Charlie (41 page)

‘I’m sorry, but she left while I was off work,’ she said, lying through her teeth. Charlie was working overtime till ten tonight, and she was still staying with Rita. ‘She didn’t leave an address or telephone number. But she’s got mine, so I expect she’ll be in touch soon. You could give me a message if you like, and I’ll pass it on to her when she does.’

‘She’ll just ignore it,’ he said, and sighed deeply. ‘Do you know what happened between us?’

Rita nodded.

‘I honestly didn’t do anything.’ His eyes pleaded to be believed. ‘It was Meg that did all the running. I didn’t even like her. If Charlie had come in ten minutes later she would have found me gone. I certainly wouldn’t have made love to Meg.’

‘It was a shame then that you weren’t tough enough to put her in her place immediately,’ Rita said tartly. In fact she did believe him. Everything Charlie had said about Meg confirmed she was a man-eater, while Andrew looked about as worldly as a pet rabbit.

‘If I had known how things would turn out that night I’d have ridden over to Paddington and met Charlie from the train,’ he said fiercely. ‘I’d walk on hot coals right now to put things straight. I love her, Rita. She means everything to me and I can’t bear the pain of knowing she’s out there somewhere, all alone and hurting. Do you know if she’s got another flat? Is she safe?’

Rita had heard enough to banish any last suspicions about this lad. ‘Come and have a drink with me,’ she suggested. ‘I’m tired and thirsty, and although I don’t know where Charlie is right now, I might be persuaded to plead your cause when I do see her.’

They went to a pub further down Endell Street. There were no more than six people in there. One drink turned into two, as Andrew poured his heart out. Rita went so far as admitting Charlie had stayed with her for the first couple of days after she walked out of the Hornsey flat, but that was all.

‘We were so happy together,’ he said, his voice quivering with emotion. ‘I can’t believe it’s really over. We had planned to go on holiday down in Salcombe this week. My aunt down there and Ivor, the man Charlie used to work for, are terribly worried about her too. They haven’t heard a word from her.’

Rita knew that Charlie thought a lot of this man Ivor, and she was surprised her friend hadn’t written to tell him not to worry about her. ‘You can tell them both from me that she’s fine, and when I see her I’ll remind her to write to Ivor. I’m sure you can understand why she hasn’t liked to contact your aunt, though?’

‘Well, yes,’ he agreed. ‘I suppose she imagines Beryl would take my part. But you can tell Charlie she hasn’t. She told me I was a damn fool and I deserved it. She’s very fond of Charlie.’

‘I am too,’ Rita said. ‘I took to her right from her first day at Haagman’s. But I like what I see of you too, Andrew, and so I’m going to be straight with you. Charlie has immense pride, she won’t come running back to you just because she misses you. You’ve hurt her too deeply.’

‘But I didn’t do anything,’ he insisted. ‘Meg came mincing into that room without her clothes, leapt on me before I even had a chance to move and kissed me. I didn’t even kiss her back. If the roles were reversed and I caught Charlie with a friend of mine, I’d be prepared at least to listen before making a judgement.’

Rita thought he had a point, though she expected he’d be every bit as hot-headed as his girl. ‘But you’re forgetting that everyone important in Charlie’s life has betrayed her trust,’ she said. ‘Her father, mother and her first boyfriend. She’s strong, Andrew, but she isn’t indestructible. You’ve got to give her time. I will try and talk to her, but you must learn to be patient.’

They chatted about other things for a little while. Andrew told her that he had stayed on at the pub in Hampstead, but that he had arranged to move into a shared house with his old friends at the end of the month. He spoke too of his final year at university and the need to get a first-class degree if he was to be taken on by a good company. ‘IBM are looking for graduates,’ he said earnestly. ‘I really believe computers will change the face of business and industry within ten years or so. I want to get in on the ground floor.’

Rita’s only experience of computers had been as a temporary filing clerk at the Egg Marketing Board a few years earlier. Their one was a vast machine taking up an entire floor. As she remembered, it was always going wrong and it appeared to be more trouble than it was worth. But she supposed Andrew knew what he was talking about, so she nodded in agreement.

‘I hope this trouble with me hasn’t stopped Charlie thinking about a real career,’ he went on. ‘She’s so bright, I’d hate to think of her getting stuck in a dead-end job.’

