Deadly Business

Nine

I was so consumed by what had happened in the afternoon that I almost forgot I had a dinner date.

Audrey called me as soon as she’d received the fax. ‘Susie says she wants you to call a board meeting in Glasgow on Tuesday; if you can make that, she says I have to get in touch with Wylie Smith and have him set it up. Can you?’

‘If I can take Tom with me, yes. His school term’s over. But can you make it? It’s Saturday and you’re still in Arizona.’

‘Sure,’ she replied, as confident and assertive as ever. ‘I’ll see Susie safely home on Monday morning, then catch a direct flight from Nice to Edinburgh in the afternoon. I can get you and Tom into the same airport at around the same time. We can meet up, take a taxi or hire a car and check into a hotel in Glasgow for the night. Sound okay?’

‘Sounds brilliant,’ I told her. ‘Go ahead. But book a car, in my name, for I’ll have other stuff to do in Scotland and part of it will involve seeing Oz’s dad … and mine, while I’m there.’

‘Will do. When do you want to come back?’

‘Make it Saturday, to be on the safe side.’

‘Fine. Primavera,’ she added, after a few seconds, ‘are you all right about this? The business side, I mean.’

The uncertainty of her tone took me by surprise. ‘Let me put it this way,’ I replied, buying a very little time to consider exactly how I should put it, ‘it’s not something I want to do. But if Susie needs me to do it, for her sake and for the sake of the kids, to maintain investor confidence in what she calls the family firm during her illness and recuperation: if she wants that, I’m fine with it. Why?’ I asked. ‘Aren’t you?’

‘I’m a secretary, Primavera; that’s what I’m trained to be, those are my skills.’

‘Can you read a set of accounts? Do you understand a balance sheet?’

‘Yes,’ she conceded.

‘Then you’re more qualified for the job than many a director I’ve met. You typed the stock market announcement, so you know what it says. It describes you as the outgoing chairperson’s executive assistant, with an intimate knowledge of the working of the business. It describes me as a director of a Spanish wine producer and as a former consular official who played a part in negotiating several multi-million pound deals in Catalunya for Scottish companies. What it doesn’t say is that I’m Miles Grayson’s sister-in-law, but it doesn’t have to. The PR people will make sure that everyone knows that. We are not a couple of bimbo figureheads and we won’t be seen as such.’

‘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.

‘What did he say?’ Liam asked, as soon as we were outside.

‘He told me to send him a text if things get out of hand, and he’ll be straight across.’

For a second he thought I was serious, so I gave him the authentic translation. He laughed. ‘You know what, Primavera? That’s what he might have said, but your version is what he really meant.’

Heads turned once more as we walked through the square. Given what I spent on Ms Versace’s creation, I’d have been disappointed if they hadn’t, although I found myself worrying that it was so close-fitting that the world, including Liam, would know that a mid-forties woman was out on the town with no knickers on. But I realised very quickly that they weren’t only looking at me. My companion was a charismatic guy, something that had passed me by until then.

One of the turning heads belonged to Alex Guinart. He and Gloria, and Marte, my goddaughter, are regulars in the square on Saturday evenings; they were at a table in Esculapi. He said, ‘Hello.’ What he really meant was, ‘Oh yeah, and who’s this good-looking stranger?’

I introduced Liam to the family; of course he knew what Alex was from our earlier conversation. ‘Nice to meet you all,’ he murmured, making a point of shaking Marte’s hand too. She put her hand over her eyes and giggled.

‘That thing we were talking about,’ Alex digressed, in Catalan again. ‘Are you going to go ahead with a complaint?’

‘I was,’ I replied, ‘but things have changed in the last few hours. I could be fighting the guy on another front very soon. I need to focus my attention on that.’

‘Well, don’t wait too long,’ he warned. ‘The opportunity won’t be there for ever.’

‘I know.’

He called after us as we left, ‘Have a nice evening.’

Liam caught the greeting, understood and laughed. ‘Him too, eh?’

‘You better believe it. What I said last night on the beach about at least three guys watching you? I wasn’t kidding. I know at least half the people in this square.’

