DEATHLOOP (20 page)

Jason knew Sam wanted him to leave so he crossed to a chair, sank into it and folded his arms. Jason was going nowhere.

Betty had got no reply on Geoff’s phone from reception and so decided that drastic measures were called for and followed Jason up in the lift.

“Is Geoff around, Karen?” asked Betty.

“Yes, somewhere, try Phil’s room down on the left.”

Betty followed Karen’s instructions and at the end of the passageway stopped at an open door. Geoff and Phil, distinguished and soon to retire, looked at Betty a little taken aback, this was not her usual stamping ground after all.

“Geoff, I’m
so sorry
, but I
do
need to have a word,” said Betty.

“Come on in, Betty,” said Geoff, grandly, “come on in.”

Geoff indicated a chair as Phil went off and left them to it, not wanting to waste his time with Betty or the inconsequential world that she inhabited.

“This is very awkward, Geoff, but I really feel you should know.”

Geoff was curious now as he leant up against Phil’s desk arms folded. “Then fire away, Betty,” he said with a patronizing grin, “fire away.”

“A boy keeps coming to the building. He’s here now, I saw him get into the lift.”

“A
boy
,” said Geoff, “what boy?”

“Well now that’s the thing,” said Betty, as though the implications were grave, “some street kid, a hoodie.”

“So what does he want?”

“Apparently, Mr Fortune is defending him in a court action. A drugs charge, although that piece of information is confidential and between you and me.”

“But he doesn’t work in criminal defence anymore, he works for us.”

“That’s what I said on day one but he wouldn’t have it. He became aggressive with both Patrick and myself and started shouting and throwing things. I mentioned it to Mr Fortune but he seemed unperturbed as though I was speaking out of turn and in fact he more or less told me that it was none of my business, but it
is
my business Geoff, as well you know. My job is to make sure this wheel of commerce turns efficiently, but how can I when there’s a drug dealer on the rampage, causing havoc?”

Geoff smiled across at Betty, flushed with her little speech, hoping it would put her into his good books no doubt, but Geoff had an innate dislike of snitchers so Betty was on a losing wicket there. Geoff hoped that Zack was not having some kind of breakdown. He had given him the benefit of the doubt after the extraordinary episode with the Wahlbergs because people as gifted as Zack Fortune were a rarity, but if all this business was true, his behaviour was becoming increasingly erratic and it was worrying.

“He’s with us now, you say,” said Geoff, “he’s in the building?”

“Yes, but goodness knows where. I presumed he’d come straight up here, but you haven’t seen him I take it?”

“
Not that I am aware
,” said Geoff, archly.

“You’d know if you had,” said Betty, “believe me.”

But Sam had seen Jason, in fact he’d seen a little too much of Jason because Jason was refusing to leave.

“He might come back.”

“He won’t come back, he’s in Derbyshire.”

“What’s he doing there?”

“Very important things…”

“I’ll wait.”

“For a week?” said Sam, annoyed now and just wanting this boy to make himself scarce, without Geoff seeing him or anyone else for that matter.

“He might come back earlier, he might come back today.”

“No he won’t, he can’t, it’s not allowed.”

Jason thought about this. It could be a rule here that you have to go to Derbyshire for a week every so often, but he didn’t think so. The way this guy mentioned Derbyshire with a smirk on his face made Jason suspicious.

“Now, I’ve got work to do, so let me bid you farewell.”

Sam smiled, walked over to the door and opened it revealing Betty and Geoff who had his hand up and was about to knock.

“
Ah!
” bellowed Geoff with the look of a man who had just discovered the secret of Atlantis. “And this is?” he asked airily to no one in particular, swiftly homing in on Jason and gazing down at him, like he was an exhibit under glass.

“I’m a client. Zack Fortune looks after me.”

“Does he indeed?”

“I’m here to discuss my case.”

“Well unfortunately Mr Fortune is not here at the moment so your plan has been thwarted, young man.”

Jason glanced up at Geoff with his stupid red braces, his smarmy smile and his idiotic old words that no one had ever heard of.
Lean down any further you wanker and I’ll bite your fucking nose off
.

“So probably time for you to leave,” said Geoff, pleasantly enough.

