Local Artist

by Paul Trembling

  It had taken a little while, since Rob’s mates – mostly van drivers – had been wary of June’s colleagues, who were all coppers. However, with a bit of alcohol to remove inhibitions, they’d come to realize that police officers were basically just people, and things had started to take off.

  The live band had helped. A local group – pretty good, actually, but they were really hammering it out now, and it didn’t do my ears much good.

  I turned to my wife, who was deep in conversation with a young woman whom I had been introduced to earlier. David Macrae’s lady, I recalled. I hadn’t realized that the Detective Inspector was married – apparently she’d just moved down from Scotland, and was giving Sandra the full details.

  “Sandy – I’m going for a walk, get some fresh air,” I told her.

  She nodded, looked around. “Where’s Sam?”

  “Over there by the buffet table, talking to that CSI girl. Alison, is it? Discussing something technical about photography.” Our son had spent a good many years wandering the globe and in the process had discovered an interest.

  Sandra peered through the crowd until she’d identified Sam, and nodded again. There was still a part of her that was afraid he’d take off again and disappear back into the world. I was almost certain that he would. “OK, love.” She returned to her conversation.

  I weaved between the tables, picking up odd scraps of conversation on the way. Old habit. I’ve had a lot of useful leads like that.

  “… I kid you not, this bloke must have been seven foot tall…”

  “… If you know you can’t handle them, why do you keep on…”

  “… I bet you’ve arrested every one of my mates!”

  That sounded interesting, but I moved on, found an exit, and stepped out into a cool summer evening.

  The Stag is a bit of an architectural disaster. It started off as an unremarkable village inn. Then it had a big single-storey dining area added on and became a gastropub. The development of a major road network nearby suggested other possibilities to the owners, and they built a two-storey extension and made it into a hotel – or motel. Do we still use that word? Finally, as an afterthought, they put in a semi-permanent marquee at the back and advertised it as a “function room”, which was where I’d just escaped from.

  It wasn’t the place I’d want to begin married life, but it wasn’t my choice. Apparently, Rob and June had some history with the place, first date or something. And at least the catering had been OK. Especially the gateaux. I’m very fond of gateaux.

  There was a wide terrace along the back of the gastro section of the pub, opened up for eating during the day but closed now it was dark. The restaurant itself was crowded and doing good business, but I ignored that, preferring the relative quiet of the lawn on the other side. It ran down to a stand of trees and some picturesque ruins a few hundred feet away. They had made a nice backdrop for the photographs earlier. I suspected that they had been placed there for just that purpose. I wondered if there were builders who specialized in fake ruins.

  The original pub building at the end of the terrace was now a separate bar for guests in the hotel section that stretched off beyond it – a dreary concrete slab that should never have been given planning permission in my opinion. But nobody had asked me.

  I glanced into the bar as I strolled past. It was crammed full of rustic charm – horse brasses, quaintly rusting farm implements and, of course, a stag’s head. Not nearly as crowded as the restaurant, just a few people sitting here and there, nursing drinks.

  And sitting on a bar stool was Adi Varney.

  I nearly missed seeing him altogether. He was with two other people, half hidden by a tall, thin man in a suit. But just as I glanced that way, he was leaning back, glass to his lips, and I saw him in profile.

  I stopped. And stared.

  Of course it wasn’t him. It couldn’t be him. Not back in England, back home again. Not after all these years.

  But it looked like him, just like him, and a big bubble of joy burst out of me, and even while I was still not believing it in my head my body was at the window, banging on it and shouting, “Adi! Adi! Hey – Adi – it’s me!”

  A middle-aged woman sitting nearby jumped, and splashed her drink. She gave me a furious look which I barely noticed.

  Adi didn’t respond, perhaps didn’t hear me. They’d put some thick double glazing in the old windows, and the bar was on the other side of the room. He just sat there, cradling a drink and looking at something in his hand. A mobile, probably.

  The thin man looked round as I continued to bang on the window. He touched Adi’s shoulder and said something. Adi glanced up and saw me.

  He looked puzzled. Frowning. Looked right at me – and looked away again.

  Not a flicker of recognition. As if he didn’t know me at all.

  I stood staring through the window, not understanding. It must be the light, I thought. There’s a reflection on the glass or something. He can’t see who it is.

  I moved along to another window, a bit closer to where Adi was, and tried again. A bit more carefully this time. No frenzied banging, just a gentle tap. Less gentle, though, as he continued to ignore me.