‘I’ll bet,’ he said. ‘About those three people. Please regard this as comforting, for I am very firmly among your admirers, but they wouldn’t have been enough.’

We reached Meson del Conde as he spoke. Jose Luis, the head waiter, greeted us and escorted us into the terrace restaurant, and to our table. He wouldn’t have done that for me alone: he was as curious as the rest of them.

‘If you don’t mind me saying so,’ Liam murmured as he left, ‘that is quite a dress. It’s been a while since I saw so many men drool simultaneously.’

I smiled. ‘Thank you, kind sir. Funny, innit? Go to the beach beyond the Riomar when I’m on it, and they’d find a hell of a lot more of me on show. They might be impressed, they might not, but cover it up in the right way …’

‘Cover most of it,’ he countered, his eyes falling from mine. I tracked them downwards.

‘Do you like the gold sparkles?’ I asked. ‘I do.’

‘I like all of it. But why, given that it was you who set the ground rules?’

‘Why am I wearing a “fuck me” dress? Because I paid two thousand dollars for it, thanks to my bloody sister, and I’ve never had an opportunity since to strut my stuff in it. You’re the first man I’ve encountered in years with whom I’ve been able to wear something like this. I feel comfortable with you, Liam; I don’t feel as if I’m being ogled across the table. Does it make you feel uncomfortable?’

‘No.’ He chuckled quietly. ‘It makes me feel honoured. And it produces the vestigial memory of a very sore nose.’

I shot a question at him. ‘Are you afraid of the dark?’

‘No, of course not.’

‘Then why are you afraid of the dead?’

He looked into my eyes once again. ‘There’s a difference between fear and respect. What Conrad said that Oz said about me: it wasn’t what I expected. I thought he’d have said, “Good guy, but I wouldn’t trust him with a water melon, let alone my woman.” But he didn’t. I can’t tell you how touched I was to hear that.’

‘Why did you come here? Was it just because of what Miles said?’

‘Pretty much. I didn’t tell you all of it. After he’d said how cool you’d become, he added something else. He said that often he worries that you’ll become so cool you’ll turn to ice, and then you’ll break, or just melt. That worried me too when he said it.’

‘Then he’s wrong. Steel can be cool when you touch it, as cold as ice. So, how long are you staying?’ I asked, as Jose Luis returned with the menus.

‘I have no idea,’ he confessed. ‘I’ve booked into the hotel for a week with an option on another. I was hoping that you’d be my tour guide, and show me the best of this area. I’ve been to Barcelona … you know that; Christ, you were there … but you know how my life was then, a maximum of three days in any location, so I know next to nothing about it or about this part of Spain. And I need to, for my book.’

‘Yes, your book,’ I repeated. ‘You never did tell me what it’s about.’

‘Travel,’ he replied. ‘It’s about the places I’ve been in my wrestling career, and the places I’ve seen, however briefly. I’m writing about them, about the different cultures and mentalities of their people, and about what makes them special.’

‘And you’re doing all the photography?’ I guessed.

‘You got it.’

‘You must have seen a fair few places with the GWA,’ I said. ‘How’s the organisation going these days? The sports entertainment industry isn’t something I keep up with. Nor does Tom. He’s not barred from watching it,’ I added, ‘he doesn’t, that’s all.’

‘He’s a purist,’ Liam replied. ‘Any kid who knows what wing chun is is unlikely to be too impressed by the likes of Jerry The Behemoth Gradi.’

‘Hey,’ I protested, ‘Jerry’s a lovely guy. His was a life really worth saving.’

‘I agree, I agree, and I’m not knocking him. I was talking about his type, the giants, the musclemen. The level of skill that Tom must have, with his belt, he’ll see through everything they do, straight away. As for the GWA, it’s doing fine. Everett’s probably the biggest name in the industry now, in every way, performer and promoter. Starting in Europe and building a brand there was a brilliant idea. When he relocated to the US he was able to take his TV deals with him and ramp them up a notch.’

‘And you have no connection at all?’

‘Only my shareholding. That’s considerable, and thanks to the big man it pays me a very nice dividend every year. It’s helped to make me a free man. I haven’t really thought about it, but I suppose you could describe me as semi-retired, which is not bad at forty-three years old. You should know; you’re in the same position.’