“No I’ll wait… thanks all the same.”

“Don’t be so ridiculous!” said Betty, swinging into action, “you shouldn’t even be here in the first place as well you know! Now… do you want me to get Patrick up here to sort this out, because I will…” said Betty, as though she was about to call on the services of Attila the Hun.

Jason shrugged.

“
Right
… I’ll call Patrick and we’ll see about this!” said Betty bustling across to Sam’s phone.

“I think we might be better calling the police,” said Geoff, who had very little confidence in Patrick at the best of times.

Sam bent down and whispered in Jason’s ear.

“Listen, mate,” said Sam, “you drop Zack in the shit with the boss here and he’ll ditch you, he’ll want nothing more to do with you at all.”

Jason did not like the sound of this. He did not like the sound of this one bit, in fact the more he pulled the idea back and forth in his head, the more he was beginning to panic. Perhaps he’d got this wrong, like he had with Kelly, after all, she stopped speaking to him, what if Zack did too? Jason was on his feet now, and backing towards the door.

“I’m sorry!” he shouted to Geoff. “I’m sorry, Miss Betty. It wasn’t Zack Fortune’s fault, it was mine. He told me to keep away, but I wouldn’t listen. I’m going now and I won’t be back!”

Jason dived out of Sam’s office and finding the staircase, flew down all 18 flights and through the fire door to the mews outside. Jason ran, and he didn’t stop running until he got back to the Holloway Road.

Sam reassured Geoff as best he could, telling him that Jason, who clearly had some mental health issues, had got it wrong. Zack would not have agreed to defend him in court so the whole thing must be wishful thinking. He said that he felt it unlikely that they would see Jason again after today, so they could consider the matter closed.

However, in private, both men wondered if it was quite as simple as Sam had made out. It didn’t help when Betty spoke to Geoff again at some length later on that day, insisting that Zack must have known about the boy and his impending court case, otherwise, why take the bundle, and why be so blasé about him turning up on the premises in the first place. Eventually, Geoff decided to leave it until Zack’s return and try to get to the bottom of it all himself.

Sam hoped he’d got away with it with Geoff. He seemed happy enough with his explanation, much happier in fact than Sam had been. Sam was still brooding on the implications when he received a phone call that took him by surprise.

“Sam Stein…”

“Tracy Bright speaking, Zack Fortune’s solicitor.”

“Yes, he’s mentioned you,” said Sam.

“Where is he? Do you know?”

“Derbyshire…”

“Yes, he left me a message to that effect, but where in Derbyshire?” snapped Tracy.

“Pass.”

“Well if you hear from him tell him to call me straight away.”

“That sounds like bad news.”

“It is,” said Tracy, after a hesitation, “it really is.”

Sam knew there was no point asking Tracy exactly how bad, because he knew she would refuse to tell him. Sam hung up and immediately phoned Zack but nothing, no message service, nothing, surely even in Derbyshire they have mobile phone masts don’t they? But there were hills and there were dales, Sam did know that, so maybe Zack was just too high or too low or behind some God forsaken mountain or something and therefore off radar. Then as though in answer to his little prayer, ten minutes later, Zack called.

“Mate,” said Sam, relieved to hear his voice, “how goes it?”

“Like the curate’s egg if you must know,” said Zack, sounding more than a little subdued.

“Another new phone…”

“Indeed, but let’s not go there.”

“What’s up?”

“Nothing…”

“Not girl trouble already?”

“No, not yet…”

“Good to hear it, listen, your solicitor has been on the phone.”

“
To you?
” said Zack after a hesitation, “what the hell for?”

“You’d better call her,” said Sam, “and pronto… something’s up.”

“Shit,” said Zack. “Must be the pills, Sid didn’t know what they were, did I tell you?”

“
Of course he bloody did!
” said Sam, finding himself angry suddenly at the thought of the man, “just call her, and report back to me straight away.”

But Zack did not report back to Sam straight away, and despite many attempts to raise him on his new phone Sam failed to make contact with Zack for the rest of the day. Zack saw the logged messages and emails, but did not respond, he was in the car now with Veronica and driving back to London, his head still swimming with the conversation he’d had earlier with Tracy Bright.

