Catch (34 page)

He was beginning to wonder about that.

The new receptionist eyed Matt suspiciously when he told her he'd be gone for the rest of the day and that Danni would be out for at least an hour.
 

He stopped at the aquarium on his way out. "I can only see four fish."
 
He searched thoroughly, making sure none were hiding in the long weed.
 
"What's happened to the rest of them?"

Danni went pale. "They keep dying."

"Of what?"

"I have no idea and we didn't want to bother Tamsen, what with everything she's been through."

Matt checked the fish again and, sure enough, one of the surviving four had a disconcerting horizontal lean.

Danni pointed the tilter out.
 
"That one looks like it's on its last legs too."

"Well, considering fish don't have legs that's quite a problem, don't you think?"
 
He didn't try to disguise his sarcasm, then immediately felt guilty.
 
Danni looked ready to cry again.

"I'm the only one who hauls them out of there when they die," she snapped.
 
"It's not in my job description and I don't think it's funny."

"I'm sorry."
 
He hated himself sometimes.
 
"Come on, let’s get out of here and find some coffee."

"Shoo!"
 
Marguerite waved a Harrods tea-towel viciously in front of Tamsen, chasing Azriel from his warm sunny spot on the oak dining room table.
 
"It's just disgusting, that flea-ridden animal sitting on the table.
 
I can't imagine what Matthew was thinking when he allowed a feline on the premises.
 
He knows I don't like cats."

Tamsen leapt to Azriel's defense, as she'd been doing from the moment they walked in the door a week ago.
 
"He's not flea-ridden and I expect Matt thought you'd have pushed off home by now."

"I'll thank you not to take that attitude with me, young lady."

"I can take any attitude I like with anyone."
 
Tamsen picked up Azriel, who instantly began purring.
 
"At least I'm a welcome guest."

"And you're suggesting I'm not?"
 
Marguerite looked appalled.
 
She had a nasty way of sucking in her nostrils when angry, an expression Tamsen had become accustomed to over the last few days.

"I'm not suggesting anything.
 
Think what you like."

"What I think, young lady -" Marguerite's eyes narrowed and gave her face an even more pinched look " - is that you are a scheming, gold-digging harlot who is getting in the way of my son's reconciliation with his fiancée."

"Get over yourself, Mom.
 
If he wants to be with Angie he's more than welcome."
 
Tamsen, feeling on the upper, pressed her point home.
 
"What you don't seem to get - " she moved closer to the older woman, a sense of the young cat dominating the aging queen " - is it's his choice, not yours.
 
The sooner you accept that relationship's as dead as my best friend, the sooner you can go home and leave Matt to live his own life."

"What you don't understand, young lady, is that I am home."
 
Marguerite let out an almost hysterical laugh, the sound taking Tamsen by surprise.
 
Azzie leapt out of her arms, inflating to full fluff-ball status before his feet hit the polished kauri floor.
 

Marguerite gestured. "Look around you.
 
You don't think Matthew could afford all this on the meager amount he earns in that ridiculous second-rate law firm, do you?"

Tamsen hadn't even thought about it.

"Costings on the week he spent with you in Melbourne alone would have killed at least three months’ salary.
 
The Grand Hyatt doesn't come cheap, my girl.
 
And I don't believe my son would skimp on anything.
 
Only the best will do for Matthew."

Marguerite was right.
 
They'd wanted for nothing while they were away.
 
Top of the line everything.
 
It hadn't occurred to her at what cost.

"But...he's got investments."
 
She thought about the night Gina had accused her of stalking him.
 
He owned property.

"Gifts from the family," Marguerite sneered, walking toward the front door, "and I can take those away as quickly as I gave them to him.
 
All I have to do is say the word and my trust will call in every loan and advance and Matthew will be penniless."

Tamsen couldn't believe what she heard.
 
It seemed absurd.
 
But a small part of her brain registered.
 
Everything probably in family trusts.
 
Matthew would own nothing.
 
He, like she, was at the mercy of manipulating family members.

"So you see," Marguerite continued, "he's going to do what I want him to do in the end.
 
Otherwise all of this - " she cast her arms wide " - will disappear in a puff of smoke."
 

She opened the front door wide.
 
"So I strongly suggest you and your lice-infested feline pack up and be on your way, because you are not welcome here."

Tamsen, lost for words, stood there feeling...what?
 
Twice in a week her world had crumbled, her reality well and truly fucked over.
 
The universe seemed to be constantly shitting on her and she had no idea why.

"Shut the door, please."
 
Her voice was barely a whisper.
 
"Azzie will get outside."

"That monster should be outside anyway."
 
Marguerite waved the tea-towel over Azriel again, and he hissed and bolted for the open door.

Tamsen screamed, "No!"

Their first date, two months ago, in this very courtyard, Matt mused.
 
It seemed such a long time ago.

Danni cut into his thoughts. "You haven’t heard a single word I've been saying, have you?"
 
A look of despair crossed her perfect features.
 

Women would sell their souls to have even features like hers, he was sure of it. "I'm sorry, Danni.
 
I just don't seem to be able to stay with it at the moment."

"You want to talk about it?"
 
She sipped her coffee.

It was refreshing, he thought, to have someone order something as easy as a flat white.
 
No soy this, or decaf that, just simple coffee.
 
His Danni, plain and predictable.

"I assume this won't go any further?" He looked up from the empty caramel-colored sugar wrapper he'd been twisting around his pinkie finger. "I really don't need to add to water-cooler gossip."

