Shaun Hutson - Warhol's Prophecy

‘Did you read her a story?’ Hailey asked.

‘She was tired anyway,’ Rob answered. ‘It didn’t take long for her to drop off. Not surprising really, is it? I mean, she’s had a lot of excitement today – if that’s what you want to call it.’

He continued looking at the paper.

‘Oh, for Christ’s sake, Rob, drop it, will you?’ Hailey said wearily.

He lowered the paper.

‘Drop it? Our daughter gets lost in one of the biggest shopping centres in the country, and you say “Drop it.” What the hell were you doing?’

‘I knew this was coming. You think it’s my fault, don’t you?’

‘Do you have any idea what could have happened to her?’

‘I spent nearly an hour thinking about nothing else.’

‘You weren’t going to tell me, were you?’

‘No. Because I knew you’d react like this. ’

‘How do you expect me to react?’

‘With a little bit of understanding. I went through hell this afternoon until they found her.’

‘And you just decided not to tell me?’

‘Don’t start lecturing me about deceit, Rob. You’re not really in a position to do that, are you?’

He raised his hands. ‘Change the record, Hailey,’ he said irritably.

She glared at him.

She was about to speak again when she heard the two-tone door-chime. Flashing him one final, angry glance, she got to her feet and headed for the door, from habit peering through the spyhole before she opened it.

As she waited on the doorstep, Caroline Hacket rubbed her hands together.

‘It’s getting colder,’ she commented as Hailey let her in.

Caroline slipped off her long grey coat to reveal a dark sweatshirt and jeans beneath. She draped the coat over the bannister and turned to Hailey, seeing how pale and drawn she looked.

‘Are you OK?’ she wanted to know.

Hailey nodded. ‘Becky’s fast asleep,’ she said, reaching for her own coat that hung on the rack behind her. ‘We’ll be back by nine.’

Caroline touched her friend’s arm and nodded. She turned as Rob appeared in the doorway to the sitting room.

‘How’s things in the world of big business, Rob?’ Caroline asked, smiling.

‘Not bad,’ he said, forcing a return smile that appeared more like a leer. He pulled on a jacket and dug in his pocket for the car keys. He then wandered outside, and a couple of minutes later Hailey heard the engine of the Audi throb into life.

‘You know where everything is, don’t you?’ said Hailey.

‘I should do by now,’ Caroline told her. ‘Go on. Everything will be fine. I’ll see you later.’

Hailey closed the door behind her and headed towards the passenger side of the waiting Audi.

‘ Everything will be fine. ’

How badly she wanted to believe that.

7

THE ROOM WAS small. No more than fifteen feet square. Sparsely furnished. It contained little except three chairs, a filing cabinet and a small coffee table. The walls were plain, their banality not even enlivened by a photograph or a painting.

The consultation room reminded Rob of a cell.

Cigarette smoke hung in the air like a curtain of dirty gauze, and the ashtray on the table next to a box of Kleenex was already full. Hailey and Rob were both smoking, watched with something approaching disapproval by the woman who sat in the room with them.

Marie Anderson was in her early forties: a small woman with the kind of outrageously rosy cheeks that made her look like a badly painted doll. She looked from Hailey to Rob, and then back again. For three weeks they had been attending these Relate sessions. For three weeks she had listened to their pain and their anger spilling out into this small room. And what she had heard from them she had heard a hundred times before, from a hundred different couples.

Words like ‘Betrayal’, ‘Infidelity’, ‘Anger’, ‘Revenge’ . . .

‘Hatred’.

Marie often wondered if her role was merely that of referee to these bouts of emotional pugilism. She had voiced her concerns about that to some of her colleagues, but found they saw their own roles as something similar. They were there to guide, to cajole, to interpret; they were not there to solve problems. They could not wave magic wands and reassemble marriages shattered by infidelity or a hundred other kinds of indiscretion.

The thing that Marie had found most difficult when she first began as a Relate counsellor was distancing herself from the personal problems of those she advised. It had been difficult then to merely lock up the office and walk home after every evening’s emotional upheavals. As time went on, Marie had found it all a little more bearable, but every now and then she was more deeply touched than she should be by the plight of a particular couple or individual. She wondered if even that would wear off in time. Was it ever possible to become immune to pain? And, if so, how long did it take?

Hailey stared at Marie, as if willing her to force an answer from Rob. Wanting her to make him reply to the question she had asked him a moment ago.

He took another drag on his cigarette, and blew out a stream of smoke to join the grey haze already filling the confined space.

‘Can you see why Hailey is still so upset, Rob?’ Marie said finally, her voice soft. ‘She’s still concerned that your affair might begin again.’

‘I can understand it, but it won’t happen,’ he said.

‘As long as she works with you, the temptation’s always there,’ Hailey intervened.

‘So what do you want me to do: sack her?’ he demanded.

‘If that’s what it takes.’

‘That’s not fair.’

‘Not fair,’ Hailey snorted. ‘She had an affair with you. It could happen again. No wonder her husband divorced her.’

‘I told you, I won’t let it happen again.’

‘Crap. If she comes on to you, you’ll fuck her. I know you, Rob. You’re weak.’

‘If the only way to reassure Hailey that you wouldn’t have another affair with this woman was to get rid of her, would you be willing to do that, Rob?’ Marie wanted to know.

He took another drag and tilted his head back, a headache crawling around his skull.

‘Look, if I sack Sandy and get another secretary, Hailey will start thinking I’m having an affair with her. ’

‘It depends what she looks like,’ Hailey said acidly.

‘Do you think Rob would do this again, Hailey?’ Marie asked.

‘I know what he’s like, especially with attractive women. He likes to be surrounded by them. It boosts his ego.’

‘Oh, come on,’ Rob muttered.

‘It’s true,’ Hailey continued. ‘If you did hire another secretary, you’d make sure she was good-looking. Don’t deny it.’

‘All right, it’s true. If two women came for the job, both with the same qualifications, and one was pretty and the other looked like the back of a fucking bus, I’d hire the good-looking one. Satisfied?’

‘Is that the reason you first got to know Hailey?’ Marie asked. ‘Because she’s good-looking?’

He nodded. ‘But it wasn’t just that. It was her sense of humour, her attitude, the way she made me laugh. It just helped that she was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.’

‘And is she still?’ Marie asked.

He nodded.

‘Does she still make you laugh? Do you still like her attitude and her sense of humour?’ the counsellor continued.

‘Of course I do. I never intended to leave her for Sandy. I would never leave her for anyone else.’

‘So why did you fuck that slag, then?’ rasped Hailey.

‘Because I could ,’ he snapped. ‘I don’t know what else to say. How many times do I have to tell you?’