Deadly Business

Three

‘Duncan?’ I repeated. ‘What makes you think she’s gone anywhere with Duncan? She doesn’t see him any more, Jonathan.’

‘He went away on business, Mummy said. But I think he’s come back.’

‘What makes you think that, son?’

‘I saw him in Monaco, before Mummy went away; one day Conrad was driving Janet and me back from school and I saw him sitting in Casino Square. Janet didn’t see him, though, and I haven’t said anything to Conrad. She’d be upset if he came back.’

‘Are you sure it was him? When you’re travelling in a car and you only get a glimpse of somebody, it’s easy to make a mistake.’

His mouth set in a hard line. ‘It was him,’ he muttered. ‘Why don’t you believe me, Auntie Primavera?’ There were tears in his eyes.

I ruffled his hair, and took his hand. ‘I do believe you, wee man,’ I said, gently. ‘If you’re certain, that’s good enough for me. Was he with anyone?’

‘No, but there had been somebody else at his table, because there were two glasses on it.’

‘Maybe they were both his?’

‘No. One was a beer and the other was a long pink drink, with straws and things in it. And there was a bag on the table, a lady’s bag not a man’s bag, and it was red, like one that Mummy’s got. And when we got home, she wasn’t there, and she’d said she would be. Auntie Primavera, I don’t like Duncan. He’s not a nice man. When Mummy and Conrad aren’t there he’s rude to us, and shouty. And he hit Tom once.’

‘He did what!’ I exclaimed. If I’d known that when he was in Alex’s custody …

‘When?’

‘One day last summer when Tom was with us. He and Janet were playing scrabble, in Catalan … Tom was teaching her … and Duncan told Janet to get him a beer. He didn’t say please or anything; he’d had lots of beers before that. Tom said that he was nearer the fridge so couldn’t he get his own, and Duncan pulled him to his feet, and said that just for that he could get it. And he swore, he used that rude word that Conrad got angry at me for using. Tom said no and Duncan hit him, on the side of the head, quite hard.’

‘Did anybody see this?’ I murmured.

‘Only Janet and me. Janet shouted at Duncan, but he told her to shut up or she’d get the same.’

‘Didn’t either of you tell your mother, or Conrad?’ I asked him.

‘No, because Tom said we shouldn’t.’

‘He did?’ Poor kid, I thought, he must have felt shamed. He’d never been hit in his life before. Oh, what I would do to Duncan Culshaw if our paths ever crossed again.

‘Yes, because …’ He looked up at me and a small precious smile lit up his face. ‘After he’d hit him, Duncan asked Tom if he’d get him his beer now. Tom said, “No chance,” and Duncan tried to hit him again, but Tom made him miss and kicked him in the stomach.’

‘In the stomach,’ I repeated.

Jonathan pointed to his groin. ‘Yes, there; he kicked him like Jean Claude van Damme does. Duncan fell down, making funny noises. It was a long time before he could get up again. I was scared. I thought that when he got up he would really hurt Tom. I was going to go for Conrad, but Tom wouldn’t let me. He said he had used wing chun, and his teacher had told him he should never use it against anyone who isn’t trained in it himself.’

I smiled; that’s my boy. An adult attacked him, he decked him and he felt guilty about it. ‘What happened when Duncan did get up?’

‘Nothing. Duncan didn’t go near him again. Janet got him a beer, and he sat down and drank it.’

‘Did neither of you tell your mum what had happened?’

‘No. Tom wouldn’t let us. He said Duncan wouldn’t bother any of us again, and he didn’t. I was glad when he went away, Auntie Primavera; I didn’t want him to come back. I don’t want Mummy to see him.’ His eyes filled with tears again, and finally, they flowed. ‘I just want my daddy back,’ he cried.

I hugged him to me. ‘I know, wee man,’ I whispered, ‘I know. You’re far too young to have learned how tough the world can be.’

