Counterfeit Love (10 page)

Byron shook out the grey shirt and stared at it, hoping he was looking at more than just a corporate golf shirt. There had to be something pretty special about this shirt, because he had a whole lot riding on it.

It had cost him a lot of time already. Now it had also cost him Lucy. He’d be lucky to ever set eyes on her again.

‘I think he had a point,’ Charlotte said, lying on Lucy’s bed the next morning, extracting a needle from the backside of a stuffed panda. ‘I mean, you did essentially steal the shirt. And it sounds like
you
invited
him
back here.’

‘Whose side are you on?’ Lucy asked angrily. She crawled under the bed to retrieve a faux snakeskin wedge, banging her head on the way out.

‘Crap!’ She cursed the bed. Then she cursed Byron for causing the problem in the first place.

She’d been in such a rage as Byron left that she’d flung every shoe in her wardrobe around the room. It would take her all morning to get the place back in order, and her flatmate was hardly helping at all. Charlotte had barely lifted a finger and she wasn’t even giving any moral support. Lucy had told her everything that Byron had done, and Charlotte was blaming Lucy! Couldn’t she see he was the world’s biggest creep.

‘What a lying
bastard
.’ Lucy hurled the snakeskin wedge into the open wardrobe.

Charlotte flinched at the thud. ‘I’ve never seen you this angry before.’

Lucy crawled across the room, grabbed a black patent leather stiletto and threw it at the wardrobe, too. ‘I’ve never
been
this angry before! And I mean
ever
! So stop seeing Byron’s point and just agree that I’ve got every reason to be angry because he was such a
bastard.’

Charlotte shrugged. ‘Okay, you’re right. He’s a bastard.’

‘
Thanks.
That’s a big help,’ Lucy said sarcastically.

‘Okay, then.’ Charlotte smoothed the stuffed panda’s fur. ‘Byron’s a total and utter bastard. You are way too good for him. I hope he gets trapped in a rockslide.’

Lucy sneered. ‘That’s way too good for him.’

Charlotte left the bed and walked towards Lucy, her arms outstretched. ‘Let me give you a hug. You’re hurting.’

Lucy took two steps backwards, stumbling on a floral wedge. ‘I do
not
need a hug. I need to be more self reliant.’ She scanned the room. ‘Right after you help me sort out my shoes.’

Charlotte sighed, but she picked up a trainer and poked around for its mate. Lucy used the opportunity to make coffee. But that made her even angrier, because after she’d made the coffee she discovered that they were out of milk. By the time she’d been out to buy some more, the coffee was cold and she had to start again.

That wouldn’t have been such a big problem, normally, but this morning it made her furious. It was only when the number of shoes back in their correct boxes in the wardrobe outnumbered the ones on the floor that Lucy began to feel more like a person and less like a banshee, but she was still deflated.

‘I feel so cheap, letting him seduce me like that when he was just after a stupid shirt.’

Charlotte looked out from the wardrobe where she was ordering shoeboxes. ‘Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself. You didn’t even sleep with him.’

‘I nearly did!’ Lucy replied. ‘I invited him back here.’ She put her hand over her eyes to hide her shame.

Charlotte flopped backwards onto Lucy’s bed and smiled. ‘I can just imagine you wandering into the bedroom with only a needle and cotton to hide your modesty.’

‘I still had my bra and knickers on!’

Charlotte frowned. ‘Were you really going to mend his shirt?’

Lucy shrugged. ‘I was going to give it a go.’

‘That’s so cute.’

‘It wasn’t even slightly cute. It was a disaster!’ Lucy cringed. ‘I let my hormones overrule my brain for one night, and look what they did to me. That’s the last time I’ll let that happen. Love is for losers.’

Charlotte threw the stuffed panda at Lucy, hitting her in the face. ‘Hope that attitude came with a badge. Joined the fun police, have you?’

