Deadly Business (15 page)

‘No,’ she murmured, ‘I suppose not.’

‘So what’s your concern?’

‘It’s Duncan,’ she admitted. ‘He doesn’t know anything about this, but he’s going to find out pretty damn soon. I don’t know for certain, but my gut tells me that when he learns what Susie’s done he’s not going to like it. He hates you; I can tell you that.’

‘You don’t have to; I know he does. But anyone who lays a hand on my son should also be afraid of me.’

‘Duncan did that?’ she gasped.

‘Yes. He paid for it at the time, but I’m not done with him. Let’s make sure that everything is cut and dried when he does find out. The Stock Exchange opens at eight on Monday morning. You’ll still be travelling when the news goes public, but to be sure, instruct the PR people that there’s to be no advance briefing on this. I don’t want bloody Culshaw reading about it on his iPhone in Charles de Gaulle Airport, at least not before eight o’clock BST. And one other thing,’ I added. ‘How much notice of a board meeting does the chair have to give to directors?’

‘None, if it’s an emergency. Otherwise company rules, twenty-four hours minimum. Normally, Susie gives a month.’

‘Fine, this time it’s by the rules. I want you to instruct the company secretary to fix the time as ten a.m. on Tuesday, with minimum notice. That way Duncan won’t be getting a text from Uncle Phil at the airport either.’

‘Do you think Phil would do that?’

‘I don’t know, but let’s cover all possibilities.’

‘Christ, Primavera,’ Audrey laughed, ‘are you sure you shouldn’t be executive chair?’

‘I will be whatever Susie wants me to be,’ I replied, seriously. ‘Although I’d rather be neither, and that she was still up to the job.’

‘She will be,’ her right-hand woman said firmly. ‘It’ll take a little while, but she’ll be back in charge before you know it.’

How I hope that’s true
, I thought. ‘Absolutely,’ I said. ‘Our job is to make sure that the ship’s still afloat when she’s ready to take the wheel again. That’s me metaphored out for the day, Audrey.’ I laughed. ‘Send me flight arrangements and e-tickets and I’ll see you in Edinburgh on Monday.’

It was only when I hung up that I remembered dinner with Liam Matthews. He’d left the choice of restaurant to me, so I hit on Meson del Conde, because the food’s good, and because it has a nice, covered, air-conditioned terrace restaurant, away from the square, which can become a little frantic on a June Saturday evening. I called them and reserved a table, then sent a text to the mobile number on the card that Liam had given me when we’d parted ways earlier. ‘Table booked; pick me up from home.’

Okay, Primavera, that’s you sorted, now how about the kids?
The realisation hit me as soon as my message whooshed on its way. I’d fed them a takeaway for lunch; no way could I allow myself to do that again. I charged into the kitchen, looked at what I had in the fridge: some gazpacho that I’d made the morning before, five tuna steaks and salad. I looked at my watch: six thirty-five. If I knocked up the salad, got myself ready, then grilled the fish, I could have them at the table by eight.

‘Wassup?’ Conrad asked me, from the doorway.

‘I’ve got a date,’ I confessed. ‘And a very small window to get everything ready, including me.’

‘Then I’ll do dinner,’ he said.

‘You had them all morning.’

‘So what? You’ve had Tom twenty-four seven for twelve years.’
Not quite all of them
, I thought, but didn’t dwell on it. ‘What do you need doing?’ I set out my proposed menu. ‘No worries,’ he insisted. ‘I do the best salad in our house, and I know how to flip a tuna steak on the grill.’

‘If you’re sure.’

He put his hands on my shoulders. ‘Primavera, Audrey and I don’t have, won’t have any kids of our own. So any chance I get to play Dad, I take it. Who is the guy?’

‘Liam Matthews.’

‘I thought it might be. Janet told me about him this morning.’

‘Did you ever meet him?’

‘No, but Oz talked about him often enough. He liked him a lot, I could tell.’

‘Did Tom say anything about him?’ I asked.

Conrad frowned. ‘No. But it was the way he didn’t say it. I reckon that Culshaw’s made him very wary of new men coming into mothers’ lives.’

‘Well, he needn’t worry about Liam. It’s a friendly dinner, that’s all.’

‘Then why are you so flustered? It’s not like you.’

