Super-Cannes

by J. G. Ballard

  Remembering my modest knee-brace, I stopped by a glass cabinet that displayed two lifesize mannequins in full orthopaedic rig. Replicas of a man and a woman, they each wore a cuirass of pink plastic around the torso, and their jaws were supported by moulded collars that encased them from the lower lip to the nape of the neck. Elaborately sculptured corslets and cuisses, like the fantasies of an obsessive armourer, surrounded their hips and thighs, discreet apertures provided for whatever natural functions were still left to these hybrid creatures.

  ‘Dear God …’ an English voice murmured over my shoulder. ‘Now we know. Love in Eden-Olympia …’

  I turned to find the tipsy woman in the business suit who had followed me across the terrace. Her make-up was still in place, but the sunlight had drawn a film of perspiration through her lipstick and eye shadow. As she swayed on her high-heels I assumed that she was the raunchy wife of a British surgeon attending the congress, an afternoon vamp on the Croisette prowl.

  ‘Marriage à la mode …’ She pressed her hands against the display case and peered challengingly at the models. ‘But do they love each other? What do you say, Mr Sinclair?’

  She steered the blonde hair from her forehead, and I recognized the woman with the laptop who had sat near me in the open-air café near the Elf building. She was sober but ill at ease, her fingers fretting at the copy of Vogue she carried. A male sales assistant moved past us, and she handed him the magazine, waving him away before he could speak. I noticed the dust on her shoes, and assumed that she had been following me for longer than the brief walk across the terrace of the Palais des Festivals.

  Irritated that Eden-Olympia was keeping its cyclops eye on me, I tried to step around her, tripped over an uncovered cable and pulled my knee. Wincing at the sudden pain, I leaned against the display case.

  ‘Mr Sinclair?’ Her hands steadied me. ‘Are you …?’

  ‘Don’t tell me, I know…’ I pointed to the orthopaedic models. ‘I’ve come to the right place.’

  ‘You need to sit down. There’s a bar upstairs.’

  ‘Thanks, but I have to go.’

  ‘I’ll buy you a drink.’

  ‘I don’t need a drink.’ Annoyed by the clinging edginess, I spoke sharply. ‘You work at Eden-Olympia. For Pascal Zander?’

  ‘Who could? I’m in the property services department – Frances Baring.’ She frowned into the mirror of her compact, stung by the rebuff and irritated with herself for having to approach me so clumsily. ‘Please, Mr Sinclair. I need to talk to you about an old friend of ours.’

  As the waiter took our order she tore a sachet of salt and poured the grains into the ashtray. She twisted the paper square into an arrow and pointed it at me.

  Still unsure why this attractive but prickly woman had approached me, I said: ‘We’re neighbours – I saw you this afternoon at Eden-Olympia.’

  ‘Alcatraz-sur-Mer.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘Catch up. It’s my nickname for Eden-Olympia.’

  ‘Not bad. But is it a prison?’

  ‘Of course. It pretends to be a space station. People like Pascal Zander are really living on Mars.’

  I stopped her mutilating a second sachet. ‘Frances, relax. Our drinks are coming.’

  ‘Sorry.’ She flashed a quick smile. ‘I hate this kind of thing. I’d never have made a good whore. I could cope with the sex, but all those smoky glances across crowded lobbies … I wanted to talk to you, away from Eden-Olympia. I’m due to see your wife soon, I believe.’

  ‘Jane?’

  ‘Yes. One of the endless check-ups Eden-Olympia arranges. When they find nothing wrong you love them all the more. I look forward to meeting her.’

  ‘She helps out with colonoscopies.’

  ‘You mean she’ll put a camera up my bottom? I’ve always wanted to be on television. What about you?’

  ‘I’m on holiday. It’s lasted a little longer than I planned.’

  ‘We’ve all noticed. You’re the Ben Gunn of our treasure island. I thought you were writing a social history of the car park.’

  ‘I should. It’s like Los Angeles, the car parks tend to find you, wherever you are. My legs need the exercise – they’re getting over a flying accident.’

  ‘Yes, you’re a pilot …’ She lit a cigarette, briefly setting fire to the ashtray. ‘Does that mean you have an interesting sex life?’

  ‘I hope so – I’m a devoted husband. That must strike you as totally deviant.’

