Last Resort

by Susan Lewis

  ‘Lawyers,’ Esther mumbled. ‘Talking to his lawyers. Wally drove him there.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘Paris.’

  Penny nodded, then with no prompting at all, Esther said, ‘He’s giving himself up.’

  Penny’s face froze and her heart began to pound. ‘Giving himself up?’ she repeated, appalled by how close she was to panicking.

  Esther nodded. ‘Got to strike the right deal with the District Attorney’s office first. Then he’s giving himself up.’

  ‘How long will the deal take to arrange?’ Penny asked, unable to accept the idea that he was about to disappear for good when she hadn’t even met him. Esther shook her head and suddenly looked so unbearably sad that Penny said softly, ‘You’re very fond of him, aren’t you?’

  ‘Fine boy,’ Esther answered staring down at her drink. ‘Damn fine boy. Going to miss him if he goes.’

  Penny waited for several moments to pass, then said, ‘If he’s intending to give himself up, there doesn’t seem any harm in us meeting, does there?’

  ‘Not definite yet,’ Esther replied. ‘Destined to meet, though, I know that. Billy told me.’

  Penny blinked and wondered if she had heard correctly. ‘Billy?’ she repeated.

  ‘Yes, Billy. I talk to him, you know. Through a medium, of course. He tells me things.’

  Penny took a moment to digest this. Spiritualism wasn’t normally something she put a lot of store by, but under the circumstances she wouldn’t mind hearing a bit more. So, leaning her head to one side as a ploy to encourage the old lady’s eyes back to hers, she said, ‘What sort of things?’

  Esther’s mouth opened and her lips trembled for a moment before she seemed suddenly to deflate. ‘Wally doesn’t like me to talk about it,’ she answered.

  ‘But Wally’s not here, is he?’ Penny said. ‘And I’d like to know.’

  Esther’s face twitched, then to Penny’s surprise she seemed to relax a little. ‘You’re a dear girl,’ she said, reaching over to pat Penny’s hand. ‘A dear girl. All a bit complicated, though. Can’t tell you anything unless given the all clear. Won’t get it, though. He won’t give it, I know that.’

  Penny forced herself to smile. ‘I already know,’ she said carefully, ‘about the drugs.’

  Instead of the chaos she’d expected this to throw Esther into, Esther simply nodded and said, ‘Thought you might. Never did any harm to anyone, though. He’s a good man. Bit of a rascal,’ she chuckled, ‘but he has a good heart. Always good to me. Wants to meet you, but Wally says no.’

  ‘Wally?’ Penny repeated, unable to believe that Wally Delaney would have any influence over a man like Mureau.

  ‘Too risky for him,’ Esther answered.

  Penny pursed her lips thoughtfully for a while, then said, ‘I can understand Wally’s objections to us meeting, but, tell me, do you object to it too?’

  Esther’s eyes fell to her glass. ‘Have to do what Wally says,’ she answered bleakly.

  ‘But do you personally have any objections?’ Penny pressed.

  Esther shook her head. ‘Busy man, but lonely since his wife left him,’ she said, almost in a whisper.

  Penny’s eyebrows went up as she saw now what she should have seen before: that to appeal to the romantic side of Esther Delaney would be a better approach. ‘How did he get my phone number?’ she asked. ‘Did you give it to him?’

  Esther’s blush was answer enough.

  ‘Can I ask what he said about me?’ she said.

  ‘No, don’t think I can repeat that. Wally wouldn’t like it.’

  Damn Wally to hell, Penny thought angrily. ‘Would it surprise you,’ she said calmly, ‘if I told you that I found him very attractive?’

  ‘No, wouldn’t surprise me. He said the same about you,’ Esther confided.

  Penny’s heart skipped. Then an extraordinarily rash idea suddenly occurred to her. If Christian Mureau could go to vernissages, then what was there to stop him going to launch parties? But almost as soon as she thought it she dismissed it, for getting Esther to go behind Wally’s back to issue the invitation would be next to impossible. Not only that: if Christian did come, Wally would accuse Esther of having had a hand in it. But what if she, Penny, somehow managed to issue the invitation herself . . . ?

