‘I heard that.’ Romeo checked inside the plastic bag, to ensure he had missed nothing, then dropped it. The wind sent it skittering away. Immediately, another dog, a misshapen brown and white creature, ran after it, pounced and began pawing at it.
The woman still had a tight grip on her leather bag.
‘Would you like an air ticket to England? I might be able to arrange it for you, if you would really like to go. I could get you a job.’
Their eyes met. Hers were beautiful, the colour of blue steel. She was smiling, looking sincere. He looked back at the handbag. Almost as if she knew what he was thinking, she kept her grip on it.
‘What kind of job?’
‘What do you want to do? What are your skills?’
A truck rumbled slowly by, close to the verge. Romeo looked up at its large, dirty wheels, its black, rusting underbelly, its billowing exhaust. If he was going to do it, this would be a good moment. Push her, grab the bag, run!
But suddenly he was more interested in what she was saying. Skills? There was a boy who had stayed with them recently, who talked about his brother who worked as a cocktail waiter in London and was earning over 400 lei a day. That was a fortune! Not that he knew anything about making cocktails. Someone else had said recently you could make that sort of money cleaning hotel rooms in London too.
‘Making cocktails,’ he replied. ‘Also, I’m a good cleaner.’
‘Do you have friends in London, Romeo?’ she asked.
Artur whined, as if wanting more food.
The woman opened her handbag and took out a fat purse. From it she removed a banknote. It was a 100 lei note. She handed it to Romeo. ‘I want you to buy some food for Artur, OK?’
He looked at her, then nodded solemnly.
Then she handed him another banknote. This was a 500 lei banknote. ‘That’s for you to buy anything you want, OK?’
He stared at the money and back at the woman. Then, as if afraid she was suddenly going to snatch them back, he stuffed the money into his trouser pocket.
‘You are kind,’ he said.
‘I want to help you,’ she replied.
‘What’s your name?’
‘Marlene,’ she said.
Despite her smile and her generosity, something about the woman was making Romeo very wary. He knew, from others he had talked to, that there were organizations that helped people who were living on the streets, but he had never tried to find one. He had been warned that sometimes, if you went to see them, you could end up getting taken into a government institution. But perhaps this woman really would help him get to England.
‘Charity?’ he asked. ‘You are with a charity?’
She hesitated for an instant. Then, smiling and nodding her head vigorously, she replied, ‘Yes, charity. Absolutely. Charity!’
35
Despite the arrival of two black, heavy-duty plastic body bags at the Brighton and Hove City Mortuary, containing the bodies that had been recovered from the Channel this morning, Roy Grace was in the sunniest mood he had been in for years.
He didn’t mind that it was quarter to three on a Friday afternoon and that the post-mortems, depending on how soon Nadiuska De Sancha arrived, were likely to wipe out his plans for the evening. He was floating on air.
He was going to be a father! That thought now dominated everything else. And at last night’s poker game he had won ?550, his biggest win in as long as he could remember!
What he loved most about poker, apart from the camaraderie of an evening relaxing with a bunch of male friends and colleagues, was the psychology of the game. You were very unlikely to win if you came to the table in a downer of a mood. But if you were upbeat, your enthusiasm could be infectious and you could, even with modest cards, dominate the game. But he hadn’t just had modest cards last night, he’d been on a complete roll. He’d had one hand of four tens, countless trips – three cards of a kind – full house after full house, and a bunch of high flushes.
Alone with Cleo for a few moments, in the small mortuary office, with the sound of the kettle coming slowly to the boil, he put his arms around her and kissed her.
‘I love you,’ he said.
‘Do you?’ she said, grinning. ‘Do you really?’ All gowned up, she raised her arms. ‘Even like this?’
‘To the ends of the earth and back.’
He truly did. After the poker game he had gone back to her house and showered the cash over the bed. Then he had lain awake beside her, too wired to sleep, thinking about his life. About Sandy. About Cleo. He wanted to marry Cleo, he was sure of that. More sure of that than of anything. He had made his mind up that in the morning he would start the process, long overdue, of having Sandy declared legally dead.
