‘No, I’m more concerned with something he’s got a part in. I want to trace someone through him.’
‘Male or female?’
‘Female.’
‘In the business?’
‘Not as such; this lady seems to collect actors.’
‘What’s her name?’
‘Madeleine January.’
‘January, January. Mmm.’ Sly went back to pondering. ‘I know ’er,’ he exclaimed, with a small cry of triumph. ‘She works for the Billy Dorset Agency. A year or so back she tried to poach one of my lads, Barton Mawhinney. He was giving her one and she thought he’d follow her across the street when she asked him, but he stayed loyal. When he told me about it, I had a word with Billy. He wasn’t too pleased; there’s still some honour in our business, Oz.’
‘I’m glad to hear it: there’s less in Hollywood, I can tell you.’
He chuckled. ‘Hollywood, eh? Who’d ’ave thought it? Good for you, son, I’m really pleased, the way you’ve made it. How are things panning out with your new guy? You still happy with him?’
‘Look at my credits, Sly. What do you think?’
‘Yeah, of course you are. Look, leave this with me, I’ll have a word with Barton and with Billy Dorset, see if he’s still seeing her, and if she still works there.’
‘Thanks.’ I’d been hoping he’d offer to do that. ‘When you do, though, don’t let slip to anyone that it’s me who’s looking for her.’
‘Worry not, my son.’ He paused. ‘But what will I say? I’ll need some kind of story.’
‘Don’t say anything unless you’re asked. But if you are, tell her that Ewan Capperauld asked if you knew where to find her. Tell her that a journalist’s been looking all over Edinburgh for her.’
‘A journalist? Is that true?’
I smiled. ‘It is, Sly, in a manner of speaking.’
13
The real truth was that I hadn’t given any thought to the central question of how I’d approach Harvey’s ex-wife. But as Sly Burr forced me to think about it, a rudimentary and very simple plan began to form in my mind.
There would be a ‘journalist’: Conrad Kent.
I didn’t say anything to him, though, as we checked out of the hotel. I was still fine-tuning the approach in my mind.
I said farewell to Mary in a corner of the foyer: she’d decided to stay in Edinburgh for another day, then go back to Anstruther to adapt the house so that my dad could live on the ground floor for a while. Walking would be part of his recovery regime, but it would be on the level, for a while at least.
We hadn’t spoken about Jan since that long night in the hospital, but I couldn’t let it go at that. ‘You’re not going to let anything slip, are you?’ I asked her. ‘You sure you’ll be strong enough to keep the secret?’
‘I’ve kept it this long, haven’t I? Don’t worry, Oz, it’ll die with me. Your father will never know he was Jan’s father too.’
‘With respect, Mary, the truth won’t die with you. . unless you outlive me, that is. I’ll have to carry it with me.’
She looked up at me. ‘How do you feel about Jan now?’ she asked me.
I felt my forehead knot. ‘I don’t know. How am I supposed to feel?’
‘Before you knew the truth, what was she to you?’
‘She was the one, the one above all others.’
‘Then let her still be that.’
‘She was my half-sister, Mary.’
‘That’s not what it says on her birth certificate, or on your marriage certificate, or on her gravestone.’
‘I know, but now I feel as if I loved her under false pretences, somehow. It’s doing my head in. If she’d known the truth, it wouldn’t have been that way. . we wouldn’t have been that way.’
‘That’s where you’re wrong. She did, and it was; you were.’
I felt myself sway; I glanced at Conrad in case he’d noticed, but he had his back to us. ‘Jan knew?’ I whispered, incredulous.
She nodded. ‘I didn’t tell you the whole truth at the hospital. She guessed; I don’t know how, but she guessed. Sometimes I think she had special gifts.’
I’m in no doubt about that: I’ve seen Jan a couple of times since she died. Before, I didn’t believe in the transcendence of the human spirit beyond this plane of existence; I do now.
‘When did she find out?’
