Quintin Jardine - On Honeymoon With Death

‘Now, to answer your questions. No, I do not have a key for this house. I had a key for the apartment in Paris, but not for here, although of course I have been here often enough before. No, I am not looking for anything here, and neither, as far as I know, is Ramon. I came here because at your party, I found that I could still sense Rey in the place, and I felt that maybe if I confronted him here again, I could get rid of the dirty feeling I have had ever since I found out about him.’

‘And have you confronted him?’

‘No,’ she whispered. ‘Only you. As for the dirty feeling, after this, time will tell. But I owe Ramon nothing now.’

A look in her eye troubled me. ‘What do you mean?’

‘How long has Prim been in Barcelona?’ she asked.

‘Since yesterday afternoon.’

‘And when is she coming back?’

‘The day after tomorrow.’

‘And you believe she is alone?’

I felt a hot surge of rage inside me. It was a while before I could answer her. ‘I booked the hotel for her,’ was all I could say.

‘So? Listen, Oz, I have never known Ramon to spend a night in his office. It’s an old cover story of his, but I’ve checked and I’ve never known him actually to do it. Today he tells me that he will be there for another night, and maybe until they find Gabrielle. Which they won’t, of course; I’m sure she’s on her way back to the Philippines already.

‘I don’t know why, but I didn’t expect to find Prim here when I arrived. I saw the way he looked at her at your New Year party. And, yes, I know how she really felt about him. So? Will we go down there ourselves and find them?’

My anger had gone. Also, I didn’t truly believe her. I thought that she was adding one and one and making six hundred and sixty-six. ‘No,’ I answered. ‘I don’t exactly have good moral grounds for doing that.’ I looked down at her long tanned body. ‘And neither, I have to point out, do you.’

I lay there for a while and thought about things; about everything in fact, and about people hurting, and being hurt. Then I thought, What the hell? ‘Unless they deserve it,’ you said, my angel. I guess we all deserve each other .

‘There’s just one other thing I’d like to ask you, Vero,’ I said.

She raised herself on an elbow and looked down at me. ‘What’s that?’ she whispered, in English.

‘That back there? Was that the best you can do?’

Her smile told me that she was no better or worse than the three guys she despised. The light was blotted out as her hair fell down around me. ‘Oh no,’ she said. ‘That was far, far from it.’

‘When does you mother expect you back?’ I asked her, as we ate a mid-afternoon lunch in the kitchen.

‘This evening,’ she answered. ‘I told her I was going to Girona.’

The truth is dead , I thought. We are all Satan’s children, right enough .

‘Why are you smiling like that?’ she said.

I hadn’t realised that I was. ‘It’s nothing,’ I assured her. ‘Other than that I was thinking that you were right. . you could do a lot better.’

‘Why is it always men who say that kind of thing?’ she mused.

‘Because that’s the way our sad, selfish minds work.’

It was Veronique’s turn to smile. ‘What unexpected honesty. Here’s some in return; some good news and some bad news you might say. The good: you’re much better in bed than Ramon. The bad: neither of you are in the same class as Rey Capulet. He is an artist, whatever else he might be.

‘Most men think of a woman’s body as no more than a piece of exercise equipment. He sees it as an instrument to be played with skill. . And believe me, he is a maestro.’

‘I’ll bear that in mind,’ I grunted, giving her a sour look.

‘What are you going to do about Primavera?’ she asked me suddenly.

I didn’t have a considered answer for that one, at that moment; so instead I told her that our future wasn’t at my disposal alone, and that Prim and I would have to talk it through together. ‘Maybe it’s what she wants to do about me that will decide things,’ I added.

‘What are you going to do about Ramon?’

‘Drop him,’ she answered vehemently. ‘For good this time. Whenever the moment is right, he’s out.’

‘Are you going to tell him about this morning?’

‘I might. Does that scare you?’

‘No.’›

‘He’s a policeman, remember. He has a gun.’

‘I’ve seen guns before. Carrying one is one thing; having the balls to pull the trigger is another. I’m not sure Ramon has. Anyway,’ I laughed, ‘you’re forgetting, I’m a public figure; I’m in the movies. I don’t have a lot of influence myself, not yet, but I know people who do. If your old man tried to make trouble for me or for Prim. . especially for her. . I’d have him squashed like a fly.’

She gave me an appraising look. ‘You have it all thought out, Oz, don’t you?’

I shook my head. ‘No, only some of it. I’m working on the rest.’

‘And what is the rest?’

‘Having the sort of power for myself that I’ve seen in others; in people like my brother-in-law, Miles Grayson, and my friend Everett Davis. The power to reach out and influence things.’

‘How do you do that?’

I considered her question carefully. I was voicing thoughts that had been idle, fanciful ambitions until then. All of a sudden they were falling into place, as the last of the old Oz facade crumbled away.

‘My first step is completing this next movie, and making it a personal success. That will cut me free of Miles, and break the only sort of hold that Prim has over me. After that, I’ll stay in movies for a while, until I’m seriously rich, instead of fairly so.’

‘And somewhere along the line you’ll ditch Prim.’ It was a prophesy, not a question.

‘Not necessarily. Prim’s had some bad things happen in her life, all of them male, including me, including Ramon. As far as I’m concerned, when she gets back, maybe we can start on a new chapter, one where it’s all good for a change.

‘Down there in Barcelona right now, with your old man, she’s playing a part. She’s being tough and vengeful, she thinks, doing what she has to do, just as you’ve been. But that’s not the real her. . any more than it’s the real you.

‘There’s no way I can change what I am, but maybe I’d like to help her get back to the person she was before all the crap happened.’

‘But do you love her?’

‘Oz doesn’t love. I can’t; not any more.’

‘Then shouldn’t you let her try to find someone who does?’

I drank the last of my mineral water. ‘I prefer it when you ask easy questions. But, of course, if she wants to, I can’t stop her.’

‘You’ll try to keep her for a while, though; if only for the sake of your career.’

‘You’re the second person to tell me that. I wish I could tell you that I wouldn’t, that I was above that; but the fact is. .

‘So what are you going to do after Ramon?’ I asked her, changing the flow of the discussion.

‘I don’t know. I’ll teach again, and bring up my son, but beyond that. . maybe nothing.’

‘You won’t go off in pursuit of Capulet, the maestro?’

‘No way. Ramon isn’t a bad man: Rey is. I wouldn’t let Alejandro anywhere near him.’

‘Speaking of Alejandro, are you sure you’ll be able to keep him?’

‘I’ll take him to France if I have to. But Ramon won’t want him, I don’t think. I will be surprised if he even tries for custody; it would cramp his style.’

I thought of Fortunato’s style for a moment, and that flame of hypocritical anger flared again for a moment. I began to believe Vero’s notion of the two of them in Barcelona, and I realised that if it was true, it couldn’t have been planned in advance. Ramon couldn’t have known she’d be going down there, for she hadn’t known herself until half an hour before she hit the road.