I thought of Susie as I spoke, Susie and her precarious future. I hoped that wee Jonathan had been wrong about what he said he’d seen in Casino Square, but he’s a very bright wee chap and not given to flights of imagination or extravagant statements.

‘Auntie Primavera,’ he murmured, as he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, ‘am I really grounded till Monday?’

‘I can’t overrule Conrad,’ I told him. ‘He’s your guardian while you’re here. But I can tell him what’s worrying you, and if you tell him that you’re very sorry for using that word and promise not to use it again, you might find that he gives you a suspended sentence.’

‘What’s that?’ His eyes widened. ‘You mean he’ll hang me?’

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. ‘No, love, I mean he might let you off. Now, go on with you, get yourself out of that beach stuff and into clean clothes before they all get back.’

As I spoke, there was a loud bang or small explosion, from somewhere not too far away. Wee Jonathan jumped. ‘What was that?’ he gasped.

‘That was the start of the San Juan celebrations. Fireworks don’t scare you, do they?’

‘No!’ He said the word as if I’d insulted him.

‘Good, in that case we can all watch them from my bedroom terrace. Go on, now, get yourself ready.’

I shooed him upstairs then went along to the sitting room. I checked the time and worked out that it would be around midday in Arizona, then picked up the landline phone and punched in Susie’s mobile number.

‘Primavera,’ she answered … number recognition is a very useful tool, ‘how are you? Is everything okay? Are the kids okay?’

‘The kids are fine, Susie; the two older ones and I are all going to a reggae concert tonight.’ As I spoke, another firework exploded.

‘What was that?’ Susie asked, sounding as anxious as had her son. She sounded tired, too, wearier than I’d ever heard her; I knew that the treatment had been tough, but I’d hoped against hope that she was on an upward curve.

‘Relax,’ I laughed, ‘it’s a fiesta tonight. Big celebration in Spain. There’s music on the beach from around midnight; I’m taking the two older ones.’

‘Sounds like fun. How’s my daughter?’ I guessed what was behind the question. Janet’s periods had started in the month before Susie went for her third treatment.

‘Timely,’ I advised her, ‘and perfectly normal. She’s coping fine.’ I smiled. ‘I had to take her for some new bras last week, and a couple of bikinis.’

‘My God, she’s growing fast. I hope she knows when to stop.’

‘Like mother like daughter, I reckon.’ Susie’s not very tall, but she’s a big girl.

‘And Tom?’

‘Next time you call, and he picks up, you will get a shock.’

‘Oh dear,’ she sighed. ‘Does he sound like …’

‘Put it this way, the vocal register’s still a little bit higher, but he’s on the way there. He said something to me the other day when I had my back to him. He sounded so like his dad it made me shiver.’

‘Primavera, they’re so young. Or is it us that’s old?’

‘Hell no! It’s life; it’s what happens to your kids. What did you think, that they were Peter Pan and Tinkerbell?’

‘Maybe,’ she giggled, ‘with wee Jonathan as one of the Lost Boys. How’s he behaving?’

‘He’s as good as gold,’ I fibbed, slightly. ‘He doesn’t fancy the reggae concert.’ I paused. I’d been wondering how to get round to the reason for my call, and she’d given me an opening. ‘He and I have just been having a chat. You know what he told me? He thinks he saw Duncan Culshaw a few weeks ago, sitting at a table in Casino Square.’

There was a silence, just a couple of seconds, but it registered with me. ‘Oh,’ Susie exclaimed, breaking it, ‘that wee scamp. What an imagination he’s got.’

‘Yes, indeed. I doubt that even Duncan would have been stupid enough to go back to Monaco after you’d ended the relationship.’

‘I didn’t end it, Primavera,’ she said. ‘He left me, remember.’

‘I meant you, plural.’

‘Of course. Sorry.’ Her tone had changed. She was definitely shifty, where before, she’d been upfront.

I changed tack. ‘Have you finished your treatments?’