  Sighing, she sat back in her chair and picked up her glass of wine. ‘You know, this is very frustrating for me,’ she said. ‘I very much want to meet him and in your heart I think that’s what you want too. But unless I can persuade you to give him a message from me I don’t see how that’s ever going to happen.’

  Esther simply looked at her.

  ‘All I want is for you to ask him to call me again,’ Penny said gently.

  To Penny’s unutterable frustration the old woman shook her head. ‘He won’t call,’ she said. ‘Wally’s told him not to.’

  Only just managing to hang on to her temper, while having no problem imagining Wally describing her as some kind of unscrupulous hack prepared to employ every trick in the book to get her story, Penny said, ‘Why is Wally so set against us meeting? I mean, what possible harm can it do Wally?’

  ‘Have to talk to Wally about that,’ Esther answered. ‘He knows more than I do. Lot of people involved, though . . . all very complicated.’

  ‘I understand that,’ Penny said snappishly, ‘but since you gave Christian my number, without my permission, I think you should at least give me his in return.’

  Esther’s eyes rounded with anguish.

  ‘I’m determined to get my own way over this,’ Penny said tersely, not at all proud of resorting to bullying tactics, even if they were probably all that would work on Esther Delaney. ‘So either you give me the number or I shall let it be known where Christian Mureau can be found.’

  The old woman’s papery face turned white. ‘Mustn’t do that,’ she gasped, obviously not realizing that Penny was hardly in a position to when she didn’t know whereabouts in Paris he was. ‘No, no, mustn’t do that.’

  ‘Then give me his number.’

  ‘I’ll take the message,’ Esther replied.

  ‘And you won’t tell Wally?’

  ‘No, no, mustn’t mention it to Wally.’

  Half an hour later Esther Delaney was walking unsteadily down the drive. When she reached the gates she looked back, to see Penny closing the shutters at the front of the house. Poor dear, Esther was thinking glumly to herself, she really doesn’t have any idea.

  Chapter 10

  ‘CONGRATULATIONS! IT’S YOUR lucky day!’ David grinned, closing Penny’s office door behind him and coming to sit down.

  ‘Well, as it so happens, I could do with one of those,’ Penny answered, selecting the printer’s ID on her computer, ready to transmit an editorial for the third edition of Nuance. Then, deciding to abandon it for the moment, she turned to David and to her dismay felt her heart churn. Why was it, she asked herself irritably, that after managing to hold herself together perfectly well all day one look at him was making her want either to dissolve into tears of frustration or scream like a mad woman?

  David frowned and looked at her closely. ‘Is something bothering you?’

  ‘No,’ she lied. David was the last person she was about to tell that she was making a total idiot of herself over the fact that though Esther Delaney had sworn she’d passed her message on to Christian, he still hadn’t called. That he was proving so elusive was simply making Penny more determined than ever to meet him, and being unable to do anything about it was driving her to such a pitch of frustration she could barely contain it.

  ‘Pauline Fields was pretty impressed with you,’ David told her, apparently trying to cheer her up.

  ‘I liked her too,’ Penny said, forcing a smile. ‘She’s coming to the party, by the way.’

  ‘So she tells me.’

  Penny’s eyes dropped to the paperwork in front of her as once again her mind started to wander.

  ‘Hey, remember me?’ David said softly.
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br />   Penny looked up. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘What were you saying?’

  ‘I was asking if something was bothering you.’

  ‘And I said no,’ which was the answer she’d been giving Sammy these past two weeks. ‘So, come on, then: why is it my lucky day?’ she said, forcing another smile.

  ‘I’ll come on to that in a minute,’ he said. ‘First I want to get to the bottom of what’s eating you.’

  ‘I’m just tired,’ Penny said, snappishly. Why wouldn’t he leave it alone?

  ‘OK, I can understand that. You’ve been burning the midnight oil for months, but I’d have expected you to be on a real high right now, ready for the launch.’

  ‘I am,’ she said tonelessly.

  ‘Yeah, looks like it,’ he said, using the same tone. ‘Marielle still giving you a hard time over the Pauline Fields thing?’

  ‘I can handle Marielle.’

