Clive Barker - Imajica

‘Maybe a dash of Scotch. Does Marlin drink?’

‘He’s not a connoisseur like you.’

Gentle laughed. ‘Is that how you describe me? The alcoholic Gentle?’

‘No. To tell you the truth, I don’t really describe you at all,’ she said, slightly abashed. ‘I mean, I’m sure I’ve mentioned you to Marlin in passing, but you’re … I don’t know … you’re a guilty secret.’

This echo of Kite Hill brought his hirer to mind.

‘Have you spoken to Estabrook?’ he said.

‘Why should I do that?’

‘He’s been trying to contact you.’

‘I don’t want to talk to him.’ She put his tea down on the table in the lounge, sought out the Scotch and set it beside the cup. ‘Help yourself,’ she said.

‘You’re not having a dram?’

‘Tea, but no whisky. My brain’s crazed enough as it is.’ She crossed back to the window, taking her tea. ‘There’s so much I don’t understand about all of this,’ she said. To start with: why are you here?’

‘I hate to sound melodramatic, but I really think you should sit down before we have this discussion.’

‘Just tell me what’s going on,’ she said, her voice tainted with accusation. ‘How long have you been watching me?’

‘Just a few hours.’

‘I thought I saw you following me a couple of days ago.’

‘Not me. I was in London until this morning.’

She looked puzzled at this. ‘So what do you know about this man who’s trying to kill me?’

‘He said his name was Pie’oh’pah.’

‘I don’t give a fuck what his name is,’ she said, her show of detachment finally dropping away. ‘Who is he? Why does he want to hurt me?’

‘Because he was hired.’

‘He was what?’

‘He was hired. By Estabrook.’

Tea slopped from her cup as a shudder passed through her.

‘To kill me?’ she said. ‘He hired someone to kill me? I don’t believe you. That’s crazy.’

‘He’s obsessed with you, Jude. It’s his way of making sure you don’t belong to anybody else.’

She drew the cup up to her face, both hands clutched around it, the knuckles so white it was a wonder the china didn’t crack like an egg. She sipped, her face obscured. Then, the same denial, but more flatly: ‘I don’t believe you.’

‘He’s been trying to speak to you to warn you. He hired this man, then changed his mind.’

‘How do you know all of this?’ Again, the accusation.

‘He sent me to stop it.’

‘Hired you too?’

It wasn’t pleasant to hear it from her lips, but yes, he said, he was just another hireling. It was as though Estabrook had set two dogs on Judith’s heels - one bringing death, the other life - and let fate decide which caught up with her first.

‘Maybe I will have some booze,’ she said, and crossed to the table to pick up the bottle.

He stood to pour for her but his motion was enough to stop her in her tracks, and he realized she was afraid of him. He handed her the bottle at arm’s length. She didn’t take it.

‘I think maybe you should go,’ she said. ‘Marlin’ll be home soon. I don’t want you here

He understood her nervousness, but felt ill treated by this change of tone. As he’d hobbled back through the sleet a tiny part of him had hoped her gratitude would include an embrace, or at least a few words that would let him know she felt something for him. But he was tarred with Estabrook’s guilt. He wasn’t her champion, he was her enemy’s agent.

‘If that’s what you want,’ he said.

‘It’s what I want.’

‘Just one request? If you tell the police about Estabrook, will you keep me out of it?’

‘Why? Are you back at the old business with Klein?’

‘Let’s not get into why. Just pretend you never saw me.’

She shrugged. ‘I suppose I can do that.’

‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘Where did you put my clothes?’

They won’t be dry. Why don’t you just keep the stuff you’re wearing?’

‘Better not,’ he said, unable to resist a tiny jab. ‘You never know what Marlin might think.’

She didn’t rise to the remark, but let him go and change. The clothes had been left on the heated towel rack in the bathroom, which had taken some of the chill off them, but insinuating himself into their dampness was almost enough to make him retract his jibe, and wear the absent lover’s clothes. Almost, but not quite. Changed, he returned into the lounge to find her standing at the window again, as if watching for the assassin’s return.

‘What did you say his name was?’ she said.

‘Something like Pie’oh’pah.’

‘What language is that? Arabic?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Well, did you tell him Estabrook had changed his mind? Did you tell him to leave me alone?’

‘I didn’t get a chance,’ he said, rather lamely.

‘So he could still come back and try again?’

‘Like I said, I don’t think he will.’

‘He’s tried twice. Maybe he’s out there thinking: third time lucky. There’s something … unnatural about him. Gentle. How the hell could he heal so fast?’

‘Maybe he wasn’t as badly hurt as he looked.’

She didn’t seem convinced. ‘A name like that … he shouldn’t be difficult to trace.’

‘I don’t know, I think men like him … they’re almost invisible.’

‘Marlin’ll know what to do.’

‘Good for Marlin.’

She drew a deep breath. ‘I should thank you though,’ she said, her tone as far from gratitude as it was possible to get.

‘Don’t bother,’ he replied. ‘I’m just a hired hand. I was only doing it for the money.’

From the shadows of a doorway on 79th Street, Pie’oh’pah watched John Furie Zacharias emerge from the apartment building, pull the collar of his jacket up around his bare nape, and scan the street north and south, looking for a cab. It was many years since the assassin’s eyes had taken the pleasure they did now, seeing him. In the time between the world had changed in so many ways. But this man looked unchanged. He was a constant, freed from alteration by his own forgetfulness; always new to himself, and therefore ageless. Pie envied him. For Gentle time was a vapour, dissolving hurt and self-knowledge. For Pie it was a sack into which each day, each hour, dropped another stone, bending the spine until it creaked. Nor, until tonight, had he dared entertain any hope of release. But here, walking away down Park Avenue, was a man in whose power it lay to make whole all broken things; even Pie’s wounded spirit. Indeed, especially that. Whether it was chance or the covert workings of the Unbeheld that had brought them together this way, there was surely significance in their reunion.

Minutes before, terrified by the scale of what was unfolding. Pie had attempted to drive Gentle away, and having failed, had fled. Now such fear seemed stupid. What was there to be afraid of? Change? That would be welcome. Revelation? The same. Death? What did an assassin care for death? If it came, it came; it was no reason to turn from opportunity. He shuddered. It was cold here in the doorway; cold in the century too. Especially for a soul like his, that loved the melting season, when the rise of sap and sun made all things seem possible. Until now, he’d given up hope that such a burgeoning time would ever come again. He’d been obliged to commit too many crimes in this joyless world. He’d broken too many hearts. So had they both, most likely. But what if they were obliged to seek that elusive spring for the good of those they’d orphaned and anguished? What if it was their duty to hope? Then his denying of their near-reunion, his fleeing from it, was just another crime to be laid at his feet. Had these lonely years made him a coward? Never.