  The other man with him looked around and frowned at me. Not a puzzled frown. More of a warning, a “back off” sort of frown. He was a big bloke, wide shoulders straining at a black leather jacket. He looked as if he was used to telling people to back off.

  The thin one, an older man, was saying something to Adi, who shrugged and stood up, finishing his drink.

  They all headed for the door without a glance back in my direction.

  I looked around for a way in, saw a fire door at the far end of the old pub. Of course, it was locked from the outside. I hammered on it with the heel of my hand to no effect.

  Beyond the original buildings was the long concrete block of the hotel accommodation. I started running. They hadn’t bothered landscaping this end of the site – it was all rough ground and scraggly bushes. Hard going for anybody, let alone someone with all my recent health problems. I was panting hard by the time I rounded the end of the building – at which point it occurred to me that it would have been quicker to go back into the marquee and out the front.

  Too late. It was further to go back now, and there was at least a path this side, running down towards the hotel entrance.

  I burst into the lobby, and the young man at reception jumped up in alarm – as well he might, when a panting, sweating, balding middle-aged man suddenly charged through the front door and ran at him.

  “Sir? Do you need an ambulance?” It was a reasonable question, under the circumstances.

  “N… N…” I gasped, and waved my hands ineffectually. “No!” I finally managed to get out, as he picked up a phone. “I’m OK.” Pause and gasp again. “Really. Thank you. I’m fine.”

  The lad didn’t appear convinced, but he put down the phone and gave me a wary look. “Was there something else I could do for you, sir?”

  “Yes. I’ve just seen someone. In your bar. An old friend. Adi Varney?”

  “Adi Varney?” He frowned, then his eyebrows shot up. “You don’t mean the Adi Varney? Adi Varney the footballer?”

  “Yes, that Adi Varney!” Was there another one? “He’s in the bar – was a few minutes ago, anyway.”

  The receptionist shook his head, regretfully. “No, sir. You must be mistaken. That bar’s for hotel guests only, and I’m pretty sure that Adi Varney isn’t one of them. More’s the pity – I’d love to be able to call my dad and tell him we’ve had Adi staying here!”

  I took a longer look at him. He couldn’t have been more than twenty, so he wouldn’t have been around when Adi was in his heyday. But his dad would have been.

  “You a Vale supporter, then?”

  His face lit up. “Third generation! Used to be there for every home game – me, me dad, and me grandpa!” In his enthusiasm, a bit of local accent began to creep in. “Me ma as well, sometimes. Me dad can
’t get out much nowadays, so I don’t go so often. And they’re not doing too well just now, are they – not like the old days.”

  “That’s a fact. Only just escaped relegation last season – and to be honest, that was better than they deserved.”

  We shared the sad look of loyal fans who’ve been let down by their club.

  “You wouldn’t mind just having a look at the guest list, would you? Make sure that Adi’s definitely not on there?”

  He shrugged. “Couldn’t do any harm, I suppose.” He turned to the computer, punched some keys, and studied the screen. “No, sorry. Twenty-three guests currently, none of them a Varney. But I can’t see someone like him coming here in any case. He’d be at a five-star place somewhere.”

  The lad had a point. Adi had always been ready to enjoy whatever money could buy him. I scratched my chin, baffled.

  “OK, so perhaps he came in as somebody’s guest? Visiting someone who is staying here?”

  “Perhaps. But I’ve been on all evening, and I’m pretty sure that he didn’t come through here.”

  “But if he’d been here earlier?”

  “Maybe, but if Adi Varney was in the hotel, someone would be bound to recognize him and the word would get around.”

  That was a thought. The bartender must have seen him.

  “Could I go through to the bar and ask in there? Just to put my mind at rest?”

  He hesitated. “I’m not supposed to let anyone through apart from guests…”

  “Just for a few moments. I’ll just look, ask a few questions – no trouble, I promise.”

  “OK then. For a Vale supporter!”

  He nodded to a door just past the reception desk.

  “Thanks.” I slipped through quickly, in case he changed his mind.

  The bar had filled up a little since I’d looked in from the other side – there was another entrance that came directly from the guest rooms. The one that Adi and his companions had been heading for, I decided, as I looked around and got my bearings. They certainly weren’t here now. The woman I’d caused to spill her drink was, though – fortunately engrossed in something on her mobile. I stayed well clear of her as I made my way to the bar.