  ‘Yeah, I guess you can. But she’s on your case, Pen,’ he warned. ‘She’s after getting you out of here and I can’t ignore what she’s been telling me. So let’s talk about it, shall we?’

  Penny’s face paled with fury. ‘There’s nothing to talk about,’ she seethed. ‘OK, I made a mistake in one of the editorials, but it’s cleared up now. There was no danger of it going to press, so what’s the problem?’

  ‘That’s what I’m trying to find out. I’m gone ten days and I come back to find you falling to pieces. It’s not what I expected of you, Penny.’

  ‘Well, I’m sorry about that,’ she said sarcastically. ‘But, quite frankly, I couldn’t give a flying fuck what you expected of me.’

  Compressing his lips, he nodded slowly. ‘OK, let’s take this another way. How are your plans coming along for LA?’

  ‘Fine,’ she answered.

  ‘Who have you been in touch with out there?’

  ‘A few people.’

  ‘Like who?’

  ‘What is this!’ she exploded. ‘You come in here telling me this is my lucky day, then you start giving me the third degree. Well, I don’t need it right now. Do you hear me? So get off my case, you and Marielle both. And while you’re at it get those thugs, whoever they are, to back off too. I’ve had just about a guts full of it.’

  David’s face darkened. ‘Who’s hassling you?’ he said.

  ‘Some fat guy in a Mercedes. Keeps crawling along the kerb after me, telling me he wants to talk to me. He’s called here I don’t know how many times and he’s calling me at home too.’

  ‘Shit,’ David seethed, dropping his head in his hands. Then, looking up again, ‘What did you tell him?’ he asked.

  ‘To fuck off,’ Penny answered, really not interested right now in what it was all about.

  The ghost of a smile passed over David’s lips, but his eyes remained serious. ‘I don’t want you talking to him, Pen, have you got that? Don’t, whatever you do, get in that car . . .’

  ‘I have no intention of getting in his car. But I would appreciate it if you didn’t keep doing this disappearing act of yours and handled the situation yourself.’

  Again he nodded. ‘You got it,’ he said. ‘So is that what’s been getting you down?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said, seizing the excuse.

  ‘Then I’ll see what I can do. Meantime, I’d say it’s a good thing you’re off to LA for a couple of weeks. You can do with the break and with any luck it’ll all be sorted by the time you get back.’

  ‘You don’t sound too confident about that,’ Penny retorted.

  ‘No, but it’s my problem, not yours, so I’ll handle it. Do you want to talk now about LA?’

  Penny shook her head. The very thought of leaving France, even if only for a couple of weeks, was anathema right now, when for all she knew Christian Mureau was on the point of handing himself in and she might end up missing a golden opportunity for an interview. Oh, how you do fool yourself, she told herself scathingly. But if she didn’t buck her ideas up a bit then it was on the cards that David would send her back to London anyway. ‘I need to finish putting through this editorial,’ she said. ‘Can we talk about it later?’

  ‘Sure.’ The humour that was never far from his eyes was making a reappearance. ‘Well, I’ve got to tell you,’ he said, ‘I’m crushed. I thought maybe it was because you’d been missing me that you were messing up here.’

  Despite herself, Penny started to smile. It was true, actually, she had missed him; in fact, she’d missed him a lot more than she was prepared to admit, especially to him. ‘What’s the lucky day about?’ she pressed.

  ‘You’re going to just love it,’ he teased.

  ‘David, get on with it, will you!’

  ‘I’m coming to stay at the villa with you,’ he grinned.

  Penny’s jaw dropped. ‘You’re what?’ she cried.

  ‘I’m coming to live with you. Well, for a couple of weeks. I’ll be out again by the time you get back from LA.’

  ‘I don’t remember inviting you,’ she said indignantly.

  ‘You don’t? Funny that, I don’t remember it either. Still, I’ll move my things in this afternoon if it’s all right with you.’

  ‘No, it most certainly is not all right with me,’ she cried, thumping the desk. ‘What’s the matter with your own place?’

  ‘I’ve been burgled,’ he answered, not seeming in the least bit put out about it.

  ‘When?’