“Hi Tracy…” he’d said, trying to sound upbeat.

“Look, Zack, you really must not do this. You should have spoken to me first before even considering a trip out of town, it was a mistake and I am hugely surprised you made it.”

“Well there we are,” said Zack, “you’re not the first woman I’ve disappointed, Tracy, and I don’t suppose you’ll be the last. So, anyway, what the hell were those pills?” said Zack, trying to get them back on more neutral territory.

“It’s not the pills,” said Tracy, her words fading to silence.

“Oh I see, you want me to guess.”

“The samples taken from Susan have tested positive, I’m afraid.”

“Sorry… what was that you said?”

“You want me to spell it out?”

“Yes, I think you better had.”

“Semen taken from Susan’s vagina on the night of the alleged assault has been checked against your DNA profile and the conclusion is that it is yours, so, what I think we should do is this…”

Tracy continued speaking, but Zack had cut off, thoughts were racing through his head, plus a million questions. He knew Tracy could not answer any of them, and neither could he. Suddenly it was like he was on another planet that looked exactly like earth but which had its own set of rules, none of which made sense.

The last time he had seen Susan he remembered thinking how beautiful she looked, lying in his bed completely naked, finding her strange features attractive again, appealing even, after having thought exactly the opposite a couple of days earlier, but he remembered nothing else. There was a vague recollection of her touching him when he fell back into bed but it was just a fragment of memory, nothing concrete. Maybe Susan had instigated sex and he had gone along with it. Would he really have agreed to that? And more to the point, in the state he was in, would he have been capable of it? But this was damning evidence and Zack knew it. He remembered nothing after falling asleep on the bed, and had he taken Tracy’s advice he would have thought long and hard before saying what he did or did not do because the truth was he couldn’t remember a damn thing.

For the first time since he had known Sid, Zack found himself cursing the guy. He had asked for a few uppers and downers that’s all, nothing heavy duty, but whatever the white pills were they had delivered a hammer blow that had disabled his memory and rendered him unconscious. He could hear Sam complaining to Clarissa that it was his own stupid fault having anything to do with Sid Johnson, the reprobate, who promised fun but delivered chaos, and this time, Sam was right.

Zack told Veronica that there had been some crisis at work and unfortunately he had to get back to town. Veronica didn’t object and was very quiet in the car as they set off.

“You know Russell Garritty died last night,” she said, her head turned away from him, gazing out of the window, not long after they hit the M1.

“The guy that threw me out of the hall?” he said, managing to sound almost neutral.

“The very same,” she replied.

“What happened?”

“They think he might have committed suicide, they don’t know. He drowned in a river, at least… that’s what I heard anyway.”

“Who told you all this?”

“A woman in a sweet shop,” she said.

“What woman in what sweet shop?”

“I overheard a conversation,” said Veronica, turning to look at him, “strange don’t you think?” A silence fell, but when Veronica thought enough time had elapsed, she continued. “Where did you get to last night?”

“I found a half decent pub,” said Zack vaguely, “there was a lock-in, quite fun in a way.”

“You didn’t see Russell on your travels?”

“No. Why? Should I have done?” said Zack unable to keep the tension from his voice.

“I thought you might have been curious, that’s all… and tracked him down.”

“Curious?”

“Oh you know what I mean,” she said, annoyed they were keeping up this pretence.

“I told you, I’m not interested in people like that, they’re parasites.”

“Really, and you city boys are not?” said Veronica looking straight at him.

“I don’t make money from other people’s misfortune if that’s what you mean, no I don’t.”

“I thought that’s all you guys did, actually,” said Veronica, turning back to gaze out of the window again, “exploit labour to increase profit… so I’d say you were exactly the same in that respect.”

They barely spoke after that, neither liking the fact that a rift had developed between them, but neither quite knowing what to do about it.

Once the Mercedes had pulled up in Thornhill Square, Veronica grabbed her bag from the back seat and refusing Zack’s offer of help, jumped from the car.

“I’ll call you,” said Zack.

Veronica shrugged and threw him a dismissive glance, as though she wasn’t particularly bothered one way or another.