  ‘No. Just a little against nature. Rather romantic, though.’

  Tired of this forced banter, I waved away the cigarette smoke and tried to meet her eyes. Was she holding me here until Zander’s men arrived? A team could have followed Delage’s limousine to Cannes, tipped off by the aide, then lost me as I zigzagged on my abortive errands. Frances Baring had picked up the trail as I wandered along the Croisette.

  But if she was a femme fatale she was a surprisingly inept one, working on her own with only the roughest idea of how to pursue her agenda. I was struck by how much she differed from Jane. My teenage doctor was girlish but supremely confident, while Frances was sophisticated but unsure of herself, probably climbing the upper slopes of the corporate pyramid with little more than her scatty humour to protect her. I looked over the balcony at the orthopaedic mannequins wearing their fetishist armour. Jane would break down in guffaws if I suggested that she wore one of the cuirasses as an erotic aid, but I could imagine Frances harnessing up without comment.

  Seeing me smile at her, she sipped her drink and then held the glass between us, exposing the waxy imprint of her lips like the forensic trace of a kiss, the second I had seen that day.

  ‘Right, Paul,’ she announced. ‘I’m relaxed.’

  ‘Good. Now, who is the friend we share? Friendship isn’t that common at Eden-Olympia.’

  ‘This friend isn’t there any more.’ Her fingers moved towards a salt sachet, stopped and calmed themselves by eviscerating the stub of her cigarette. ‘He died a few months ago. Last May, in fact…’

  ‘David Greenwood?’ When she nodded, her face clouding, I said: ‘How long have you been at Eden-Olympia?’

  ‘Three years. It feels longer since David died.’

  ‘You were close?’

  ‘On and off. He was very busy.’

  ‘The children’s refuge, the methadone clinic. And the Alice library.’

  ‘Alice, yes. “Never seen by waking eyes …”‘ She stared at the imprint on her glass, unaware that her lips were moving, a sub-vocal message across the void.

  Concerned for her, I reached out and steadied her hands. ‘Were you there on May 28?’

  ‘In my office at the Siemens building. I was there all day.’

  ‘You saw the police arrive and heard the shooting?’

  ‘Absolutely. Helicopters, ambulances, film crews … the whole nightmare played itself out like an insane video game. I haven’t really woken up.’

  ‘I understand.’ I held her empty glass, hot from the fever of her hands. ‘All those deaths. They hardly seem possible.’

  ‘Why?’ She frowned at me, assuming that I was making some abstruse point. ‘Everything’s possible at Eden-Olympia. That’s its raison d’être.’

  ‘But the murders don’t chime with Greenwood’s character. He was a builder, a creator of projects, not a destroyer. Jane says he was an old-style idealist.’

  ‘Maybe that explains it all – idealists can be dangerous.’

  ‘You’re saying he shot all those people from some higher motive?’

  ‘What other reason is there? A sudden “brainstorm”?’

  ‘It seems likely.’

  ‘Eden-Olympia is a brainstorm.’ She spoke with soft disgust. ‘Wilder Penrose is storming the brains …’

  ‘I take it you don’t like the place?’

  ‘I love it.’ She signalled to the waiter, ordering another round of drinks. ‘I make three times the salary I did in London, there are perks galore, a gorgeous fla
t at Marina Baie des Anges. And all the games I want to play.’

  ‘Are there any games? The sports clubs are empty.’

  ‘Not that sort of game.’ She watched me with the first real curiosity, her eyes running over my tweed sports jacket. ‘These are games of a different night.’

  ‘They sound like quite an effort.’

  ‘They are. Games at Eden-Olympia are always the serious kind.’

  ‘The man who gave me a lift to Cannes seemed to be saying that.’

  ‘Alain Delage? Be careful with him. He looks like a mousy accountant but he’s a textbook anal-sadist.’

  ‘You must know him well. Were you lovers?’

  ‘I don’t think so. His wife is more my type but she plays hard to get. That’s the trouble with Eden-Olympia – you can’t remember if you once had sex with someone. Like Marbella or … Maida Vale.’

