“I don’t know.” She didn’t want to discuss the horses. She wished she hadn’t mentioned them.
Lao tapped his Surfboard. He was waiting.
“Sometimes his behaviour is compulsive,” she allowed.
“Such as?”
“He does things-like-I don’t know. Once he told me to come to his boat and he had this basket full of white cloths. He said we had to fix them to the towers. We went all through the quarter, tacking up these stupid white cloths. It started raining but he wouldn’t let us stop. He said it had to be done that day. He was adamant.”
She remembered the glitter in Axel’s eyes, the puzzled expressions of those they passed.
“He’s not well,” she repeated.
“What about habits? Routines?”
She shook her head.
“Superstitions? Does he visit Tellers?”
“Not any more. He’s always been dismissive of them.”
“What about his regular contacts?”
“Very few. In the last few months he’s hardly left the penthouse. There’s myself, the cleaner, and a girl that does his shopping. But he has been known to wander, you see. Sometimes he appears in my flat-he has my key. But he might have visited anyone.”
“And the last time you saw him?”
She thought of that quiet figure waiting in her apartment.
“Nothing remarkable.”
Behind their glasses Lao’s eyes flicked about, scanning the leafy pathways where the butterflies spun in the artificial light.
“Are there any other conflicts within the family? Tensions? Grudges?”
“There are conflicts in every family,” she said, although she did not know that this was true, having had little enough exposure to other families. Her own set, the Haze, was mostly composed of those who had spurned their families, like herself. Lao gave her a sharp glance, as though he knew this, though he couldn’t, of course. She collected her thoughts.
“Feodor-my father-and Linus-they’ve had their differences. But only over political agendas. They’re all in league when it comes to family status and loyalty. Myself and Axel are estranged from the rest-not that it makes a difference to Axel these days.”
“But your family continue to bankroll you.” The investigator’s tone was bland. She mirrored it.
“Yes. Under the condition that I attend public functions like the one last week. Call me frivolous, Mr Lao. I daresay I am. But I like my lifestyle and I know when to compromise.”
“Your mother? I’ve heard it said she’s an intelligent woman.”
“She is. And completely allied with my father.”
“And your oldest brother-Dmitri?”
“Similarly. His fiancee is proof enough of that.”
“What are the Rechnovs’ relationships with the other venerated families-the Dumays and the Ngozis?”
“We didn’t all play together as children at midsummer, if that’s what you mean. The families are politically aligned but there are no strong personal ties. The Dumays keep themselves to themselves since the assassinations. My grandfather was very close to the other elders, Celine Dumay and Emeke Ngozi, but since they died the links have been purely strategic. Forgive me, Mr Lao, but surely this is information you can acquire equally well elsewhere? I try to spend as little time as possible thinking about my family.”
“As I said, I prefer to speak to the source. And if we are to succeed, Ms Mystik, you may have to devote a little more time than you are accustomed to thinking about your relations.” Lao put his Surfboard away. “I suggest that we proceed as follows. As the hospitals have yielded no leads, I will commence with further enquiries into those who last saw your brother.”
“Sanjay Hanif has done the same.”
“Hanif will not be paying them. I don’t doubt his ability as a detective, Ms Mystik, but results are always better with a little financial encouragement.”
She gave a half smile. “That is why I employed you. You will, naturally, receive a bonus payment in the event of a successful conclusion.”
“And what do you class as a successful conclusion?”
“Finding my brother. Alive.”
“Then I hope I shall locate him speedily.” He rose. “I’ll be in touch.”
The bath rose out of the black tiles like an island, round and white. Adelaide dipped her fingers into the searing water, then plunged both feet in and stood, gasping. Tropical scents rose with the steam. Breathing in slowly, she lowered herself into the bath until she was submerged to her neck.
She loved her monochrome bathroom. Like her bedroom, it faced east. Her apartment was on the very edge of the city and in daylight, the view from the bathroom was the wilderness beyond Osiris; endless sea merging into endless sky. It was evening now. The window-wall was darkened and held only the room’s reflection.
After a few minutes she leaned over and flicked the jacuzzi setting. She shifted to rest directly over a stream. The bubbles rippled up around her thighs and between her legs. She let her head fall back, sinking into daydreams. The water sloshed gently. She might not need company, but everyone needed physicality. Denying that urge was as foolish as believing there was life outside Osiris: it demonstrated only a basic disregard for fact.
Her hand drifted down, lazily, absently, and her breath snagged. It was not really her touch, it was Tyr’s. Their liaison had spanned some five years, but the forbidden meetings, restricted by time and place, still had an airless excitement. Sometimes she felt as though he was stitched into the fabric of her body, her responses a preordained thing. But nothing more than sex would ever lie between them. They both took other lovers; that way they averted suspicion.
The last time it had been at the theatre. With only a red curtain and the distraction of the play to cover them, he had kissed her mouth, her neck, the border of her backless dress. Her fingers lingered on the same spots. She felt every place his tongue had touched tingling again, as though the hot, scented jacuzzi tide had the potency of renewal.
In public, they used the studied banter of two rivals. Tyr worked for her father, and Adelaide hated him, so it was not a hard script for either of them to enact. She enjoyed their coded battles. But she was wary too, of the power folded into the layered phrases, the potential each of them held as a wrecker of the other’s life. Tyr would be in attendance at the Rose Night, which Adelaide traditionally held on the second Thursday of February. Her mind straddled the various possibilities of a rendezvous. Which stage in the evening might she slip away. Where they could fuck.
She slid down into the bath, out of the bubble stream. With the loss of sensation she felt her mind pulling back. She closed her eyes and remembered the theatre; the audience hushed, the sumptuous velvet of the curtain, the frisson when they kissed. She wanted the moment back. It was too late; her mind was roving now, tomorrow morning already panning out. A series of tasks. She needed to order the rose stock. In the afternoon she had a tasting session with the owner of Narwhal, who was devising the cocktail recipes.
The invitations for Rose Night had just been sent out. She imagined the squeals of delight from those receiving them. Adelaide’s guest list was the most envied publication in fourth gen Osiris. To have your name on the list was a statement: it linked the owner with dynamism and charisma, with Adelaide. In the early days, the era of the Double-A Parties, the twins had done the list together. Now it was just Adelaide.
The bath was beginning to cool. Not quite ready to depart, she leaned over and unleashed a gush of water from the taps. The hot current engulfed her feet before it bled into the rest of the pool and the temperature evened out into a pleasant shawl. Adelaide scooped up a handful of foam and held it to her face, listening to the bubbles popping against her skin.
She mulled over the meeting with Lao. The things he’d said. The things he’d implied.
Could she trust the investigator? Lao had no reason to lie to her, unlike her father. She could not escape the issue of the keys. Why would Feodor deny her access? Regardless of the press attached to Axel’s disappearance, it was hardly beyond his capabilities to find some way of sneaking her into the penthouse. No, she decided. There was more to it than public appearances. There were things he wasn’t telling her.
