Quintin Jardine - For The Death Of Me

‘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.

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 room 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.’