Breaking the Rules (31 page)

Linnet simply nodded, ran on past her, wrenched open the door of Connie’s office and went out onto the floor of the store at top speed. M was close on her heels.

People were milling around; some were getting up from the floor, others remained prone. Linnet saw the first of the security men running forward and she followed them, heading in the direction of the Bird Cage, the restaurant where there had been a problem that morning at six o’clock. All she could think was how fortunate it was she had ordered it closed for the day, and the rest of the week if necessary.

The glass windows and door that fronted the famous restaurant were shattered, smoke was billowing out, and towards the back of the first dining room, Linnet could see flames shooting up towards the ceiling. Ten of the store’s security men were inside, spraying foam onto the flames from fire extinguishers, and another six were handling hoses, dowsing the interior with water.

Simon Baron, head of security for the Harte stores, was already outside the Bird Cage, and he ran towards Linnet and M as they drew to a halt, his face strained, a worried expression in his eyes. Both women were panting and out of breath, and it took them a moment to recover.

‘Are you all right?’ Simon asked in concern, taking hold of Linnet’s arm solicitously, peering at her. ‘I was just coming to look for you.’

She nodded, still catching her breath.

Staring at M, showing the same concern for her, Simon said, ‘How do you feel, M? No problems?’

‘None,’ she answered, and added, ‘Probably lots of bruises though. We were thrown to the floor by the blast; it was terribly forceful. What happened? Was there some sort of gas explosion in the kitchen?’

‘We don’t know,’ Simon said. ‘The fire brigade and the police are on the way, and we’ll only know then. But I got our own chaps onto it immediately because I was fearful that this end of the floor, and the executive offices, might go up in flames.’

‘Thank God you did,’ Linnet exclaimed. ‘Good work, Simon. And how fortuitous that I decided not to open the restaurant today.’

‘You told me earlier that there was a drainage problem,’ Simon said, giving her a questioning look. ‘A bad smell in the kitchens. I know this is probably a stupid question, but are you sure it wasn’t gas leaking somewhere?’

‘Absolutely. And so were the manager of the restaurant and our maintenance department. There was a blockage in the drains. A bad blockage. But fortunately the plumbers had most of the drains cleaned out by ten o’clock. However, I’d made the decision not to open at six o’clock when I got here, because I knew the smell would linger. Past experience told me that the drains would take all day to be flushed clean.’ Fixing her eyes on Simon, giving him a direct look, she asked carefully, pressing down on her anxiety, ‘Were there any plumbers working inside the restaurant when the explosion occurred?’

‘No. By some stroke of luck the three plumbers who were still working in the kitchens decided to take their lunch break at eleven. There was no one inside at the time of the explosion. But some people have been injured, Linnet.’

‘Harte’s employees?’ she asked swiftly.

‘Mostly. Unfortunately, several shoppers passing at the time
were knocked down by the force of the blasts. But there are no fatalities and only minor injuries.’

‘Are you telling me that no one has been seriously hurt?’ Linnet asked, a look of incredulity settling on her face.

‘To my knowledge, not one person is badly injured. But I do think some people will need help. There may be a few with broken bones, some people in shock, others badly bruised, that kind of thing.’

‘Ambulances are on the way, I’m sure,’ Linnet asserted, her gaze still lingering on Simon Baron.

‘Yes, everything’s been done. We just have to wait now. Oh, look, Linnet, here are some of the firemen arriving, and the police.’ Taking hold of Linnet’s arm protectively, Simon led her and M away from the smouldering restaurant, firmly guiding them back towards the linen department close by. ‘Let’s get the professionals in there as fast as possible. I’ll be back soon,’ he promised.

Linnet nodded and took hold of M’s arm, pulled her further into the linen department. To Simon she said, ‘We’ll just wait here. Come and get me when you need me.’

Once they were alone, M said, ‘I know this is a dreadful thing to happen, Lin, but aren’t we fortunate you’d closed the restaurant? A lot of people would have been badly hurt, maybe even killed, if you’d kept it open.’

Her sister nodded. ‘I’ve been thinking that for the last fifteen minutes,’ she said, sounding hoarse. ‘It’s almost a stupid thing to say, under these circumstances, but we’ve been lucky.’

Within fifteen minutes, Simon Baron came back to see Linnet, bringing with him two policemen. One was Inspector Yardley of Scotland Yard, the other Captain Gibson of Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Command. After being introduced, Captain Gibson
explained to her that two bombs had exploded in the Bird Cage, and that they suspected this was the work of terrorists.

