Anne Billson - Suckers

When I had dressed, I went into the living room and found him rooting through an expensive-looking handbag, black leather with lizard-skin trimming. 'Lulu's bag,' he said — quite unnecessarily, because I knew it wasn't mine.

I curled up on the sofa next to him. 'Anything interesting?'

'Make-up. Hairbrush. Filofax. Tissues. I don't know, I've never gone through a woman's bag before. I guess it's all the usual junk.'

'Let's look at the Filofax.' He handed it over and I went through it. The pockets were stuffed with old receipts, Lulu's driving licence, and credit cards. The diary section was almost blank, apart from the occasional bit of cryptic scrawl: dentist 2pm, Jack & Alicia, phone Katy . The latest entry was for the previous Tuesday, and it read, RM/Multiglom Tower/Malassus Warf 10am . 'Nothing we don't already know,' I said, handing it back and noticing that Duncan was half-sitting on a plain white envelope, trying so hard not to draw my attention to it that it became impossible to ignore. 'What's that?'

'Nothing,' he said. 'An invoice.'

'From the bag?'

'Of course not,' he said, sounding annoyed. 'It just came in the post.' He upended the bag and shook it so that various bits and pieces came tumbling out: hair grips, hand lotion, a packet of mints. When it was empty he held it out to me. 'You want this?'

'Sure,' I said. 'Thanks. It's really nice.' Then I told him I was going home, though I didn't tell him the reason — that I was dying for the bath I'd never had the night before. I waited for him to suggest I come back to see him later on, but he didn't. I then dropped a strong hint that he should come round to see me at my place, Krankzeits or no Krankzeits, but he didn't pick up on that either. 'So what are we going to do?' I asked finally. 'About Multiglom, I mean.'

'I guess I'll have to talk to her.'

'Talk to Violet? Are you mad? '

'It's me she's after. She's not interested in you.'

This was true, and. I couldn't work out why it should make me feel so aggrieved. He was almost making it sound as though I were irrelevant to the entire business.

'There's not much else we can do,' he said.

'We can do some serious damage. Put her out of the running.'

'We tried that before, and look where it got us. No, this has gone on long enough. It's time I faced up to her.'

'She'll kill you,' I said. But what really worried me was that I didn't think she would kill him at all. As soon as Duncan and Violet connected, it would all be over, one way or another. It was essential they be kept apart. 'Listen,' I said. 'Before you do anything rash… Tomorrow's the fourteenth, isn't it? Well, that's my appointment with Murasaki.'

'You can't be serious. You're not thinking of going.'

'Why not?' I said, sounding more optimistic than I felt. 'I've been there before. I know my way around. I'll take precautions.'

'I won't let you go. Christ, this is like Lulu all over again.'

'I'm not Lulu. I can look after myself.' I was touched by his concern, but a little worried in case he insisted on accompanying me. The varnish on my nails was chipped; I worried at it with my teeth until another strip peeled off, and told him, 'I think I've got an idea.'

Duncan said it was the stupidest idea he had ever heard, but couldn't come up with a better one. It wasn't as risky as he thought, because of course I'd done this sort of thing before, though he wasn't aware of that. And I had an ace up my sleeve, or at least a high-ranking card which might be mistaken for an ace in a bad light. And the light was all bad around here.

Just as I was preparing to set off homewards, the phone rang. Duncan answered and poked the receiver into my ribs. 'Weinstein. For you.'

'Hello, Ruth,' I said. 'Thank you so much for the wonderful party.'

'Dora, it was awful . At least you took off before it got really bad. Sara had one of her fits, and we had to get an ambulance, and I kept getting calls from her sister, only I couldn't find out which hospital they'd taken her to, and no one knows where she is. And Charlie disappeared, I still don't know where he got to, and I couldn't find Jack either, and then everything fell apart, and somebody got beaten up, and somebody else fell through a window and cut their head open, and there was blood everywhere . And then all these gatecrashers turned up, and…'

'Sounds great,' I said.

'Oh, and Lulu arrived just after you went, and she was furious when I said Duncan had already left. I've never seen her like that before, she was spitting poison . Did she catch up with you in the end?'

'In the end,' I said.

'Listen, you remember what I was talking about last night? Well, there's a meeting this evening. Can you make it?'

'You've got to be kidding. I am not schlepping all the way up to Archway again.'

'No, no, you don't have to. You know the gallery? Well, in the offices upstairs. Just round the corner from you.'

'Matt's old office? After all these years? Good Lord.'

'Matt? Oh, you mean Matthew. Yes, he'll be there as well. Nine o'clock. We'll have drinks and things.' I told her it sounded perfectly lovely, and hung up. I had no intention of letting myself in for another question and answer session with Ruth.

Duncan emerged from the bathroom wearing pink washing-up gloves and carrying a bottle of Liquid Gumption. 'What did Weinstein want?'

'She's throwing another party. Tonight. Want to come?'

'One dose of Ruth per weekend is quite sufficient.'

He saw me to the front door without taking his rubber gloves off. On the doorstep he asked, 'What are you doing tonight, I mean after the private view?' At last. I'd thought he was never going to ask.

'This and that,' I replied noncommittally.

'Well, be very careful. Especially if you're out after dark. Don't take those earrings off again.'

This wasn't what I'd been expecting to hear, 'So what are you up to? How about getting together?'

'Dora, you know what happened last night,' he said reproachfully. 'It's something I'll have to come to terms with. I need to spend time on my own.'

As I was walking away, I replayed his words in my head. They seemed ominous. I wondered what had been in the white envelope; perhaps Lulu had written him a letter, or perhaps it really had been an invoice. I vaguely remembered him saying he'd got it in the morning mail. But he must have been confused, because there were no postal deliveries on Sundays.

On the way home, I took a slight detour and found myself in the crescent where Jack and Alicia lived. The curtains were still drawn in their first-floor windows. I wondered whether Jack had made it back from the party in one piece, and — on an impulse — rang their bell to find out. The entryphone speaker crackled, and a woman's voice said, 'Yes?'

'Alicia. It's Dora.'

I waited for the sound of the lock being released, but there was silence. I pressed the bell again. There was a long pause, then Alicia said, 'You can't come in. Go away.'

'Alicia? It's me. Dora . Is Jack there? Let me in.' There was another pause, then a click as the lock was released. I barged in before she changed her mind.

She was peering down over the banisters, face pinched and anxious. 'Sorry, Dora. Are you all right?'

'I'm fine,' I said, climbing the stairs towards her. 'Why shouldn't I be?' I was surprised to find her wearing a dressing-gown over dance tights and a naff T-shirt with the Mona Lisa on it. Her hair was scraped back into an elastic band. Alicia was normally very finickety about the way she looked.

'Jack phoned this morning,' she said, as though it was quite normal for husbands to phone their wives in order to say things to them. 'He told me not to let anyone into the flat, though I can't believe he meant people we know, like you.'