Surfboard and dangled it in front of her.
“You haven’t seen this, I take it?”
Adelaide peered at the screen. Her own face greeted her, eyes unfocused, mouth slurred. She looked a mess. Last night’s events reassembled themselves slowly. She remembered the pool. The pills.
“What have I done now?” she asked wearily.
Linus shoved the Surfboard towards her as if he was too disgusted to speak. She bent to pick it up. The words seemed jumbled; they did not make sense. They could not, because how could anyone possibly know? Shakily, letter by letter, her finger followed the newreel headline.
Adelaide Rechnov breaks investigation decree.
“Oh shit,” she whispered.
Below the initial hideous picture was a grainy but unmistakable image: herself and Vikram entering the penthouse.
“I think you’ll find that’s one of the better headlines,” said Linus. His face was steady now, nastily so, a gull about to skewer a fish.
Her legs stopped working. She had to sit down. She knelt where she was. Her kimono divided over her knees; mindlessly she smoothed out the silk. She flicked from one newsfeed to another. Adelaide and western lover Vikram flout committee… Adelaide uses criminal friend for break-in… Adelaide finds new vocation… Adelaide’s new love- shack?
It didn’t end there. Selecting the Daily Flotsam feed, she found full-colour evidence of last night. There were photos of her and Jan, naked on a pink float, entwined with two girls that Adelaide did not remember. She had a dim memory of Jannike shouting that she had seen Magda Linn, although her friend had not known then that Adelaide had betrayed her.
“How…” Her voice faltered. Linus’s shoes shifted angrily.
“You idiot, you bribed someone to cut the camera, didn’t you? Apparently Hanif had a feeling you’d try it on. He promised to match any bribe you might offer. The camera was recording the whole time.”
Words and pictures advanced and receded in front of her.
“But why now? It doesn’t make sense… If they had this-why wait until now, why would Hanif…?”
“Hanif’s in the middle of a Council-authorised investigation, it doesn’t help him to throw this information to the press. But you can guarantee that some lowlife scum in his team has just made a fat payload leaking this. And believe me, we will find out who it is.”
She went hot and cold. So Sanjay Hanif had been hoarding this information all along, waiting for the optimum moment to pounce. Only his thunder had been stolen before he had the chance. Sweat trickled between her breasts.
“Where’s Vikram?” He must have seen it already. She swallowed. “He’d better come over.”
“He’s not coming.”
“I have to speak to him.” The sunlight, skittering off polished surfaces, was blinding. She imagined reporters in the adjacent towers, their cameras trained on her windows whilst they scanned the feeds, rereading, joking amongst themselves, relishing her humiliation.
“Vikram will be safest here,” she said. She spotted her scarab in the bowl on the table. “Then we can work out what to do.”
“Has it not occurred to you that this fiasco ran first thing this morning? It’s fifteen o’clock. Vikram’s on his way to jail, if he isn’t there already. Father’s pulling strings like a marionette to keep the police away from you. Congratulations, Adelaide! Not content with wrecking your own life, you have to drag everyone else down with you.”
Linus touched a finger to his earpiece. His expression changed: settled and ironed out, before he spoke again. “Father, hello.”
“Jail,” she repeated. She remembered Vikram locking up the penthouse door. We’re in it together. Vikram had not said that, but it was true now. They would take him back underwater, to the green cell and the eye of the porthole, unless she stopped them. The kimono stuck to her clammy skin. Her muscles felt weak, useless. Ignore it.
She needed a plan. She needed Linus gone so she could clear her head. Think, Adelaide, think.
Linus took a few steps towards the window. He was nodding to himself. “Right, yes. Did you get onto the Flotsam? Yes, I understand. Ten minutes? No problem, I’ll hang on.” The conversation ended abruptly.
“How’s Daddy?” she asked.
Linus folded his arms. “This isn’t the time for flippancy. Father’s not happy. He’s putting you under house arrest.”
“How old does he think I am, six?”
“Judging by your actions, yes. He’s sending Goran.”
Her mouth dropped in horror.
“ Goran? He can’t send Goran here…” She thought of the eye tattoo on the back of the bodyguard’s neck. His real eyes, dual toned, searching. Every nerve in her body twanged. “Linus, you cannot be serious!”
“Apparently Father is. You’ve overstepped the line, Adelaide. He’s fed up with it. We all are. The more licence we give you the more you throw it back in our faces.”
She lurched to her feet. Red and green dots speckled her vision.
“Licence for what?” she shouted. “Not to be like you? Well, sorry if I’m not interested in your political machinations. I have my own life. We both do. Me and Axel. We’re nothing like you.” She jabbed a finger an inch from his chest. Linus surveyed her, unconcernedly. When he spoke, every word was crisp with contempt.
“Spending our money getting high every night and flaunting yourself for the Daily Flotsam ’s pornographic photographers? Fucking our father’s employees? Frankly, Adelaide, it’s boring. Father has tried just about everything with you. He’s asked you to tone down the parties and cut back on the milaine. He’s appealed to you as a Rechnov, but you have no sense of familial duty. I’ve even tried giving you an outlet to do something useful with the aid schemes. Nothing seems to make a difference. Nothing makes you see. There’s a whole line-up of people out there who would love to see our family eating surf, Adelaide. You’ve jeopardized our position one too many times. Now you’ve forced Father to take drastic measures. Goran’s coming to housesit.”
“Like fuck he is! I won’t let him over the threshold.”
“You’ll do what we decide is best for you. You’re so selfish you can only think about yourself right now. But if you looked beyond this narcissistic paradise, you might realize that this- ” the Surfboard in Linus’s hand shook. His voice was rising opposite hers. “This has greater ramifications than you being grounded. This article questions the whole family’s integrity. You had a chance to prove yourself. You’ve thrown that away. You’ve pissed, Adelaide, on my fucking career.”
Adelaide was trembling with shock and fury.
“Selfish, Linus? Listen to yourself! You haven’t even asked what I was doing in the penthouse. Aren’t you curious? Don’t you want to know what happened to your brother?”
Linus hurled the Surfboard at a plant. It hit the pot and landed beside it. The screen went blank.
“I don’t give a shit what you were doing there,” he spat. “This is a containment issue. Bribing a member of a Council investigation- how the hell does that make Father look?”
Adelaide could not remember ever seeing Linus lose control. It was like a rock cracking and gushing forth water.
“Our father cares more about his reputation than he does about his own son.” She was shaking.
“Don’t bring Axel into it!”
“Why not? He’s what’s important!”
“He’s dead. Wake up, Adelaide! Stars above, it’s hard enough trying to mourn him without you raking these insane theories over our heads day in, day out-”
“How do you know unless Feodor had him murdered? Did Goran do it? Did he? And now he’s coming to sort me out?”
“Don’t be fucking stupid.”
“Then tell me the truth!”
Linus’s hands went to his head, kneading and clenching. An animal noise came out of his throat. “You just- don’t-get it.”