  She had tossed in my London address, a friendly warning that she knew more about me than I assumed. But I was sure now that Frances Baring was not working for Zander or anyone else at Eden-Olympia. For reasons of her own she had set up our accidental encounter, and was now pretending to flirt with me, unsure whether I was worth the effort. In her edgy way, nervous of being rebuffed, she was reaching out to me. I sensed that she needed my help, but would take her time in coming to the point. Already I had warmed to her, to the tart tongue and wary eyes, to the full figure she casually used to keep the waiters in their place. At last I had met someone who was a direct link to David Greenwood and not afraid to speak her mind.

  ‘You wanted to talk about Greenwood,’ I reminded her. ‘How well did you know him?’

  ‘We met at official functions, topping-out ceremonies. He was lonely and didn’t realize it. But you understand how that feels.’

  ‘Am I lonely?’

  ‘Limping around all day?’ She brushed her cigarette ash from my sleeve, and seemed almost concerned for me. ‘Poor man, I’ve watched you.’

  ‘Frances … could someone else have carried out the killings? Suppose David was framed. A young English doctor …’

  ‘No.’ Her eyes roamed around the bar, in search of another drink, but she spoke distinctly. ‘David killed them – seven of them, anyway.’

  ‘And the hostages?’

  ‘I doubt it. Not much point.’

  ‘The Cannes police say they were shot in the garage. Everyone accepts that, like the brainstorm explanation.’

  ‘It’s the perfect alibi.’ She lowered her voice as two elderly American surgeons in tracksuits sat at the next table. ‘But it only just worked. David Greenwood nearly destroyed Eden-Olympia. Huge amounts of corporate funding were pulled out. We had to renegotiate leases, cut rents and offer rebates that were practically bribes. Who cares about a couple of dead chauffeurs?’

  ‘All the same, there’s something going on. It’s not a conspiracy, or even a cover-up. David may have killed those people, but no one will say why.’ I took a spare copy of the appointments list from my breast pocket and placed it in front of Frances. ‘Recognize the names?’

  ‘All of them.’ She ran a varnished finger down the column, stabbing at those who had died. ‘Mostly the great and the good.’

  ‘I took it from David’s computer. I think it’s a hit list.’

  ‘That makes sense. It even includes Wilder Penrose. Good for David – let’s kill all the psychiatrists.’

  ‘You don’t like Penrose?’

  ‘He’s charming, in that brutal way of his. Eden-Olympia is a huge experiment for him. All that brochure-speak about the first intelligent city, the ideas laboratory for the future. He takes it seriously.’

  ‘Don’t you?’

  ‘Sure. We’re the vanguard of a new world-aristocracy. Penrose would get a shock if he knew that one of his prize pupils set out after breakfast to kill him.’

  ‘I don’t think he’d mind.’

  ‘Of course not. He’d be flattered.’ She scanned the names. ‘Robert Fontaine – he was rather charming. Very Walloon, loved Clovis Trouille and all those nuns being buggered. Olga Carlotti, head of personnel. Tough luck, she was Eden-Olympia’s uncrowned queen. A cool, glamorous dyke.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘You sound shocked. She had the pick of the office juniors. Guy Bachelet, head of security. Superbly lecherous, a great loss. He often needed a safehouse for the private detectives he brought in from Marseilles. Spent his time gazing at my legs.’ Frances returned the list to me. ‘Sad, isn’t it? One moment you’re propositioning the hired help, and the next you’re looking down at your own brains spattered across the desk …’

  ‘You heard the shots?’

  ‘Not really. Alarms started ringing, all the elevators stopped. I was amazed at the number of doors that automatically locked. David got onto the roof of the car park next to our building.’

  ‘And then?’

  ‘The security people pulled their fingers out.’

  ‘So David knew it was all over and went back to the villa?’

  ‘I suppose so.’ Frances stared hard at her knuckles. ‘David was very sweet. It’s sad that Eden-Olympia changed him.’

  ‘How, exactly?’

  ‘The way it changes everyone. People float free of themselves…’ She frowned at the flushed cheeks in her compact mirror, and picked up the bill. Suddenly keen to leave, she said: ‘There’s an English-language radio station in Antibes – Riviera News. Last July they broadcast a special feature. The reporter followed the death route. Give them a call.’

  We left the mezzanine and walked down to the floor below. As Frances swayed against the display cases I realized that we were slightly drunk, though not from the two glasses of wine.