Inspector Yardley now said, ‘We’ve been expecting one of the big department stores to get hit, Ms O’Neill. All the stores are targets these days, for obvious reasons, and I’m sorry it had to be Harte’s.’ He shook his head, gave her a sympathetic look as he went on, ‘Unfortunately, we will have to check the entire store floor by floor, to make certain there are no other bombs here. I’m afraid you will have to close Harte’s down. As of now.’

‘I understand,’ Linnet said quietly. ‘Mr Baron will arrange to have that done immediately, Inspector. How long will the store have to remain closed?’

Inspector Yardley glanced at Captain Gibson. ‘What’s your estimate, Bill?’

The captain looked at her. ‘It’s a big store, Ms O’Neill,’ the captain said. ‘But we can get a few more units in here immediately and we can work all night. And perhaps part of tomorrow morning, if that’s necessary. Today’s Wednesday. Shall we say tomorrow afternoon? Or Friday morning at the latest?’

She nodded. ‘Thank you, Captain Gibson, and my thanks to you, too, Inspector Yardley. Mr Baron will give you any help you need to get the store cleared of people.’

The two policemen left and Linnet couldn’t help thinking that she was relieved she had her own policeman in Simon Baron. She always felt safer when he was close by; her head of Harte security was the best in the business.

S
he made a grand entrance worthy of a Hollywood movie queen, except that she wasn’t up to any of their tricks. She didn’t wear sexy or revealing clothes and piles of jewellery, nor did she flaunt herself. In fact, she was the epitome of decorum.

Tall and elegant in an impeccably cut dark blue suit, she was an eye-catching glamorous blonde who looked twenty years younger than she actually was, and as she glided gracefully across the room, every eye was on her.

She was a legend in her own time: Pandora Gallen, one of England’s greatest actors.

Smiling and standing up as the maître d’ led her towards his table, Larry couldn’t help admiring his mother. She had that special something that could not be bought or acquired. You had to be born with it: charisma; star quality. Yes, she was certainly a star, acclaimed the world over. He had to take his hat off to her. She dominated this restaurant just by being in it, sucked all of the oxygen out of it.

After kissing her and getting her settled in her chair, he said, ‘Mother, you look absolutely gorgeous. Have you had something done? You haven’t got a line on your face.’

Pandora laughed heartily, and gave her favourite child the benefit of a huge smile. ‘Of course I’ve had something done, lots of things. I’m an actress, remember, and I want to look good on a stage or in front of a camera. Looking good helps me to meet every day with a smile on my face and gratitude in my heart, despite this ghastly world we live in today. And since I was meeting you here at the Caprice, I went to the hairdresser’s first. After all, you never know
who
you’re going to run into, do you, my darling?’

‘Bravo, Mum, you’re the best, and
congratulations.
You look simply divine.’

‘Well, perhaps not quite that, Laurence. Shall we have a glass of champagne?’

‘Why not, it’s a great idea.’ He motioned to the waiter, ordered two glasses of pink champagne, and then turned to his mother again. ‘I want to ask you something, Mum, and—’

‘Oh, Larry, dear heart, let’s have a drink first before we discuss your father and his accusations.’

‘I wasn’t going to ask you about Dad. I wanted to know how your lunch went with M the other day. She didn’t say much when she came home, and you haven’t mentioned it either when we’ve spoken on the phone.’

‘We had a nice time together—we get on very well, you know. And we understand each other perfectly. M makes everything extremely clear, speaks her mind. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone quite as forthright as she is, and I must admit she took my breath away several times.’

The waiter had brought their flutes of champagne, and Pandora picked up hers, raised it to her son, and said, ‘Here’s to you and M. Happy days.’

He touched his glass to hers, took a sip, and then stared at his mother intently. ‘Why did she take your breath away, Mum? Did something happen?’

‘Naturally something happened, but it wasn’t anything bad.’

‘But what did she do? Say? Please tell me, I don’t want there to be any ill feeling between the two of you.’

‘Oh, Larry, don’t be so silly, so dramatic; there are no bad feelings between us. She took my breath away because of her insight into this family of ours. Plus she gave me my orders, nicely, because she’s very polite, but they were presented in no uncertain terms.’ Sitting back in her chair, Pandora drank her champagne, looking totally untroubled.

Yet Larry could not let it go, and he pressed, ‘Tell me what she said, what orders she gave you.’

Pandora smiled at him, then reached out, patted his hand. ‘She gave me the rules about Edward, in relationship to you. Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? She absolutely does not want you to be alone with him. Not ever again. At first she said you and she could not attend any family gatherings if he was going to be there, but eventually I persuaded her to relent a little about that. However, she doesn’t want you to have any interaction with him, or sit next to him, if you are at the same event, or party or whatever. M believes he’s your enemy, and that he wants to do you harm any way he can.’

