be in this house again, just one more time, back in his house, Rey Capulet’s house. Or one of his houses. What was the Paris place like? As big as this?’
She tried to speak but I wasn’t ready to let her. ‘Why did you want to be here, then, Vero? Are you looking for something? Are you and Ramon looking for something, maybe?
‘Did Capulet give you a key for this villa at one time? Do you still have it, perhaps?’
She looked me up and down for a while, then she put down her mug and moved towards me, without a word. She threw her arms around my neck, and kissed me, pressing her body against me. It was some body.
Of course, I had meant what I said about not turning down any genuine offers. I carried her up that great big staircase. . God, but it was getting to be a habit. . and into the master bedroom.
I wish I could say that it was great, sensational, Earth-shattering and all that other stuff, but it wasn’t. She was grim, tense and determined; I was just along for the ride, so to speak. ‘Who was that for?’ I asked her, when we were finished. ‘Ramon? Capulet? It wasn’t for my sake, that’s for sure.’
‘It was for both of them, and yes, maybe it was for you too. You’re bastards, all three of you, and I despise you all.’
‘Hey!’
‘Don’t protest to me,’ she retorted, getting out of bed and walking, naked into the bathroom. The door was closed, and it could have led to a cupboard, but she walked straight to it, knowing exactly where she was going. I heard water splashing; not the shower or the basin, but the bidet as she tried to wash me off her, and out of her.
‘You’re no better than they are,’ she said, as she slipped back into bed. ‘Remember how you left Prim here.
‘Ramon? He had countless affairs before I met him, and just as many afterwards. Finally, I left him for Capulet after I saw him coming out of a sex club near Figueras. . And no, he was not on duty.
‘Rey? He turned out to be the worst of the three of you. I didn’t know the business he was in when I went with him; his business with those poor girls, those poor slaves. As soon as I found out I left him and came back to Albons.
‘Now, to answer your questions. No, I do not have a key for this house. I had a key for the apartment in Paris, but not for here, although of course I have been here often enough before. No, I am not looking for anything here, and neither, as far as I know, is Ramon. I came here because at your party, I found that I could still sense Rey in the place, and I felt that maybe if I confronted him here again, I could get rid of the dirty feeling I have had ever since I found out about him.’
‘And have you confronted him?’
‘No,’ she whispered. ‘Only you. As for the dirty feeling, after this, time will tell. But I owe Ramon nothing now.’
A look in her eye troubled me. ‘What do you mean?’
‘How long has Prim been in Barcelona?’ she asked.
‘Since yesterday afternoon.’
‘And when is she coming back?’
‘The day after tomorrow.’
‘And you believe she is alone?’
I felt a hot surge of rage inside me. It was a while before I could answer her. ‘I booked the hotel for her,’ was all I could say.
‘So? Listen, Oz, I have never known Ramon to spend a night in his office. It’s an old cover story of his, but I’ve checked and I’ve never known him actually to do it. Today he tells me that he will be there for another night, and maybe until they find Gabrielle. Which they won’t, of course; I’m sure she’s on her way back to the Philippines already.
‘I don’t know why, but I didn’t expect to find Prim here when I arrived. I saw the way he looked at her at your New Year party. And, yes, I know how she really felt about him. So? Will we go down there ourselves and find them?’
My anger had gone. Also, I didn’t truly believe her. I thought that she was adding one and one and making six hundred and sixty-six. ‘No,’ I answered. ‘I don’t exactly have good moral grounds for doing that.’ I looked down at her long tanned body. ‘And neither, I have to point out, do you.’
I lay there for a while and thought about things; about everything in fact, and about people hurting, and being hurt. Then I thought, What the hell? ‘Unless they deserve it,’ you said, my angel. I guess we all deserve each other.
‘There’s just one other thing I’d like to ask you, Vero,’ I said.
She raised herself on an elbow and looked down at me. ‘What’s that?’ she whispered, in English.
‘That back there? Was that the best you can do?’
Her smile told me that she was no better or worse than the three guys she despised. The light was blotted out as her hair fell down around me. ‘Oh no,’ she said. ‘That was far, far from it.’
32
‘When does you mother expect you back?’ I asked her, as we ate a mid-afternoon lunch in the kitchen.
‘This evening,’ she answered. ‘I told her I was going to Girona.’
The truth is dead, I thought. We are all Satan’s children, right enough.
‘Why are you smiling like that?’ she said.
I hadn’t realised that I was. ‘It’s nothing,’ I assured her. ‘Other than that I was thinking that you were right. . you could do a lot better.’
‘Why is it always men who say that kind of thing?’ she mused.
‘Because that’s the way our sad, selfish minds work.’
It was Veronique’s turn to smile. ‘What unexpected honesty. Here’s some in return; some good news and some bad news you might say. The good: you’re much better in bed than Ramon. The bad: neither of you are in the same class as Rey Capulet. He is an artist, whatever else he might be.
‘Most men think of a woman’s body as no more than a piece of exercise equipment. He sees it as an instrument to be played with skill. . And believe me, he is a maestro.’
‘I’ll bear that in mind,’ I grunted, giving her a sour look.
‘What are you going to do about Primavera?’ she asked me suddenly.
I didn’t have a considered a
nswer for that one, at that moment; so instead I told her that our future wasn’t at my disposal alone, and that Prim and I would have to talk it through together. ‘Maybe it’s what she wants to do about me that will decide things,’ I added.
‘What are you going to do about Ramon?’
‘Drop him,’ she answered vehemently. ‘For good this time. Whenever the moment is right, he’s out.’
‘Are you going to tell him about this morning?’
‘I might. Does that scare you?’
‘No.’›
‘He’s a policeman, remember. He has a gun.’
‘I’ve seen guns before. Carrying one is one thing; having the balls to pull the trigger is another. I’m not sure Ramon has. Anyway,’ I laughed, ‘you’re forgetting, I’m a public figure; I’m in the movies. I don’t have a lot of influence myself, not yet, but I know people who do. If your old man tried to make trouble for me or for Prim. . especially for her. . I’d have him squashed like a fly.’
She gave me an appraising look. ‘You have it all thought out, Oz, don’t you?’
I shook my head. ‘No, only some of it. I’m working on the rest.’
‘And what is the rest?’
‘Having the sort of power for myself that I’ve seen in others; in people like my brother-in-law, Miles Grayson, and my friend Everett Davis. The power to reach out and influence things.’
‘How do you do that?’
I considered her question carefully. I was voicing thoughts that had been idle, fanciful ambitions until then. All of a sudden they were falling into place, as the last of the old Oz facade crumbled away.
‘My first step is completing this next movie, and making it a personal success. That will cut me free of Miles, and break the only sort of hold that Prim has over me. After that, I’ll stay in movies for a while, until I’m seriously rich, instead of fairly so.’
‘And somewhere along the line you’ll ditch Prim.’ It was a prophesy, not a question.
‘Not necessarily. Prim’s had some bad things happen in her life, all of them male, including me, including Ramon. As far as I’m concerned, when she gets back, maybe we can start on a new chapter, one where it’s all good for a change.
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