Питер Ловси - The Tooth Tattoo

‘Now you’re being offensive.’

‘It would be, stuck with a name like yours.’ She raised a hand. ‘All right, that was out of order. Sometimes you drive me to it. Back to my question: do we have a future together? I think we do, and Anthony is easy — which coming from him is as good as a twenty-one-gun salute. Are you up for it?’

Ivan sniffed. ‘Allowing that Mr. Farran was my suggestion in the first place, I give my consent, but with reservations.’

‘What’s your problem?’ Cat said.

Mel was increasingly uncomfortable. ‘Should I go outside while you discuss this?’

‘For the love of Mike, no,’ Cat said. ‘We’re talking about reviving the quartet and everyone deserves a say.’

‘Then we’d better bring in Douglas,’ Ivan said.

‘He can go bark at the moon. He’ll take his twenty percent whatever we decide. And if we’re down to a trio he’ll want twenty-five. What’s eating you, Ivan?’

‘I’m going to propose we agree to a trial period of, say, three months. If, for some reason, it doesn’t work as well as we hope, we can review it then.’

‘Why? When you and I started there was no trial period or the rest of us would have kicked you out for sure.’

‘You don’t mean that.’

‘I mean the first bit — no trial period. I like equality. If Mel is joining us, he won’t want second-class status.’

‘Perhaps we should ask him.’

And that was how Mel found himself in the hot seat. He cleared his throat and said, ‘If you’re serious about inviting me in, I’d like to know more about you.’

This silenced them for a beat or two.

Cat said, ‘Such as?’

‘What’s the name of your quartet?’

Even more hesitation.

Ivan said, ‘One matter we must discuss at an early stage is whether to adopt a new name.’

Mel gained in confidence. ‘What’s wrong with the old one?’

‘We had a quartet, a successful one, but it no longer exists.’

‘What happened?’

‘Our violist left.’

No one added to the bald statement. Mel could hear them breathing.

‘Over a disagreement?’

‘Not that I’m aware of.’

Finally Cat said, ‘You don’t have to be so mysterious, Ivan. Harry went missing in Budapest four years ago when we were playing there. Nobody has seen him since. He’s a missing person. We’ve been marking time ever since in the hope he’ll walk in one day. It hasn’t happened so we faced reality and started looking for a replacement.’

Mel turned to Ivan. ‘And you want to buy more time in case he does turn up?’

Ivan reddened.

‘He won’t,’ Cat said. ‘We would have heard by now. Something final must have happened.’

‘Was he acting strangely?’

‘We’re all strange, ducky, as you must have worked out for yourself by now. If you want my opinion, Harry was the closest to normal.’

‘Was there a disagreement?’

‘Disagreements are the stock-in-trade of string quartets. We’re strong-minded people, even Anthony, as you’ll discover. But there was nothing more than the usual to and fro over the score of whichever piece we were playing. We all bring something to the party and it makes for a more exciting performance.’

‘Then you haven’t played together for how long?’

‘A couple of years, give or take. We tried, but for one reason and another — most of them crap viola players — it hasn’t worked out, so we’ve had to do our own thing — teaching and orchestral work and stuff we wouldn’t want anyone else to know.’

Ivan said, ‘We haven’t made it public that the quartet stopped appearing. We’ve been fading away.’

‘Faded,’ Cat said.

‘I’d still like to know the name.’

‘The Staccati.’

Mel’s skin prickled. The Staccati had been an international name. He owned some of their recordings. The only reason he’d overlooked them when he’d racked his brain for likely quartets was that nothing had been heard of them recently. Their great period was five or six years back. They’d been in demand at all the great music festivals across the world. ‘I know about you, of course, but never had the pleasure of hearing you in concert.’

‘We do most of our playing abroad,’ Ivan said. ‘You’re able to travel, are you?’

‘I enjoy it.’

‘You won’t when it seems never-ending, one hotel after the next.’

‘The best deal is a residency,’ Cat said. ‘A few paid months in one place. Time to chill out, go shopping, get your hair done and find the hottest clubs in town. Heaven.’

‘We give a fixed number of concerts and do some teaching,’ Ivan said. ‘It isn’t all about self-indulgence.’

‘Listen to him talking,’ Cat said. ‘Who was always in the park playing chess with the old men?’

Mel said, ‘How soon would you want me to make a decision?’

‘Yesterday isn’t soon enough,’ Cat said. ‘We need to be concert-ready when Doug swings into action and gets us some gigs. Let’s talk about repertoire. Any obvious blind spots?’

‘I wish I knew more contemporary music.’

‘Put it there, buddy. We stop at Schoenberg.’

‘I haven’t specialised in quartet music. I had to work hard at this.’

‘You think we were playing off the cuff? I haven’t watched TV all week. You can play. You should have heard some of the others.’

‘Your standard is very high.’

‘Bollocks.’ She pointed her bow at Ivan. ‘What do you say, Rasputin? Do we give it a whirl with Mel on full membership?’

A sigh. ‘Very well.’

‘Anthony?’

Anthony managed a nod.

‘He’s easy,’ Cat said. ‘Why don’t we call in Doug and start on the salmon sandwiches?’

The deal was sealed. A verbal agreement would do, Doug said. And, just as Ivan had promised, Mel would earn one-fifth of the profits. The only undertaking he had to give was that the quartet’s engagements had priority over everything short of acute appendicitis.

‘And what if the original violist turns up?’

‘I wouldn’t worry about Harry,’ Doug said in his nonchalant way. ‘He’s history. Nice man, wonderful musician, but out of the picture now.’

Years of working in an insecure profession had toughened Mel. ‘Sorry. If I’m going to give up all my freelance work I need more of a guarantee.’

‘I’ll speak to the talent.’

‘They said full membership. Can I take that as permanent?’

‘If they already agreed, yes.’

‘Then it has your approval?’

‘Let’s shake on it.’ His grip reinforced the pact.

Mel still felt he had a right to know more. ‘Has Harry ever gone missing before this?’

‘Missing? No. They all go their own ways in free time on tour. They don’t live in each other’s pockets. The embassy kept asking us where he was supposed to have gone that evening and nobody knew. Ghastly time. We had to bring in a local musician to play the viola part in the last three concerts and he wasn’t terribly good. I was forced to cancel the rest of the tour. Endless wrangling with the Hungarians over breach of contract and compensation claims. Made my life hell. If Harry had turned up at that point I’d cheerfully have shot him. Have another sandwich.’

‘So will you make it clear to the others that I’m the permanent replacement?’

‘Absolutely.’

Mel raised another concern. ‘Won’t it be difficult getting engagements after so long?’

A shake of the head. ‘The name still has plenty of currency.’

‘They want to change the name.’

Doug almost dropped the plate. ‘Who does?’

Some inner censor stopped Mel from naming anyone. ‘You’d better ask them. Personally, I’d be proud to join the Staccati.’