I smiled across the table. ‘Won’t see forty-three again, though.’

‘You’re kidding. You don’t look a day over forty.’

‘Liam,’ I laughed, ‘if you’ve found the courage to try to get into my pants, you’re wasting your time.’ I almost added, ‘Not least because …’ but stopped myself just in time.

‘No,’ he said, ‘but it’s a matter of respect, not of courage. Anybody who didn’t want to would be crazy, but I understand how you feel about it, and I’d much rather have you as a friend than a conquest. So, take the compliment for what it is, an honest opinion.’

‘Then thank you once again, very much. You are good for a middle-aged lady’s morale. I’d be very happy to show you Barcelona, and even the whole of Catalunya. You may think this place is nice, but there are plenty to challenge it. Only problem being … it can’t be next week. Tom and I have to go to Scotland on Monday. Something’s come up, and I have to do it.’

‘How long will you be gone?’ he asked.

‘Until next Saturday. I have some business to do, and some family to catch up on while I’m over there. Honestly, when I saw you this morning I didn’t know about it, that’s how suddenly it developed.’

‘Nobody’s ill, are they? Nobody close.’

‘Apart from Susie, no. But …’ I stopped as Jose Luis appeared beside us, order pad in hand.

‘You choose for me,’ my companion said. ‘I’m lousy with menus.’

‘Okay.’ I looked up at the waiter. ‘We’ll have the fish soup and baked monkfish, twice. And to drink, sparkling water will be fine. You don’t mind going all pescatarian, do you, Liam?’

‘Not a bit. To tell you the truth, these days that’s what I am, mostly. I’m not religious about it, but eating mammals makes me uncomfortable. You were saying,’ he continued. ‘You stopped on a “but” …’

‘But the business I have to do is for Susie and involves Susie.’

‘Can you tell me?’

I looked at him. ‘This morning you said you were a shareholder in the Gantry Group, didn’t you?’ He nodded. ‘In that case I don’t think I can. I’ve got insider knowledge of the company, and I’m pretty sure that sharing it would be illegal.’

He laughed. ‘That sounds intriguing. Are you joining the board?’

I looked at the table, feeling a flush spread down from my face to fill in the V of my seriously plunging neckline.

‘Oh Jesus,’ Liam exclaimed. ‘I’m sorry. I won’t ask you anything else.’

‘Thanks,’ I said, then added, ‘but feel free to speculate all you like.’

‘Mmm,’ he murmured, at my invitation. ‘You told me Susie’s very ill, so if I was to make a guess it would be that whatever your business is with her …’

‘For her,’ I corrected him.

‘Sorry. Whatever it is, it suggests that she’s having second thoughts about this hasty marriage of hers.’

‘Not one hundred per cent, but certain aspects of it, yes.’

‘So she’s looking to someone she can trust to help her out.’

I nodded. ‘Two people. Audrey Kent as well.’

‘In which case she’s in good hands,’ he said. ‘You’ll take care of her.’

‘We’ll do our best. It may all be plain sailing, but the unpredictable factor is the new Mr Gantry. He knows nothing of this, and he’s decided that he’s my sworn enemy.’

‘What can he do to you?’

I told him about his threat to attack Oz’s memory.

‘That’s his plan, is it?’ Liam murmured. ‘Look, Primavera, an enemy of yours is an enemy of mine; he might find that’s a bad place to be. Not to mention being an enemy of Oz … if anyone can reach out from beyond the grave, it’s him.’

I shivered as he said that, thinking back to my conversation with Conrad a few hours before. Put that back in the box, woman.

‘Do you feel uncomfortable,’ he continued ‘about … whatever it is you have to do? Because if you need some backup, you only have to ask, and I’ll be there.’

I smiled at him, the shiver replaced by a lovely warm feeling. ‘You’d be my knight in shining armour?’ I murmured. ‘Oh, Liam, that’s nice, it really is.’

‘There was a time in my life when I’d have been a shite in whining armour,’ he chuckled. ‘But no more, I hope. I mean it, if you need me, say the word.’

‘I promise you, if I think that I do, I will. But it would have to be serious; you don’t need to be bodyguarding the likes of me.’