  ‘While I was away. They made a bit of a mess of the place. The decorators are starting tomorrow.’

  ‘What did they take?’

  ‘Usual stuff. TV, video, hi-fi and a couple of other bits and pieces. Nothing that’s not replaceable.’

  ‘I see,’ she said. ‘Well, why can’t you go and stay in a hotel?’

  ‘’Cos I thought it would be nice if you and I got to know each other better. And now I know about Fatso in the Merc, well, all the more reason for me to come and stay, wouldn’t you agree?’

  ‘No, I wouldn’t. I can look after myself, thank you very much.’ Oh dear God, she was thinking, he was the last person she wanted around when there was still a chance Christian Mureau might call. If David were to answer the phone he’d probably end up blowing everything, and even if he didn’t she wasn’t at all proud of the way she was becoming so obsessed with Mureau, which, knowing David, he would have no problem detecting. On the other hand, though, she’d been working so hard lately and was feeling so worn down that right at that moment she felt so disgustingly feeble that all she wanted was for David to put his arms around her and tell her everything was going to turn out all right.

  ‘Well,’ David said, ‘I reckon you need some looking after and, since I’m available, I’m going to see what I can do about cheering you up and convincing you that you’re doing a terrific job and things wouldn’t have worked without you.’

  ‘Do you know what?’ Penny said, looking up at him. ‘For a total bastard, you can be a pretty nice guy sometimes. But I want you out of there by the time I get back from LA.’

  David’s eyebrows lifted, a gentle reminder that he was the one calling the shots around here. ‘I think maybe now’s the time to tell you,’ he said, ‘that I won’t be coming alone.’

  Penny’s eyes dilated. ‘Oh no!’ she cried. ‘No! No! No! No! I am not having Marielle set one foot across my threshold, so you can just—’

  ‘Hold up, hold up,’ he said, laughing. ‘I’m not talking about Marielle. I’m talking about a friend who’s coming over from the States. She’ll be here the day after tomorrow, in time for the launch.’

  ‘Who is she?’ Penny asked stiffly.

  ‘Like I said, just a friend.’

  ‘What sort of friend?’

  He grinned. ‘That sort of friend.’

  ‘Do you have any other kind?’ Penny remarked sourly. She wasn’t one bit happy about playing host to David’s girlfriend but didn’t see how she could object without him accusing her of being jealous or something equally as infuriating and inaccurate. Still, Pen, she told hersel
f, look at it another way. It was going to get right up Marielle’s nose, David having another woman in tow, especially for the launch, and anyone who did that was OK by Penny.

  ‘What’s her name?’ Penny asked.

  ‘Cassandra.’

  Penny nodded. ‘Is she the one you mentioned before, the one you’re serious about?’ she asked.

  David’s grin widened. ‘Now, that would be telling,’ he said, and giving her a wink he walked out of the door.

  Left alone with her thoughts and her calls on hold. Penny turned back to her computer and stared at the screen. She was, she realized, almost as annoyed as Marielle was going to be that David was taking someone to the launch, though for totally different reasons. In her own case, it was simply that David was at liberty to parade his love affairs as publicly as he liked, whereas she couldn’t even get to meet the man she was tying herself up in knots over, never mind be seen with him in public. Suddenly her fists clenched and she slammed them down on the keyboard. Why was she doing this? What the hell was the matter with her? She knew that the chances he’d call were practically nil, so why didn’t she just let up on herself? David would be there, theirs was the triumph, and if she hadn’t been so damned stupid as to have had the idea of inviting Christian Mureau to the launch she might not be dreading it so much or putting herself through this ridiculous misery.

  After transmitting the editorial over to the printer she turned in her chair to gaze out at the serenity of the sky. Her mind wandered back to David and the fact that she was sensing a closeness to him lately that she was finding hard to define. And this obsession she had with Christian, the bizarre influence that he, a perfect stranger, was having on her life, was so out of character for her that it felt as if it was happening to some irrational and manipulative alter ego. Overtiredness was of course in the most part to blame for the way she feeling, but there was something about this dazzling sunlight and torpid heat that seemed to haze the edges of reality in a way that took the sense, the responsibility even, out of everything she did.