‘Oh.’ Larry stared at his mother, and grimaced. ‘She can be tough, and especially about anything that might affect me.’

‘So I realize, and am I glad about that! I understand her perfectly, Larry. She loves you very much, and she’ll go for the jugular if anybody tries to hurt you.’

‘Yes, she would. But banning us from family gatherings…’ He let the sentence slide away, his dark brows drawing together in a puzzled frown.

‘I told you, she relented,’ Pandora murmured, and added, ‘In any case, we don’t have many of those gatherings these days. Incidentally, she did say she thought your father had been weak in Canada, the way he had let Edward get at you. Do you think that’s true?’

‘Dad was taking a bit of a battering from Edward, especially
about money, but perhaps he was a bit weak-kneed when Edward was hitting on me.’

‘Let me just say this, Larry, I wholeheartedly approve of M. She’s terrific, and I can rest easy within myself, knowing you have such a marvellous wife.’

‘So all is well between the two of you?’

‘It is indeed.’ All of a sudden Pandora began to laugh, shaking her head. After a moment she said, ‘She adores Portia, but thinks she fusses too much about little Desi, is over-protective of her, and she believes it’s time Horatio gets married before he becomes too set in his ways, turns into a grumpy old bachelor.’ His mother shook her head again, amusement flickering in her eyes. ‘I told you she was forthright.’

‘She certainly is. And you didn’t mind?’

‘No, I didn’t, I thought it was refreshing that she had opinions, spoke her mind so openly; and actually, she does happen to be right about everything she said. I know your father can be very weak-kneed at times, and that Edward is a bad penny. And she certainly put her finger on the problems Portia has, and Horatio too, if the truth be known. So again, congratulations, you’ve got yourself a winner for a wife, my darling.’ Picking up the menu, Pandora glanced at it, looked across at her son, and said, ‘I’m going to have asparagus first, and then that marvellous fish cake they do here, with chips, of course.’

He grinned. ‘I’ll have the same, and Mum, I just want to say this, I’m thrilled you like M.’

‘Like? That’s too puny a word to use, my darling boy. I
love
her. And I might add I think her parents are lovely, especially her father. My goodness, what a handsome man Shane O’Neill is…if only I were a few years younger…’

He gaped at her and said, ‘Really, Mother.’

‘I’m just joking, Larry, just joking.’

Once they had ordered lunch, Larry stared at his mother,
and said, ‘Well, you did promise to explain about all the rows with Dad. So go on.’

Pandora was silent, not wanting to discuss this matter, but she grew uncomfortable under her son’s fixed scrutiny, accepted that she had no alternative but to explain.

The asparagus vinaigrette was served and his mother started to eat immediately. Larry did the same. He knew she did not eat much for breakfast, just a slice of toast and coffee, so she genuinely enjoyed lunch. It was her favourite meal, dinner being always a nuisance for her, especially when she was working in the theatre.

He was very attuned to Pandora, had been all his life, and he knew better than to probe further or badger her now. It would be better to wait until after they had eaten their main course to discuss her problems with his father. He very much doubted Edward’s story about his mother being involved with another man. His brother was a troublemaker; he had been since they were children, and Edward had only grown worse as he had grown older. Larry was relieved his brother was back in Los Angeles and not floating around London causing havoc everywhere he went.

After finishing his asparagus, Larry said, ‘My agent sent me a copy of
The Winslow Boy.
There’s going to be a revival of it, but I can’t work up any enthusiasm. What do you think, Mother?’

Pandora gave him a long, thoughtful look. ‘My advice is to take your wife on a honeymoon, which I know she wants very much. Therefore, don’t take the play.’

‘Thanks for your advice,’ he said, smiling. ‘I just knew I had better fish to fry.’

‘Absolutely, and here come the fish cakes. After that I’ll endeavour to explain about your father’s accusations that I am out there screwing another man.’

‘Mother!’ he exclaimed, looking at her aghast. ‘Everybody heard that at the next table.’

‘Oh, good, now they’ll know there’s still life in the old gal yet.’

He stared at her and burst out laughing. She had said this with such glee, and with such total disregard for public opinion, that he couldn’t help but admire her. There was nobody like his mother; she was truly a one-off. No, he was wrong about that; there was somebody just like her in certain ways. His wife. No wonder he loved M, and no wonder M and his mother got on so well. Two peas in a pod. Sort of.