‘When you were in your mid-twenties; she came to me and asked point-blank if you were her brother. She told me she’d had a weird experience. She’d been washing one day when she looked in the mirror and saw your face; quite clearly, she said. She stared for a while, until you winked at her, then altered, but only slightly, and she was herself again. I couldn’t lie to her: her insight was too strong.’
‘What did she say?’
‘Nothing. I told her and she turned and walked away. We only discussed it once more after that.’
‘Mid-twenties,’ I murmured, ‘just when we drifted apart for a while.’
‘That was why. She was very clever: she made you think it was mostly your idea, but if you think about it, I’m sure you’ll realise that it was hers. She kept you at a distance, but not too far away. House-sharing with the woman Turkel was a kind of screen she built between the two of you.’
I thought back to those days and I smiled. ‘It didn’t stop her ringing my door at midnight a few times.’
‘I know; she couldn’t really live without you.’
‘What made her stop trying?’
‘Isn’t it obvious? Primavera. All your other flings she regarded as harmless, but when you met her, Jan saw that it was different. When you went off to Spain with her, she came to me; that was the only time I ever saw her cry as an adult. She said to me, “I don’t care, Mum. I don’t really care about anyone or anything but Oz.” And so I told her, “Then get him back.” And she did. And she was happy again, until the day she died.’
She reached up once more, and touched my face, as she’d done in the hospital. ‘Let it rest, Oz. You were very special together, you two; you should be proud of that. Bloodlines aren’t everything: it’s love that counts. Cling on to that thought, and enjoy what’s left of your life: there’s at least half of it in front of you, with luck.’
‘Susie?’ I asked. ‘Did she ever tell you what she really thought of Susie?’
Mary laughed lightly. ‘As a matter of fact she did. She said she thought of her as the other side of Primavera; that they were much the same person, only one was a cherub and the other was an imp.’
‘No prizes for guessing which was which. She was pretty generous, though, describing Primavera as a mere imp. Horns, pitchfork and a tail fit her better when she goes off the rails.’
‘In that case you can be sure that Jan’s glad you’ve wound up with the right one.’
I squeezed her hand. ‘Look after my dad,’ I said. ‘Get him through to Loch Lomond as soon as he’s ready for it.’
‘I will, I promise. Go and catch your plane now.’ Actually it wasn’t a matter of catching it: the aircraft was at our disposal. Nevertheless I wanted to see Susie and the kids again, and I had to catch up with old Benny Luker, who was, no doubt, running up a monster tab in the Columbus at my expense.
In the taxi to the terminal and eventually on the flight itself, my mind turned back to my mission for Harvey and to Madeleine January. I looked at Conrad, and imagined him trying to pretend to be a journalist. The more I did, the more trouble I had with the notion. My security manager is a very straight guy; there’s no duplicity about him.
Fortunately, I had a ready alternative, someone who was absolutely full of it.
14
I’d been phoning Susie several times every day, of course, so I knew that there were no crises at home. Prim was still there; she said that she had intended to leave the previous Sunday, but she had agreed to stay on until I got back. Susie hadn’t seen Dylan since I’d been away. I was glad to hear it, but I never doubted that I’d find him in the hotel.
He had fifty thousand green-backed reasons not to leave the principality.
The flight was as uneventful as the first, but this time Conrad and I were in a mood to enjoy the personal service that came with the charter deal. As soon as we landed in Cannes, I switched on my cell-phone; the Citation was still taxiing to the terminal building when it rang.
‘Oz, where you been, son?’ Sly Burr exclaimed in my ear. ‘I been trying to get you.’
‘I’ve been a bit up in the air. What is it, Sly?’
‘I asked around about your lady,’ he said. ‘She ain’t with Billy Dorset any more, or with Bart Mawhinney. Billy fired her last year, and she dumped Bart after I shopped her for trying to poach him.’
‘What about Sandy Wilde? Are you sure he’s out of the picture?’
‘As far out as you can get without being dead: he met up with another Aussie, a dancer in a TV show they worked on together. They went back down under together; last I heard Sandy had a part in another soap, and the other fella. .’
‘Fella?’