She crossed her heart and smiled. "Promise.
 
You can tell me your secrets - I'm an expert with professional privilege."

Matt dragged his gaze from the line of lace hugging her breasts; he hadn't noticed the fine scallop pattern until she'd drawn his eye there by crossing herself. Somehow it felt disrespectful to Tamsen, his eyes having almost a mind of their own.

He said, "It's nice to know something I taught you has come in useful."

She smiled again and he felt immediately at ease.
 
"So what's up, boss?"

He shrugged.
 
"Don't know, really.
 
Except I haven't wanted to work for ages and that's not me."

"You've been through a lot in the last week.
 
Not many people I know find a former employee hanging in their girlfriend's apartment and expect to walk away from the whole ordeal without some emotional scars."

"That's what I don't understand, Danni.
 
Why should it bother me?
 
I mean, I can understand Tamsen falling apart, but me?
 
It doesn't make any sense.
 
The woman was nothing to me."

"Maybe you feel guilty?"
 
She cocked her head, looking up into his eyes - searching, he thought, to see if she'd hit a nerve.
 

She had, but he wasn't going to let her know that. "What do I have to feel guilty about?"

"I don't know.
 
You tell me."

He felt as if he were in a poker match. Any slight twitch or movement would alert her to his thoughts. "You know how bad it got with Gina at work?"

"Don't remind me, I was the village idiot constantly running around after her, tidying up the messes she made, remember?" Danni rolled her eyes.

"Well, things were as bad for Tamsen at home.
 
I don't want to go into the sordid details, but it even got to the stage where I felt terrified to be alone in the same room with the mad cow."

"In what way?"
 
Danni leaned closer and his eyes again drawn to the lace at her breasts.
 

He coughed, averting his gaze and concentrating on the uglier recent scenes he'd had with Gina. "When she got drunk she was really aggressive."
 

Danni looked confused, and he felt he needed to elaborate. "Like, sexually aggressive."

"Oh, I get it."
 
She laughed.
 
"Like trying-to-get-into-your-pants aggressive?"

He felt himself flush.
 
"Yes."

"That's no shock."

"What do you mean?"

"Matt, for a smart man you can be so naive sometimes."
 
Danni giggled, tipping her head forward, her hair falling over one eye.
 
She looked up at him from under her hairline, almost embarrassed.
 
"You've got no concept of how attractive you are.
 
Gina wasn't alone thinking like that."

"The woman hated me.
 
I could see it in her eyes."

"She hated that you were with Tamsen." Danni waited a beat for the information to sink in.
 
"She wanted to be with Tamsen."

He shook his head in dismay.
 
"Wow, how could I have missed that?"

"If it's any consolation, I don't think you were looking."

"So Gina was jealous?
 
That's what all the attention seeking was about?
 
All the phone calls when we were in Melbourne, all the tantrums at the apartment?"

"I'm not suggesting just jealousy - the girl had a pretty heinous drinking problem.
 
You could still smell it on her from the night before, some mornings.
 
And she often arrived at work looking as if she'd just come from a party, or at least slept in her clothes."

"Pretty shoddy state of affairs, really, wasn't it?"

"It was."

"I could be forgiven for giving her that written warning."

"Matt, is this what this is really about?"

"Maybe."
 
He felt uncomfortable, thinking back to the day Gina quit.
 
He’d felt relief at the time.
 
It saved him having to go through the whole rigmarole of more meetings and warnings before he could fire her.

"You didn't set her up, Matt.
 
You've always been genuine about helping your staff.
 
You've got nothing to feel guilty about."

"I just can't help thinking I contributed to the whole sordid mess somehow."

"You were involved, of course - you were sleeping with her friend and you were her boss.
 
Only you can judge where the ethical lines were drawn.
 
But as far as the firm's concerned you acted in everyone's best interests.
 
No one could possibly have known how sick she was.
 
She even managed to hide it from Tamsen, for crying out loud."

"I suppose you're right."
 
He shrugged.
 
"It's a waste of time and energy doing the 'what ifs' but sometimes I just can't help it."

"Matt.
 
Honestly.
 
I don't think you'd be human if you didn't."

"You're probably right.
 
Thanks, Danni.
 
You've been a rock through all of this."

"That's what I'm for boss. PR, Personal Rock."

"I'll give you rocks.
 
You best get back to the pit face and see if you can stave off the impending disasters on my desk.
 
I'll be in tomorrow morning - I can't face it today.
 
There're a couple of pressing problems at home to be sorted."
 

He thought of his mother and Tamsen, and a pending sense of doom wrapped itself around him, almost like a comforting quilt.

"Azzie.
 
Here, Azzie."
 
Tamsen's attempts to track Azriel through the newly landscaped garden resembled a reconnaissance mission gone decidedly wrong.
 
She was becoming more distraught by the moment.
 
No, she thought, sidestepping yet another hebe, not just distraught - very bloody angry. So angry she could string Matt's mother up, and Matt too for that matter.

Hebe "Champagne" according to the yellow horticultural label still attached to the small bush.
 
More references to alcohol.
 

Fuming, she seated herself on a ponga log.
 
The earth smelt damp, the kanuka trees alive with a small flock of wax-eyes fluttering from branch to branch, their tiny wings and erratic flight disturbing the insects they were feasting on.
 
Tamsen felt sure Azzie would be in the area, especially with this many small birds to hunt.

What to do?
 
Azriel would reappear eventually - hunger if nothing else driving him back to the house - and she could pack them both up and go home.