  Frances stopped by the mannequins in their orthopaedic cell. ‘All that armour – can you see yourself wearing it to make love?’

  ‘Can you?’

  ‘It might be worth a try. Why not?’

  ‘I wore a knee-brace after my accident. It did nothing for my sex life.’

  ‘How sad …’ Frances took my arm, as if I were a near-senile cripple who had renounced all earthly pleasures. ‘That’s the saddest thing I’ve heard all day …’

  On the steps of the Palais des Festivals the orthopaedic surgeons were emerging from their lecture. I followed Frances into the narrow streets to the west of the Gray d’Albion Hotel, happy to be in the company of this distracted but glamorous woman. As we passed the American Express office she slipped on the crowded pavement and steadied herself against an open-topped BMW parked by the kerb. She peered into her compact, and examined her teeth.

  ‘My mouth smells like a bar. I’m seeing my dentist in ten minutes. Remember Riviera News.’

  ‘I will.’ I touched her cheek, removing a loose eyelash. ‘You’ve helped me a lot over David Greenwood. We could meet here again. I may have more questions you can answer.’

  ‘I’m sure you will.’ She stared at me over her sunglasses. ‘That’s very forward of you, Mr Sinclair.’

  ‘I mean well.’

  ‘I know what you mean.’ Her hips pressed against the BMW, and the curvature of its door deflected the lines of her thigh, as if the car was a huge orthopaedic device that expressed a voluptuous mix of geometry and desire. She rooted in her handbag. ‘Tell me, how’s your car?’

  ‘The Jaguar? Ageing gracefully.’

  ‘I was worried about it. I hear it was involved in a small collision with a Japanese sports saloon.’

  ‘Did Penrose tell you that?’

  ‘Who knows? He’s very forgiving. But I’m interested in why you damaged his car.’

  ‘The light was bad.’

  ‘It wasn’t.’ She waited as three French sailors stepped past, each carefully inspecting her deep cleavage. ‘You don’t dislike Penrose. So why?’

  ‘It’s hard to explain. I was… corrupting myself. Eden-Olympia encourages that.’

  ‘Very true. The first sensible thing you’ve said. We desperately need new vices. Yes, we might well meet …’ />
  Before I could reply she waved and strode away, losing herself in the afternoon tourists. I stood in the sunlight, savouring the scented air she had left behind her. I realized that she had never explained what she wanted to talk about, but it no longer mattered.

  A group of schoolchildren emerged from a nearby travel agency, and forced me against the BMW. I leaned back, supporting myself on the windscreen. A clutch of holiday brochures lay on the open passenger seat. Tucked beneath them was a set of keys, linked to a medallion that bore the BMW logo, forgotten by the car’s owner when he left for a nearby appointment.

  The schoolchildren returned in a noisy posse, shouting at a missing friend. As they shielded me from the travel agency windows I unlatched the door of the BMW and slipped into the driver’s seat. Traffic blocked the street as I started the engine. When it cleared I pulled out in front of a municipal water cart. Careful not to attract the interest of the policemen on duty outside the Palais des Festivals, I turned onto the eastbound carriageway of the Croisette.

  I passed the Majestic, the Carlton and the Martinez, my eyes watching the rear-view mirror, and followed the Croisette towards the Palm Beach casino. Rounding the point, I set off along the free beach where off-duty waiters lounged in their skimpy briefs, watching the young women play volleyball on the chocolate sand.

  As I joined the fast corniche road to Golfe-Juan a publicity aircraft was towing its pennant above the lighthouse at La Garoupe. Powerboats cut through the waters around the Îles de Lérins. The cool air moved over the windscreen, carrying away the sweat of fear from my face, urging everything to flow faster through an afternoon of eroticism and possibility.

  Relaxing on the coast highway, I changed down to third gear. For the next thirty minutes I drove like a Frenchman, overtaking on the inside lanes, straddling the central marker lines on the most dangerous bends, tailgating any woman driver doing less than seventy, my headlamps flashing, slipping the clutch at traffic lights as the exhaust roared through the muffler and the engine wound itself to a screaming 7000 revs, swerving across double yellows and forcing any oncoming drivers to dig their wheels in the refuse-filled verges.