For The Death Of Me

27

She stayed with me until after two. I think I dozed off for part of the time, and maybe she did too; eventually I asked her if she wanted to go home. Maybe I was really asking her if she wanted to sleep with me, although honestly, I don’t think I was. In any event, she said that she should, so I saw her to the elevator and down into the lobby.

There were no taxis at the rank outside, not unreasonably since it was the middle of the night, so we walked round to North Bridge Road, where I could flag one down. ‘Are you working tomorrow?’ I asked, as we waited. ‘Will I find you at the theatre if I’m free for lunch?’

‘No,’ she replied. ‘I’m never there on Mondays. Tomorrow I have to see about auditions: there are some productions coming up and I hope to get work.’

‘I’ll have a part for you,’ I said, ‘once I get back to work. I’ve bought the rights to a book; I don’t know for sure when we’ll make the movie, not this year, but probably next. Meantime, if you really want to leave Singapore and can sort out a US visa, I can find you some other work.’

‘But you’ve never seen me act, Oz.’

‘Miles Grayson had never seen me act either, before he cast me in my first movie. He took a chance and it paid off. I’ll do the same with you.’

She looked me dead in the eye. ‘Why?’

‘Because I like you.’

‘You don’t just want to get into my pants?’

‘No, but could I, if I did?’

She smiled. ‘Could I get into yours, if I did?’

I grinned back at her. ‘Maybe you just had a chance. We’ll never know.’

‘Let’s just say now is too soon,’ she said quietly. ‘I don’t know you well enough.’

‘Only one person ever really knew me.’ There was something about the girl that had me saying things without even thinking about them.

‘Your wife?’

‘My sister: half-sister.’ I said it naturally: I’d never think of Jan as a wife again. Our marriage was never legal, in the eyes of the law, at any rate. No, what we had was much more complex, much deeper than a marriage, even if I hadn’t known it at the time.

‘Where is she now?’

‘Her bones are in a cemetery in Scotland. Her spirit’s never far away.’

‘That’s what you didn’t want to talk about earlier?’ I nodded. ‘What happened?’

‘She was murdered.’

‘Aah.’ She sighed. ‘That’s why you can seem scary inside. And the man who did it?’

‘People. The man who did it was under orders. They’re dead; all dead.’

‘Did you. .?’

‘Ssh!’ I whispered. ‘Let’s not go there. It’s better that you don’t know about the feelings you have in your heart when something like that happens.’

‘Maybe not.’ She looked up at me again, as if she had closed one chapter and moved on to the next. ‘Do you leave Singapore, now that this Lee Kan Tong man is dead?’

‘Not yet. I didn’t come to find him, but the woman who’s with him. She has something that I need.’

‘Do you know where she is?’

‘No. But if I find out, I’ll go after her. I’ll know better tomorrow morning. . this morning.’ In a corner of my eye, I saw the traffic-lights change. A taxi with an illuminated sign came towards us: I flagged it down.

‘He’ll think I’m a prostitute,’ Marie said, laughingly, as it drew to a halt.

‘You’re too good-looking to be a hooker.’

‘You don’t know Singapore; I’m not good-looking enough.’

I raised an eyebrow as she slid into the cab. ‘Maybe I’d better check those guide-book ads again.’ Impulsively, I bent and kissed her. ‘I’ll call you later,’ I promised, ‘even if it’s only to tell you I’m leaving.’