‘Because friendly or not,’ I exclaimed, ‘it’s the first proper date of any sort I’ve had with a man for four years, and even then … fuck me, he was the parish priest!’

‘In that case, I don’t imagine he did.’

I stared at him, then we both dissolved into laughter. ‘Nor will this guy,’ I said, as we subsided. ‘Poor old Gerard, though. At first I was slightly insulted that he chose God over me, but now …’

‘Now what?’

‘Now I’m glad, because it wouldn’t have worked. Mostly I saw him as a proper father figure for Tom. But as it happens, Tom doesn’t want one. He’s made that pretty clear.’

Conrad shook his head. ‘Don’t underestimate him, Primavera. Ultimately he wants what you want. But you wouldn’t want anyone he doesn’t fancy, or anyone who doesn’t fancy him. He’s your gatekeeper; to get to you, any man will have to get past him.’ I recalled his stance on the beach the night before, as Liam approached. What Conrad was saying was the literal truth. ‘But there’s one big problem for that potential suitor,’ he continued. ‘He either has to make Tom accept one thing, or wait for him to be ready to accept it.’

‘What’s that?’ I asked.

‘That his father is really dead.’

‘That’s not Tom’s problem alone,’ I confessed. ‘I have to make myself believe it as well.’ I felt myself frown. ‘Conrad,’ I continued, ‘if he wasn’t, and you knew it, you would tell me, wouldn’t you?’

He held up a hand. ‘Stop it,’ he said. ‘Don’t wander into fantasy land.’

I don’t know what made me press him, other than the strangest feeling that our conversation had become very important. ‘No,’ I insisted, ‘a straight answer, please.’

‘Okay, if you must have it. If he wasn’t dead and I knew it, I wouldn’t tell you, for there would be a reason for him not having told you himself, and my first loyalty would be to him, always.’ He paused, holding my gaze. ‘But I don’t know that, Primavera, I don’t. Understood?’

His eyes were intense, more compelling than I’d ever seen them. I felt mine mist as I nodded. ‘Understood,’ I whispered.

‘Good.’ He smiled. ‘Now go get yourself dolled up for Mr Matthews. I hope he knows how lucky he is.’

I did as I was told. I’m not big on make-up on a daily basis. Living in the sun as I do, I spend a small fortune on screens, body lotions and moisturisers, but mostly all I use of an evening is a little eyeliner, and, if I’m feeling racy, some mascara. That night, though, after I’d showered and fixed my hair, which I always keep manageably cut, I gave myself the full works, blusher, eyeshadow, lustrous lipgloss, all the stuff that my sister’s rarely seen in public without. Thinking about it, the only thing I’ve ever learned from our Dawn is how to glam myself up properly.

To go with it all, I chose a dark blue dress that she persuaded me to buy the last time I’d visited her in Los Angeles. It’s by Versace, close-fitting and beautifully cut, with two straps and a plunging V that absolutely precludes the wearing of a bra. I rummaged in my shoe cupboard … one day I must get round to cataloguing them and putting them in some sort of order … for the pair I’d bought to match, sprinkled some golden sparkly stuff between my tits, and I was done. Almost. I opened my safe and took out a pair of diamond earrings and a matching ring that Oz bought for me on a weekend in London that Susie never knew about. I put them on and then I really was ready for the evening. Had I forgotten something? No, I decided against wearing any, that’s all.

When I went downstairs, at two minutes before eight, the kids were at the table in the kitchen, and Conrad was hard at work creating his legendary salad. Heads turned.

‘Mum?’ Tom murmured, as if he wasn’t sure.

‘Auntie Primavera!’ Janet exclaimed, eyeing me from top to toe and back again.

Even wee Jonathan smiled.

Conrad said nothing, but the look in his eyes told me I’d got it right.

‘I’m going out for the evening,’ I explained. I’d have shrugged, but I wasn’t sure it was safe. Instead I sashayed across to the wine fridge, took out a bottle of pretty decent cava, and looked at my son. ‘Wine waiter wanted,’ I said, haughtily. ‘Front terrace.’

He and Janet rose from the table at the same time, just as the bell chimed, beating those in the church tower by about two seconds. He looked curious, she looked fascinated. I handed him the bottle; he knew what to do.

I went to the door and opened it. Liam had done some dressing up of his own; tan razor-creased trousers, a buckskin jacket and a white silk shirt with a granddad collar, that wore no designer logo and fitted so well that it might have been tailor-made.

