Alarm Call

Chapter 35

It took me a little while to explain to Tom that I was going to have to leave him again. But I promised that he’d have a great time with his auntie Dawn, his uncle Miles, and Bruce, and that there would be other people for him to meet as well, not least his grandpa, a great big man who’d tell him funny stories about pulling teeth.

When he was ready to let me go, I promised that I’d see him soon in Scotland, kissed him farewell, not goodbye, and drove back to Vegas, almost picking up a speeding ticket on the way, courtesy of the Californian Highway Patrol. (The officer settled for an autograph and a handshake.)

It was getting dark when I reached the Bellagio. I arranged the return of the car to Hertz, with a mental note to put a Jag in the garage of the house in Beverly Hills when we bought it. (My non-stop tour of North America had changed me: I’d decided that the next time the accountants recommended we go offshore, I was going to agree with them.)

I took the lift up to my suite, walked into my room and dumped my bag on the floor. There was someone in my bed: her red hair was all over the pillow, like it always is, and she was sound asleep. There had been no skin and feathers in the living area, so I guessed that when Liam had picked her up from McCarron, as I’d asked him to do, he’d made damn sure she didn’t get anywhere near Prim.

She was still in the Gradis’ suite when I went along there … I was pleased to see that the Behemoth’s spots were fading, finally; maybe he was going to make next week. I told her nothing, only that she was moving out, to a suite in the Mandalay Bay, at the end of the Strip, then waited as she packed and took her along there. She was tense all the way; once or twice she started, as if she was going to ask me something, but I told her to shut up, that I would talk to her when I was good and ready.

Once she was checked in, I took her to the China Grill. She looked as if she hadn’t been eating properly since I left, and I was getting peckish again.

I told her what had happened over a couple of Shanghai lobsters. She wept a bit when I told her Tom was safe and with his astonished aunt Dawn, a little more when I savaged her for keeping his existence from me, and a lot more when I told her that she probably wouldn’t see him again for quite a while.

It might have been a bit embarrassing for the waiters but, frankly, by that time I didn’t give a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut.

When I had softened a little, I told her about her mother; I expected her to cry about that too, but she didn’t. It seemed as if her tears were reserved for Tom. She was upset, don’t get me wrong, but what I was telling her wasn’t news. She was a nurse by profession, after all, and she’d known what was coming.

Finally I told her that I wanted her to make me some promises.

‘One, you don’t fight me over Tom’s custody. You’ll find it difficult from a jail cell, but if you do I’ll win, and it’ll be harder for you in the long run. Go along with it, and he’ll spend as much time with you as he does with me.

‘Two, you phone your father tomorrow, and this time you really do tell him the truth, so that he can prepare Elanore before Dawn turns up on the doorstep with our son.

‘Three, as long as you’re in Vegas … you’re paying for this lot, by the way, now I know you’re not really skint, so how long that is, is up to you. . you don’t come anywhere near Susie and me, especially Susie. You go near her, and she’ll tear your head off.

‘Four, tomorrow morning, first thing, you will phone Harvey January and apologise to him, until the profuseness is leaking from your ears.

‘Five, once you’ve had time to think about things, you’ll come back to Scotland and give yourself up. You’re not facing any criminal charges here, but there are things over there that won’t go away till you’ve dealt with them. I’d rather my son’s mother has a prison record than she’s a constant fugitive.

‘All of those things: do you promise them, now?’

She dabbed her eyes. ‘Yes,’ she said, quietly. And I believed her. So far, I have to say, she’s kept her word.