And first thing this morning he had contacted a Brighton solicitor he had been recommended to, Susan Ansell, and done just that. He had made an appointment with her.
Cleo kissed him. ‘Only to the ends of the earth?’
He smiled, checked the door to make sure no one was coming in, then kissed her again. ‘How about to the ends of the universe?’
‘Better,’ she said. Then she raised her palms upwards and wiggled her fingers, indicating more was required.
‘And to the ends of any other universe that we might discover.’
‘Better still!’ She kissed him again.
Then he stopped, feeling a sudden chill, wishing he had not started on that analogy. Sandy had been a fan of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He remembered her favourite being the second book in the series, called
‘You OK?’ Cleo said.
‘Very OK!’
‘You sort of disappeared for a second.’
‘I was overwhelmed by your beauty.’
She grinned again. ‘You’re such a good liar, aren’t you, Grace?’
Grinning back, he said, ‘I wasn’t lying!’
‘You spend half your time interviewing criminals who are lying convincingly. Don’t tell me that hasn’t rubbed off on you!’
He held her shoulders, firmly but gently, and stared into her eyes. ‘I would never lie to you,’ he said. ‘I would never want to lie to you.’
‘I feel the same way about you,’ she replied.
They stood in comfortable silence for some moments. The kettle rumbled to the boil, then clicked off. Distracted for an instant, Roy looked past her, at an L-shaped row of chairs beside the cluttered desk. At the table in the corner, on which sat a small Christmas tree, covered in glitter and shiny balls. At the walls, which were even more cluttered than the desk, with framed certificates, a calendar, a photograph of Brighton Pier at sunset and a row of clipboards on hooks, containing details of all their current, hapless residents in the fridges. And at the
Kevin Spinella’s piece on the finding of Unknown Male appeared on page five. It was a small column, pretty much reporting the facts as Grace had relayed them, with Grace’s appeal to the public. To his relief, Spinella had kept to his agreement not to mention anything about organs.
There was a shrill ring at the door.
Cleo glanced up at the CCTV monitor on the wall and said, ‘Your chum’s just arrived.’
Grace turned to the screen and saw Glenn Branson’s face. He was not looking a particularly happy bunny.
‘I’ll go,’ he said.
He walked down the short corridor, past the changing room, and pulled open the door. He was shocked by the sight that greeted him. He’d rarely seen Glenn looking anything other than immaculate. Now the Detective Sergeant stood in front of him, in the rain, looking a complete wreck. His tan shoes were sodden, his white shirt was spotted with dark marks, his silk tie was covered in blotches, and awry, and his cream mac was a patchwork of brown stains the colour of rust and oil, and what looked like shiny fish scales.
‘Where the hell have you been?’ Grace asked. ‘Kick-boxing in an abattoir? Or mud-wrestling in a fish market?’
‘Very funny, old-timer. Next time you send me on a cruise, I’ll book the tickets myself.’
Grace stepped back to let him in.
‘Nadiuska here yet?’ Branson asked.
‘She just phoned. She’s ten minutes away. I thought you said you were going home to change.’
‘Yeah, well, I did, didn’t I? Got back to your place and there were two sodding letters waiting for me.’
‘Feel free about redirecting your post there.’
Branson looked at his friend, unsure for a moment whether he was being sarcastic or genuine. He could not tell and decided not to push his luck. ‘One was from Ari’s solicitor, all pompous, right? Telling me that she’s been instructed by Ari, who is commencing divorce proceedings, and that I should get myself a solicitor, like I just rode into town in the back of a lorry and don’t know anything about the law.’
Grace shut the door behind him. ‘Sounds to me like you need to get one, PDQ.’
‘I’m ahead of you. I got one already.’
‘Act for a lot of tramps, does he?’
‘Actually, it’s a she.’
‘Very wise. They can be a lot more brutal than men.’
Glenn swayed suddenly and put his arm out on the wall to steady himself. For a moment Grace wondered if he was drunk.
‘The ground’s still swaying. I’ve been back on dry land for more than two hours and it’s still moving under me!’
‘So, your ancestors on the slave ship? Nautical life didn’t rub off on you? Not in your genes, then?’
‘Who told you about that slave ship stuff?’