He winked. ‘Hey, babe, I’d guard your body any time.’

‘I’ll bet you say that to all the ladies.’

‘Yup, I sure do. Usually it doesn’t get me very far, though … and when it does, invariably I find it wasn’t worth it.’

‘Anybody serious since you and Erin split?’

‘No. I got burned there; don’t fancy repeating the experience. Maybe I should find myself a nice nun as a companion. Follow your example with the parish priest.’

I shook my head. ‘I don’t recommend it.’

‘What was his name?’

‘Gerard. He was a very good friend, and Tom liked him. For a while I thought he might become more than a good friend, but he was a deep and complex man, with a past I learned about from someone else, not from him. Still, there was a time when we might have got together.’

‘Any regrets that you didn’t?’ Liam asked.

‘None,’ I answered immediately. ‘Relief, more like. He was too bloody serious. I can see now, he was too bloody serious. I like men who make me laugh, but since Oz … died, I haven’t come across a single one of those. I think I felt sorry for Gerard more than anything else. Never fuck anyone out of sympathy or compassion, Liam.’

‘You didn’t, did you?’

‘Not him, no. Somebody else, though, but he was conning me. I won’t make that mistake again.’

‘Me neither,’ he said. ‘By that I mean invest emotionally in the wrong person. Solitude is better than a miserable togetherness. I learned that lesson at home.’ He hesitated, as if he thought that continuing was a serious step; and then he did. ‘My parents hated each other. My dad was a bully who knocked the shit out of me when I was a kid, until he couldn’t any more. He knocked my mother about as well, but she was capable of beating him up with her tongue. And me; I was never spared that, and she kept that up till she died, five years ago.’

‘Some upbringing,’ I murmured. ‘Do you have any brothers or sisters?’

‘No, it was just me; nobody to share the pain with.’

‘Poor kid.’

‘Not really; it made me a horrible little bastard as a young man, before Oz straightened me out. You’d have thought it would get better with my mother after my old man died. I hoped it would, but it didn’t. All her venom was for me alone after that.’

‘Your father,’ I ventured, ‘he was …’

‘Shot by the Proddies? The UVF? That’s what the cops, the RUC assumed, since he was a Catholic, but it’s not true. My uncle killed him.’

‘What?’ I gasped.

‘My mother’s brother, Bobby McBride: he was an officer in the local Provo brigade. My dad was never involved with the IRA, not because he was anti, purely because he didn’t have the bottle for it. Anyway, one time he gave my mother a particularly bad going over and Uncle Bobby found out about it. She didn’t go to him, he called at our house and she didn’t have time to cover up the bruises. He told my father that if it happened again he was a dead man. A year or so later it did. Uncle Bobby denounced him to his brigade as an informant, and they took his word for it. No trial, no nothing, they just took him into the countryside and shot him, then they dumped his body in a Loyalist area.’

‘Rough justice. Had your uncle called in unexpectedly again?’

Liam’s gaze dropped to somewhere in the middle of the table. I could see behind the spectacles, and his eyes were hard. ‘No,’ he replied. ‘I told him. How about that, Primavera? I called a death sentence down on my own father. And you know what? If Uncle Bobby would have been up for shooting his sister, I’d probably have told him to do that too.’

I didn’t know what to say. I just sat there and looked at him, until once again he was ready to go on.

‘I don’t know why the hell I just told you that,’ he whispered, when he was. ‘The only other person who knew the truth was my uncle, and the UDA put a bullet in his head a couple of years later. I’ve never shared that with another living soul, not even Oz, and he was my best friend latterly; Christ, my only friend. If you want to leave now, I’ll understand.’

I looked at him, making him return my gaze. ‘If Gerard was still here I might tell you to go to confession. You’d probably get off lightly; he’d a similar background, and it messed him up big time. Just you promise me you won’t try and atone by taking holy orders and I’ll stay right here.’

He smiled. ‘That’s a promise I can make, no problem.’

‘Fine, duly noted. You did what you did. I’ve done stuff too that I wouldn’t want to see the light of day, but it’s firmly in the past.’ I smiled at him. ‘You know what I think?’