‘So where are the fucking flowers?’ I asked, breaking the silence in which we had inspected each other.

He laughed and held his hands up, as if to ward me off. ‘I tried to get some, honest. I asked at the hotel where I could find a bouquet of roses. The receptionist gave me a funny look and said that Sant Jordi’s Day was two months ago. What the hell’s that?’

‘It’s the local version of Valentine’s Day,’ I explained as I led him inside, and up to the first floor. ‘Tom and I observe it. The deal is that he gives her a rose and she gives him a book. I have to tell you that there are a hell of a lot more roses sold around here than there are books.’

I led him out on to the terrace, with its view of the square. ‘This is like Buckingham Palace,’ he said. ‘Do you stand up here and wave to the multitudes?’

‘Only on Christmas Day. Sit down,’ I told him. ‘I thought we’d have a drink before we go down to the restaurant.’ As I spoke, Janet stepped out of the living room, carrying a tray with two champagne flutes. Tom followed, with the cava in an ice bucket. ‘In fact, here are my staff now.’

‘I knew it would be you,’ Janet murmured, quietly triumphant, as she put the tray on the table.

‘Me too,’ Tom added. I’d heard him sound more welcoming. He was still weighing Liam up.

Suddenly, I realised that I’d been discourteous. ‘Tom,’ I said. ‘Go and ask Conrad if he’d like to join us, if he’s done with the salad. And Janet, fetch an extra glass, there’s a love.’

‘Actually,’ Liam intervened, ‘you don’t need that, Primavera. I don’t drink alcohol.’ I must have looked sceptical, for he went on. ‘Honest, I don’t. I’m your atypical Irishman. I gave it up a few years ago, when I was wrestling. Like most of the guys, I had to take painkillers sometimes, and I found the two don’t mix. When you start using booze to dumb the pain, there’s only one way you go after that. So I stopped, and I found that I felt better for it, even when I quit the game and didn’t need the super ibuprofen any longer.’

‘Good for you,’ I told him. ‘What do you drink?’

‘Sparkling water will be fine.’

‘In that case you can have it in a champagne glass.’

Conrad joined us a couple of minutes later, after he’d shed his apron and replaced it with a blazer. ‘I’m pleased to meet you,’ Liam said as they shook hands, and glasses were filled. ‘Oz spoke about you a lot. He said that there was nobody else in the world that he’d rather have watching his back … not even Everett Davis.’

‘Who’s Everett Davis?’ Conrad asked.

‘My old boss in the Global Wrestling Alliance. In billing they usually add a few inches to the performer’s real height, but Everett really is seven feet two inches tall and built like a brick shithouse. He scared me witless even when I knew he wasn’t really going to hurt me. So for Oz to say that about you, my friend, you must be one serious geezer.’

I’d never seen Conrad look even close to being flustered before, but he was then. ‘No, no,’ he murmured. ‘I’m just a glorified caretaker.’

‘Funnily enough,’ Liam said, ‘that’s pretty close to how Oz put it. “There is nothing in the whole fucking world that I wouldn’t trust Conrad to take care of.” That’s a direct quote.’

‘In that case, he flattered me. Would you like to know what he said to me about you?’

‘I can almost guess, but go on.’

‘He said, and I’m quoting now, “Once Liam Matthews decided to stop being an arsehole, he turned into a very reasonable human being, one of the few people in the world I trust.” Again, his exact words, which is why I’m not at all worried about you turning up out of the blue. Anyone else wouldn’t have got over the door without me checking him out, even if this is my boss’s house. The children in my charge live in it, which makes me very responsible.’

Liam tipped his glass to Conrad. ‘In which case, I’m glad we’re on the same side.’

We sipped and chatted, but not for long, as the kids still had to be fed and I didn’t want to be too late for my table reservation. When our glasses were empty, I gave Conrad the ice bucket, so that Tom could put a stopper in the cava and return it to the fridge, then led Liam towards the stairs.

My son was waiting at the top. Something was coming off him in waves; I wasn’t sure what it was, but it touched me. ‘Have a nice evening, Mum,’ he said. But he said it in Catalan. I thought that was rude and I almost made him repeat it in English, but decided against. If anything was festering it wouldn’t have been helped by a public correction.