‘Sandy’s a switch-hitter, I told you. His pal’s dancing in another show.’
‘So the trail’s cold.’
‘Did I say that? Billy told me that he sacked her because he had another complaint from an agent, Renee Danziger, about her having it off with her talent, an actor called Lee Kan Tong. That’s his real name, by the way: professionally, he’s Tony Lee. A lot of these Orientals anglicise their names. This time, Madeleine didn’t try to talk the guy away from Renee, but she had a reputation for it and that was enough. Billy decided she was a liability.’
‘Liability? She sounds like the ideal business-development exec.’
Sly sighed. ‘I told you, son, we don’t work that way. The big agencies might not be as scrupulous, but us small people, we all know each other, like colleagues.’
‘So is that what she’s doing now? “Developing” potential new clients for a big agency?’
‘Nah. I called Renee and asked if Tony Lee was still seeing her. Apparently he is.’
I smiled. Trust my man Sly to come up with the goods. ‘Great. Where can I track her down?’
There was a pause, too long to be anything but significant. ‘Ah, well, son, that’s the thing, ain’t it? This Tony, he was offered a job, wasn’t he? With an outfit called the Heritage Theatre Company as director. So he took it, and Madeleine went with him.’
‘Went? Went where?’
‘Singapore, mate, that’s where she is.’
The smile turned into a sigh: my mission had just taken on another dimension. ‘Singapore?’
‘Yes, it’s in the Far East.’
‘I know where it is, Sly. It’s a fucking long way, that’s where it is. You’re sure about this?’
‘Dead certain. Renee had an e-mail from him last week. He mentioned Maddy, said that she was coping with the heat, no problem.’
‘Okay, thanks for that, Sly.’
‘That’s no problem either. Any time, son.’ There was another pause. ‘Say, you wouldn’t put a word in for me with Ewan Capperauld, would you? I hear he’s not too chuffed with his new agency.’
I couldn’t help but laugh. ‘What happened to scruples?’
‘Ah, but he’s with one of the big outfits; fuck them and all who sail in them.’
‘Ewan’s not for you, Sly, you know that as well as I do. I’ll introduce you to Roscoe Brown, though: he’s looking for an associate in London.’
‘Thanks, son. That’ll be appreciated. Is he Jewish?’
I was still chuckling as I hung up on him, unclipped my seatbelt and climbed out of the Citation into a blazing Mediterranean afternoon. I wondered how much hotter it was in Singapore.
15
The kids were all over me when I made it back home. Even Tom, who’s normally a quiet lad, yelled with delight when he saw me and came charging up to me, almost elbowing his half-sister out of the way. Half-sister: I looked at him and Janet and thought again of myself, and Jan. When I did so I realised, to my surprise, that the turmoil had gone. Mary was right: love really does conquer all. The thing that cracked it, that gave me peace, was the disclosure that Jan had known all along, and that she had decided that nothing, least of all an accident of birth for which neither of us had been responsible, was going to keep us apart.
I played with Janet, Tom and wee Jonathan for the rest of the afternoon, around the house and in the pool, until finally we were all knackered. When Ethel arrived to take them for their evening meal, I collapsed on to a lounger next to Susie and Prim; she had been there when I’d got back. I looked at the two of them, and thought of Jan again, and what she’d said about them. I confess that when I considered the generosity with which the good side had allowed the repentant bad side back into our circle, I began to worry. I hoped it wouldn’t backfire.
‘Is Mac really going to be all right?’ Susie asked me. I glanced to my right and saw two faces each one waiting for my answer with the same concern. My dad inspires that in people.
‘He really is,’ I promised them both. ‘He might well have died, there in the golf club, but he didn’t, and when they kept him alive long enough to get him into theatre. . well, it hasn’t exactly been plain sailing from then on, but it’s been okay. Once he recovers fully from the surgery and the new valve gets bedded in, he’ll be as fit as any other sixty-six-year-old retired dentist, and a bloody sight fitter than most.’
‘He’s retiring?’ Prim exclaimed. I’d told Susie about Carol Salt, clearly she hadn’t passed it on.