Rita was just about to say how highly Mrs Haagman thought of Charlie. She was a rude, inconsiderate and totally ungrateful woman but Charlie appeared to have won her round. Only this morning she’d called Charlie into her office to offer her the chance to go on a training course for the technical side of film processing. But then Rita remembered Martin had told Andrew that Charlie had left the firm.

‘I don’t think that will happen,’ she said quickly. ‘She’s got a very ambitious streak.’

Andrew looked harder at Rita. He had arrived at Haagman’s imagining that the friendship between Charlie and this woman was a very casual one. Charlie had laughingly described her as ‘a red-headed vamp in missionary’s clothing’. He had wondered at the time why anyone could be bothered to spend their lunch-breaks with someone who sounded so weird and so much older than themselves. But now, after almost an hour in Rita’s company, he understood the attraction, and why Charlie had confided so much in her. Her character was the same odd mix as her appearance. On the surface she was just a staid mother figure, warm, understanding and kind. Yet she was too aware, too free-thinking to be called ordinary. She was obviously very astute, and had studied Charlie very closely. And he thought she almost certainly knew exactly where Charlie was and what she was doing.

Andrew admired loyalty, and he felt that if Charlie had this woman on her side she must be safe. As he sensed he was not going to make any further headway tonight, he thought he’d better go, and leave her to confer with Charlie.

‘I’d better be going,’ he said, looking at his watch. ‘I’m due behind the bar at eight. Thanks for listening to me, Rita, I hope you will press my cause with Charlie. If you have any news for me, could you phone me at the pub?’ He jotted down the number for her on a piece of paper. ‘By the way, before I go. I fully intend to start digging about her father, like we planned, with or without her. From next week I’m only working in the evenings, so I’ll have plenty of time.’

He was out the door before Rita could say anything more. She drank the last of her gin and tonic and thoughtfully lit up one last cigarette.

Charlie had told her Andrew’s ideas of how to set about tracking DeeDee down. Rita had wanted to laugh at the naivety of a man who believed he could get information about anyone in Soho by pretending to be a researcher. There were only two ways she knew of extracting information from people in Soho. One was with money, the other was violence.

But now she’d met Andrew she couldn’t laugh. He was a nice lad, as bright as a button, and handsome enough to persuade a few working girls to help him. And he had absolutely no idea how much trouble that might lead him into.

*

Rita was sitting in the dark by the open window, deep in thought, when Charlie came in.

‘Has the electric gone?’ Charlie giggled and switched on a lamp. ‘Oh no, my nosy friend is just spying on people.’

‘Hullo, love,’ Rita said, her spirits lifted slightly by Charlie’s cheerful tone. ‘I must be getting old, I hadn’t noticed it getting dark. How was work this evening?’

‘So so.’ Charlie pulled a face. ‘The Hag came back at half seven and hauled me into her office to talk some more about that course. It’s in York of all places and I’ve got to go there on Tuesday.’

‘That’s great,’ Rita said. She could see by Charlie’s expression that she was torn between apprehension and glee. ‘A change of scene will be good for you. Is she putting you up in a hotel?’

‘Yes, she said it was a good one too, and I wasn’t to let her down by fooling around. But I expect you’re right, a change will be nice, and I’ll be out of your hair.’

Charlie disappeared into her room to put her nightclothes on. While she was gone, Rita made her tea and a sandwich. She didn’t really know how to broach the subject of Andrew, but she knew she must tell her tonight.

‘You are a love,’ Charlie said when she came back out into the living room and saw the tea and sandwiches waiting on the coffee table. ‘You’re so mumsy the way you look after me.’

‘I enjoy being mumsy,’ Rita said with a fond smile. It was actually far more than that. Having Charlie staying with her had filled a void in her life; for the first time in years she felt needed and useful. She hoped her young friend might want to stay indefinitely.

Charlie was exhausted and she really wanted to go to bed, but she sensed Rita had something on her mind. ‘I can’t thank you enough for having me here. I don’t know what I would have done without you,’ she said. ‘But I don’t want to outstay my welcome, so just say the word when you want me to go and I’ll find somewhere else.’

‘Now, whatever brought that on?’ Rita asked in surprise.

‘Well, guests are like fish, after three days they begin to go off,’ Charlie said.

‘Is that what that smell is?’ Rita sniffed the air in an exaggerated fashion. ‘I’ve been wondering about it all evening.’