  The barman looked up as I approached and took on a wary expression. He had obviously seen me banging on the window.

  I held up my hands. “Sorry about just now. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble. It was just that I thought I saw an old friend in here – someone I haven’t been in touch with for years – and I was trying to get his attention.”

  He relaxed slightly at my explanation. “Yes, sir. I understand.” He had a definite transatlantic twang.

  “His name is Adi Varney.”

  He returned a polite but essentially blank look. “I don’t know the name, sir.”

  “Adi Varney the football player. England international, top league goalscorer…”

  “I guess you mean football as in soccer? Sorry, sir, I’m not much of a sports fan.”

  “Over from the States?” I hazarded a guess.

  “Yes, sir. Taking a little time out from law school.”

  “OK, so you wouldn’t know about Adi Varney. But he’s a really big name round here. Ask your colleague out in reception.”

  The barman picked up a cloth and began wiping down the bar. Every bartender does that while they’re having a conversation.

  “So he’s like the local superstar? And a friend of yours as well?”

  “That’s right. We were born in the same hospital, grew up on the same street. And Adi played for the local team for his entire career. So in these parts he’s a really big deal – nearest thing we’ve got to a superhero! But I haven’t seen him in years, not since he went out to the US himself. California. Are you from that way?”

  He shook his head. “Boston. Never been further west than Chicago. I guess it must have been a surprise, seeing him again?”

  “You can say that again! Listen, he was sitting just about here. Do you remember? Light brown hair, little moustache, a sort of roundish face?”

  “Yeah, I remember him. Didn’t hear his name, though.”

  “Is he staying here at the hotel?”

  “I couldn’t say for sure. The guy with him is though, because he had the tab charged to his room.”

  “The man with the black jacket?”

  “No. I didn’t know him either. It was Mr Lonza signing for everything.”

  “Lonza?” It wasn’t a name that was familiar to me.

  “Sure. Rocco Lonza. Hey, you think you were surprised to see your friend here? Well, it was one heck of a surprise to see Lonza, I can tell you! Never expected a guy like him to turn up in a place like this.”

  I still had no idea whom he was talking about, but he seemed happy to talk and I was happy to let him. Hotel staff are often a bit tight-lipped about their guests – but bar staff are the best bet for a bit of information. Especially when they are essentially just passing through.

  “You know him, then?” I prompted.

  “Not personally, but over in the States he’s real big in business. Some sorts of business.” He put a distinct emphasis on “some”, and gave me a knowing look. “Sort of like your guy is in soccer, I guess: if you know the game, you know the name.”

  “What sort of business? Sports, perhaps?”

  “Sure, sports. Lot of other things as well. He’s one of these wheeler-dealer guys, always got a whole lot of things going on at once, you know?”

  He glanced around, then leaned forward and spoke more quietly. “Word is though that a lot of those deals are – what’s the word you use over here? Dodgy?”

  “You mean dodgy as in borderline illegal?”

  “That’s right. That sort of dodgy. Not that he’s ever been convicted or anything, so don’t repeat it. But they say he’s connected.”

  “Connected?”

  “Yeah! You know. Like he’s connected with the Mob.”

  The Mob. Gangsters, organized crime, Godfathers. I looked at him, incredulous. That sort of stuff happened in films. Not in commonplace little hotel bars in England.

  “You’re kidding me. The Mob? Really?”

  He nodded vigorously. “That’s what I’ve heard. All that money he does his dealing with – it’s Mafia money, and he’s their top laundry guy.”

  I stared at him, then shook my head. “Well, I must be wrong then. I mean – the Mafia? That wouldn’t be Adi. Couldn’t be. Sorry, my mistake.”

  I went back out through reception, nodding to the Vale fan, who was still behind the counter.

  “Any luck?” he asked.

  “No, it wasn’t him. Just looked very much like him, that’s all.”

  He shook his head, sorrowfully. “Pity. It would have been something to have Adi Varney here.”

  “It would indeed,” I agreed. “Thanks for your help, anyway.”

  I headed back to the marquee and the wedding reception, amazed yet again by the affection that local people still had for Adi, even after all these years. I wished it had been him. There was so much I wanted – needed – to say. But I was now quite sure that it couldn’t have been. Adi, mixed up with the Mafia? One hundred per cent not.

  Well, ninety-nine per cent not, anyway.

  That odd one per cent was going to get me into trouble.