‘No,’ he chuckled, ‘but I do know you’re going to tell me.’

‘Damn right. I think you should have kept a connection with the GWA, even after you weren’t fit enough to perform. The thing I remember most about that crowd is that they were a family, and probably the only real one you’ve ever had.’ I did what I’d said I wouldn’t. I reached across the table and took his hand in mine. ‘Miles said I was cool; well, so are you. You’re a cool guy, but you’re also very lonely. You don’t have anybody in the whole damn world, do you?’

He shook his head. ‘I’m pretty short,’ he murmured, ‘I admit it.’

‘Then I’m glad you’ve come here. You were Oz’s friend and this is his place, and mine. You’ll never be alone here … apart from through the night,’ I added, ‘for I’m still not going to sleep with you. Take your past down to the beach, or somewhere else suitable and bury it there. Then get on with the future.’ I paused. ‘And with the fish soup,’ I said as Jose Luis appeared with two bowls and a large tureen.

We changed the subject over dinner, having confessed as much as either of us wanted to for one evening. Liam told me stories of his wrestling career, from its pretty brutal early days in Japan, to the showbiz of the later years. I told him some, but not all, of what I’d done since I settled in St Martí with Tom.

The food was brilliant, as it always is in Meson del Conde (indeed in every restaurant in the square), and as the evening wore on I found that the Vichy Catalan was having the same effect on me as a bottle of decent white.

‘So,’ I said, once we were at the coffee stage, ‘I’m willing to be your tour guide, as soon as I can. Meantime, do you want some ideas for filling in the next week?’

‘I have some plans already. Mainly they involve lying on the beach, and not letting myself get too badly out of shape … and of course being on the end of a telephone just in case you do need some back-up in Scotland. Where are you going?’

‘We head for Glasgow initially. Then I have to take Tom to see both of his grandfathers.’

‘This thing you’re doing for Susie,’ he asked, ‘is it going to be full-time?’

‘Hell, no! Tom is what I do full-time. This, and the job I do for Miles in his wine business, are strictly sidelines. Hopefully, Susie won’t need my help for long.’

He raised his glass. ‘To Susie.’

‘God bless her and keep her.’

His eyebrows rose. ‘Are you religious?’

I laughed. ‘I live next door to a thousand-year-old church, and I came close to shagging the priest. How much closer to religion can you be? Seriously? I don’t know, which makes me an agnostic. I suspect it comes with age; hedging your bets and all that. Tom isn’t though. His dad died therefore there cannot be a God. That’s how he sees it, and I can’t find a decent counter-argument.’

‘Can I get to know him better?’ Liam asked.

‘I’d like you to. It might be good for both of you. You can start tomorrow, if you like; I’ll have some stuff to do in the morning to get ready for our trip, but I plan to take the kids to the beach in the afternoon. Come with us?’

‘Sure, which beach?’

‘The one beyond your hotel, over the iron bridge. Dogs are allowed on it, and we take Charlie. On the way, we’ll have a sandwich lunch at the beach bar; you can meet us there, at one o’clock. You can’t miss it; it’s called Vaive and there’s a surfboard stuck in the sand outside.’

It was eleven thirty when we left the restaurant. There were still a few people around, a few more heads to turn. I allowed my date to walk me to my door under their gaze, and kissed him chastely on the cheek before stepping inside. Charlie surveyed us with his usual slightly bewildered expression.

The house was locked up and shuttered, and in darkness, apart from one small light in the hall that had been left on for me. I went straight upstairs, kicked off my shoes, slipped out of my only garment and hung it carefully in its wardrobe. I was tingling. For a while I thought I might be having a hot flush, until I realised that, no, the Change wasn’t upon me. No, I was simply as horny as hell. It had been so long since that had happened that I’d almost forgotten the feeling.

I put my jewellery back in the safe and took something else out, a flexible and versatile friend that I’d picked up one day in Barcelona, on a very wild impulse. It had been in the safe ever since, unused, me having been overcome by matronly embarrassment when I took it out of the box, and saw all the things its makers claimed that it could do, with some careful placement and four working AA batteries.

They were right about its capabilities; in fact, they may have been understanding them.