I nodded. ‘Finally, he is. He’s decided, having nearly done it once, that dying on the golf course is a hell of a lot better than dying in harness. I’ve found someone to take on his practice and the deal’s done.’
Prim grinned. ‘What a pity. I need a filling replaced and I was hoping that Mac would do it.’
‘The world is still full of expensive dentists,’ I told her, ‘and you can afford it.’
She left at seven. She said that she’d finally agreed to have dinner with Dylan in the Columbus. While I was away, they’d shared a few Bellinis in the cocktail bar of an evening, but that had been all.
‘How is Benny?’ I asked, as I walked her to the door, where Conrad was waiting with the car.
‘Bored. He says he’s memorised the model and year of every car in the motor museum, and he’s, here I quote, “on first-name terms with every fucking fish in the fucking aquarium”. However, he also said that he’s ahead in the casino.’
‘I’m going to cure his boredom, and give him more funds to gamble with. Tell him to be waiting for me in the lobby at noon tomorrow; we’ll go for a spot of lunch and I’ll brighten his day.’ That reminded me. ‘Have you had a chance to speak to Dawn yet?’
‘No: I’m not going to break that news over the phone. I’ll see her on Thursday: she and Miles are bringing Bruce to visit Dad in Auchterarder. Oh, yes, Miles did ask how you’d got on with Mr Luker. I stalled him; told him that Mac’s illness had put things on hold, but that you’d pick it up again when you got back.’
‘Good girl. I still think he’ll go ape-shit, but you never know.’ I kissed her cheek, bade her farewell, then went back to Susie, who was in our bedroom showering off the pool water.
I hadn’t seen her for almost a week, so it was a while before we were ready for dinner. When we were, we decided that we’d go out to Le Cafe de la Mer, in the Grand Hotel for a bite of steak and a sea view.
Once we’d reached the coffee stage, I told her about my lunch with Harvey. When she’d picked herself off the floor and stopped laughing about the thought of him and his hard-on in a judge’s robes and wig, she became suitably outraged at the thought of Madeleine being out there and in a position to ruin his career.
‘You’ve got to help him, Oz,’ she said. ‘Harvey’s really nice; he and Ellie don’t deserve that. Find the woman and get the negatives back.’
‘I’ve had another thought.’ I chuckled casually. ‘I’ll find her and lock her in a small r
oom with my sister.’
‘Steady on, now,’ Susie protested. ‘There’s a UN convention against that sort of thing.’ She winked at me. ‘It’s a good idea, though. Still, finding her’s the first priority. Any ideas?’
‘I know where she is.’ I explained the detective work that Sly Burr had done on my behalf.
‘Well done, Mr Burr,’ she said. ‘Singapore? That’s a long way off; maybe she won’t hear about Harvey going on the Bench.’
‘She’ll hear about it, love. Unless she’s cut herself off from every friend and relative she ever had in Britain, she’s going to find out. . or at least we have to assume that she will. The crossed-fingers option isn’t open to us.’
‘What is, then? What can we do?’
I gazed across the table at her. ‘Well, I do have an idea, but it involves a trip out there, to Singapore. Do you fancy coming? You and the kids, that is.’
‘Have you ever been there?’ she asked.
‘No.’
‘In that case you don’t have any idea how humid it can be. I know: I was there when I was eighteen and I still haven’t forgotten. I can’t take the children out there, especially not wee Jonathan: we’d have to paint him in sun-block. Plus I don’t fancy explaining to Janet and Tom that they can’t go in the pool when it’s sunny, in case they come out parboiled. Plus they have earthquakes out there and tsunamis and stuff.’
She had a valid point, a whole list of them in fact. Neither Susie nor I is the timid type, until it comes to our children. Then our protection instinct clicks in, quick time.
‘Could we send a detective?’ she asked me.
‘To do what, exactly? Harvey insisted that any steps I take have to be within the law. That being the case, we can hardly brief him not to take “fuck off” for an answer, can we?’
For The Death Of Me ob-9 Page 9