‘Yes. The last one was four days ago, but they gave me a platelet infusion after that. They said my count was low.’ She sounded matter-of-fact, but I didn’t like the sound of that. It meant that her blood was thin and that its essential ability to clot had been compromised, leaving her open to potential risks. ‘They’ve finished now, though,’ she continued. ‘My supervising clinician wants me to stay here to recuperate for another couple of weeks, but I’m not so sure about that. We’d like to get home sooner.’

‘We?’ I repeated.

‘Audrey and me,’ she replied, quickly.

‘Mmm. I tell you, Susie,’ I said, ‘I’m so glad wee Jonathan was wrong. You are well shot of that Duncan character. When I heard about him hitting Tom … I go cold with anger thinking about it.’

‘He did what? Who told you that?’

‘Wee Jonathan did, just now.’

‘Why the little … He never did like Duncan, Primavera.’

‘Come on,’ I protested. ‘You’re not calling your own son a liar, are you?’

‘No, but …’ She hesitated. ‘Has Tom said anything to you about it.’

‘No, he hasn’t,’ I admitted. ‘Possibly to stop me from thrashing the bastard.’

‘When’s this supposed to have happened?’

‘Last year, at your place. Duncan tried to use Janet as a servant and Tom took exception to it.’

‘And Duncan hit him?’

‘That’s what wee Jonathan said.’

‘But Tom never complained to me. Honestly, Primavera, he didn’t. This is the first I’ve heard of it. Why didn’t he say anything?’

I chuckled. ‘From what I gather, he felt that when he kung fu-ed Duncan in the balls after he tried to hit him a second time, it put an end to the matter.’

‘He did what?’ At the other end of the line I heard a sound that was half gasp, half chortle. ‘Last year? He was only eleven then.’

‘Tom’s been going to his martial arts class since he was six, Susie. He was one grade off his black belt when this happened, and he got it a few weeks later. It’s lucky for Duncan that he was only eleven. He’s grown over the winter; if he did it now the guy would be looking for his nuts behind his ears. And it would serve him right.’ I took a deep breath. ‘That man is a nasty piece of work. From the start of your relationship he was using you.’

‘Using me? How?’

Suddenly she sounded even more tired and deeply anxious. I hesitated. I was concerned that I was about to go over the top with her. After all, this was a woman who had undergone rigorous treatment for a life-threatening condition. She did not need undue stress or disturbance in her life. ‘Forget it, Susie,’ I sighed. ‘I’ve said enough. You don’t need to hear this story right now. Since the guy’s history, you don’t need to hear it at all.’

‘But I do need to,’ she insisted, sounding as if she’d dredged up renewed strength from somewhere. ‘If it involves Duncan and it affects me, I want to know about it. So come on, girl, out with it.’

Oh Primavera; your hot head and your big mouth. ‘All right,’ I said, ‘if you insist.’ I launched into the tale of Culshaw’s unannounced visit to L’Escala, his exploitative ‘novel’, his attempt to screw two million out of me to protect Oz’s reputation and my own, and to the way I had seen off both him and his threat.

She heard me out without interruption. When I was finished I heard her blow out a huge sigh. ‘Did you keep a copy of the book?’ she asked.

‘I destroyed the original. As for the copy he gave me, that had a bloody virus on it that crashed my laptop a couple of days later. Trust me, Susie, you wouldn’t want to have read it.’

Another sigh, a very tired one at that. ‘Ah, Primavera, why didn’t you tell me all this at the time?’

‘I was going to, and then you were diagnosed, so I didn’t. Culshaw was gone, so I decided it wasn’t necessary.’

‘Ah, but as it’s turned out it was. I didn’t tell you the truth earlier. Wee Jonathan was right in what he saw. Duncan is back; and what have I done? I’ve only gone and married the guy, that’s all.’

‘You’ve married him?’ I repeated. ‘Duncan bloody Culshaw? Are you out of your mind?’

‘Given the circumstances,’ she said sadly, ‘that’s possible.’