Once the plates had been cleared, and Pandora had finished her third glass of champagne, she said in a low, steady voice, ‘Before I get to these awful rows your father and I have been having, I must tell you a story, Larry darling. All right?’

‘Yes, that’s fine, and take your time. I’m not in a hurry, Ma, I’m all yours.’

‘Do you remember I once said to you that you can know somebody all of your life and never truly know them? And yet, conversely, you can meet someone and know who they are and what they’re all about in an instant. I think I likened it to being part of the same tribe.’

‘I do remember. In fact, I’ve never forgotten what you said. And actually that’s exactly the way I felt when I met M.’

His mother nodded, and continued, ‘That happened to me, Larry, a long time ago. Thirty years ago…I was just forty. And I had a happy marriage, a good husband, and six beautiful children.’

‘When I was five years old,’ he said, suddenly remembering something, although he wasn’t sure what this was; something hidden at the back of his consciousness…a hidden memory, forgotten…and yet not.

‘That’s right…you
were
five years old. And I met a man at a dinner party. I wasn’t working at the time, your father
was in a play, and so I went alone to the dinner. It was one of those instantaneous things. He looked across the room at me, and I looked back, and my whole world was turned upside down. I forgot everything. It seemed to me there was only him. And I knew at the end of the evening that he was mine, that I was his.’

‘Who was he?’

‘I can’t tell you.’

‘You mean you won’t, Ma.’

‘I do mean that, yes. I will never tell you who he was. Nor will I ever tell anyone else for that matter.’

‘He’s still alive, isn’t he?’

‘Yes. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. All those years ago…he asked me to meet him for lunch the next day. It was a Wednesday, matinee day, and so I could. Your father was at the theatre. I knew at the end of the lunch that I had met my true soul mate. I
knew
him, Larry, knew who he was, what he was. It was as if I’d known him since the day I was born. And he felt the same way. We knew we had fallen madly in love before we’d even left the restaurant that Wednesday.’

‘And so you had an affair?’

‘No, we didn’t. I saw him whenever I could, but I was fearful of sleeping with him…I just knew it would be fatal if I did.’

‘So you didn’t sleep with him. But what happened?’

‘We became close friends, and saw each other quite a lot over a couple of weeks. But we never embarked on an affair because I knew it would destroy my family if I did and if I left your father for him. He knew that, too. I loved this man deeply, to the core of my soul, and he loved me, but he had his obligations too.’

‘Was he a married man?’

‘Yes. With children. And he was well known.’

‘Another actor, Mum? He was, wasn’t he?
Who was he?
You can tell me, I’d never betray a confidence.’

‘No, Larry, I won’t tell you. I mustn’t, I really mustn’t, darling. I will only say this: he was a politician, a man who was going places in politics, going far, and I didn’t want him to destroy his career. Thirty years ago that could easily have happened, you know. Things were a bit different then.’

‘And so you broke up with him, never saw him again, and once more became the dutiful wife and mother?’ Larry gave her a sympathetic look.

‘That’s more or less correct. It was terribly hard for me at times, but I loved you all
so much.
And although your father was difficult, he was a decent man, and I had no intention of hurting him, destroying him. So obviously, since I’m sitting here with you today, I stayed. I never saw…
him
again. At least not alone. We did run into each other from time to time at public functions and quickly removed ourselves from each other’s company.’

‘God, that must have been a bloody tough thing to do, Ma. How could you stand it?’ Larry asked, thinking of how he would feel if he had to give up M, whom he loved to distraction. He looked hard at his mother, admiring her loyalty to his father, and then for her children.

‘It
was
tough, but we did it. We had no other choice.’

‘So what’s all this got to do with Dad’s accusations? Oh, my God! You met him again. Last year. That’s it, isn’t it, Mother?’

‘We did bump into each other, yes. But look here, Larry, we only had one lunch and one dinner in restaurants. After that we saw each other at his house. Anyway, to cut to the chase once more. Your father found out that I’d been seen with a man, having lunch, looking intimate with him, cosy, loving, and supposedly involved. And because I’d taken the film around the time your father was going to Canada, he decided I’d made a point of being in London in order to be with this man whilst he was away.’

‘But did Dad know he was
the man
from the past?’

‘No, of course he didn’t. Because he had never known about my friendship with another man thirty years ago. Your father was in
Caesar and Cleopatra
at the time. It was a big, difficult role, and it was a huge hit. He was suddenly a bigger star than ever. He was involved with work, publicity, and all that other stuff that comes with fame. I had been extraordinarily discreet. Nobody knew about this…soul mate of mine. I hadn’t felt the need to confide in a friend, and neither had he.’