Charlie laughed. Rita was a natural comedienne, and it was mostly that which had helped her through these past two weeks. If she’d had too much sympathy she would never have got out of bed. But then Rita was a remarkable woman all round. She knew when to listen, when to offer a hug, and when to give a kick up the pants. Charlie had received several of those from her. One morning when she refused to get up for work, Rita pulled the covers off her and slapped a wet flannel on her face. The first Sunday here Rita had insisted they bought Red Rover tickets on the bus and went all over London so Charlie couldn’t sit and brood. ‘Stop wallowing,’ she’d intuitively shout from the kitchen when a love song came on the radio, knowing it was likely to remind Charlie of Andrew. Often she refused to let Charlie talk about him, and insisted she told her about Guy, Ivor or even her old schoolfriends instead. It worked too – Charlie often found herself laughing over her reminiscences. She hoped that one day soon she’d find something about her time with Andrew to laugh about, rather than cry over, too.

‘You
have
got something on your mind. If it’s not throwing me out, what is it?’ Charlie asked. ‘You aren’t peeved because the Hag offered me that course instead of you, are you?’

‘Of course not,’ Rita said, smiling at the idea. ‘My brain is much too rusty to cope with all that technical stuff.’ She thought Charlie was beginning to look and sound like her old self again, and she was wary of saying anything which might set her back again.

For the first week Charlie was with her Rita had been very worried. She hardly ate a thing, and when she did she was often sick. She lost her natural glow entirely, she was so pale and gaunt that even the Hag had noticed. Rita had to force her to wash her hair at one point because she’d lost all interest in her appearance. But in the last few days she’d started eating and sleeping again, and her colour had improved. Today she’d put on a dress, the first time she’d been out of jeans since she arrived here.

‘I saw Andrew,’ Rita blurted out. ‘He was waiting for me outside Haagman’s.’

‘You didn’t tell him where I was, did you?’ Charlie said in alarm, rising out of the chair as if she was on a spring.

‘Sit down, drink your tea and shut up,’ Rita said firmly. ‘Don’t interrupt until I’ve finished.’

Rita told her the gist of what had passed between her and Andrew.

‘You believe him, don’t you?’ Charlie’s eyes flashed with anger. ‘He’s taken you in completely!’

‘No one takes me in,’ Rita said calmly. ‘I must have met most of the lying, snivelling bastards in London in my time. So don’t insult my intelligence, Charlie.’

Charlie blushed. ‘I didn’t mean to, but he’s just playing on your sympathy.’

Rita was fast losing her patience. Charlie always thought she knew best about everything, but this time it was annoying.

‘He didn’t attempt to do that. He told the truth. He should have whacked that girl off him. It would probably have been wiser if he’d waited for you to phone him before going over to the flat. And maybe he shouldn’t have sat there smoking dope with her. But ask yourself, Charlie, why didn’t he wait for your call?’

‘Because he fancied being there with her,’ Charlie said sullenly.

Rita laughed. ‘He didn’t even expect her to be there on a Bank Holiday. And he certainly didn’t go because he thought he might get his leg over before you got back. It was because he couldn’t wait to see you. If there had been no one there he would have sat on your doorstep like a faithful dog waiting for his mistress.’

‘But she said he’d been with her the whole weekend.’

‘She would say that though, wouldn’t she?’ Rita shrugged. ‘You’d caught her out, punched her and vomited on her bed. She wanted to hurt you back, so that was all she could think of saying. Surely even a five-year-old could see that!’

Charlie looked stubbornly at the ceiling, her arms crossed. ‘I’m not going to have him back,’ she said.

‘Did I ask you to?’

‘No, but that’s what you’re thinking.’

‘So you are a mind-reader now? My goodness, Charlie, you are a stubborn little minx. Let me put something to you. Just suppose it’s Christmas, and we’re having a party at Haagman’s, Martin gets a clump of mistletoe and comes up to kiss you. He’s just plonking one on your lips, when the door bursts open and in comes Andrew. Would you think that was just cause for him to cast you to hell and damnation?’

‘I wouldn’t let Martin kiss me!’ she said indignantly.

‘Oh, Miss Prissy Pants.’ Rita grimaced. ‘You would after a few drinks, so would anyone. But just because he kissed you, it wouldn’t mean you’d have sex with him. Grow up, Charlie, and think about what you’re chucking away.’