‘I’m never falling in love again.’ Lucy threw the panda back at Charlotte. ‘I could have been at Yu’s house last night. His
actual house.
In Versace. Why did you let me go out with
Byron
? I should have gone with Durban!’

Charlotte shot a withering look at her. ‘Okay, here’s what we’ll do. We’ll go for dim sum and then hit the shops. I think being in this room is not good for your interpersonal skills. A bit of retail therapy is what you need.’

Lucy shook her head. ‘I might bump into Byron.’

Charlotte laughed. ‘We’re talking about Hong Kong here – a city of seven million people. Not Echuca.’

‘What’s wrong with Echuca?’ Lucy snapped. ‘You don’t need to sledge my hometown just because it’s small. A lot of great people have come out of Echuca.’ Lucy tried to think of an example, but none came to mind. ‘What’s so great about Hong Kong, anyway?’

Charlotte shook her head and went to Lucy’s wardrobe again. She grabbed a pair of running shoes and tossed them at her friend. ‘Put these on. We’re going for a walk. I’d prefer to go shopping, but I’m afraid you might pick a fight with someone and get us both deported.’

Lucy put on her shoes in silence, still trying to think of a celebrity from Echuca. Her mind was blank. Her thoughts turned to the town itself – a pretty place on the banks of the Murray, quite famous in its own little historic way, she thought, and then she felt homesick. She missed the way the eucalypts bent over to kiss the river. She even missed those ridiculous paddle steamers that plied the Murray, like it was still 1853. In fact, there were quite a few things about Echuca that hadn’t moved on since then – including the fruit supply at the Lombardi’s corner store. Lucy even missed that!

She’d felt completely differently about the town when she’d just finished high school. Lucy couldn’t wait to get out of there. She thought the town was as colourless as the Murray itself, and offered nothing for her. She got the first plane out of there when she got a place at Sydney Uni, her mind already set on television and her head already in Hong Kong. No-one who knew Lucy had any doubt that she’d end up there.

‘Sorry I was such a bitch,’ Lucy said as she and Charlotte sat sharing a packet of dried plums at one of the peaks on the Dragon’s Back ridge. She scrunched up her eyes at the sudden hit of sour salt, and then took another, addicted to the taste for some inexplicable reason.

‘Water under the bridge.’ Charlotte shrugged. ‘I knew getting out would fix things.’

Lucy nodded. Below them the D’Aguilar Peninsula clawed its way into the sea, with villages on either side of the isthmus clinging to the sandy bays.

‘A few yachts out today,’ Charlotte said. ‘Probably getting ready for the race.’

‘Mmm,’ Lucy nodded, then realised she didn’t know what Charlotte was talking about. ‘What race?’

‘The China Sea Race. It starts tomorrow. It’s kind of a big deal.’

‘Really? What’s so special about it?’

‘It’s the premier blue water event in Asia – Hong Kong to the Philippines,’ Charlotte said, sounding like she’d swallowed a news release. ‘All the big yachts will be out. One of my clients wanted a last-minute entry.’

Lucy laughed. ‘Anyone I know?’

Charlotte frowned.

‘I know, you can’t tell me,’ Lucy said. ‘It’s not Durban, is it?’

Charlotte shook her head. ‘I can’t say.’

Lucy put her hand up. ‘Actually, I don’t even want to think about Durban. Pretend I didn’t even mention him.’ She looked away, because now she couldn’t stop thinking about Durban. Lucy clenched her fists, getting worked up again. ‘What was I thinking – going out with Byron when I could have been at a party at Yu’s house?’

‘We don’t have to talk about it now.’ Charlotte said.

Lucy put her head in her hands. ‘Why, why, why did I do it?’ she wailed.

Charlotte pulled a tissue out of her pocket and handed it to Lucy. ‘Have a good cry. It’ll make you feel better.’

Lucy stared at the tissue. ‘I’m not crying. And even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t give Byron the satisfaction.’

Charlotte shrugged and stuffed the tissue back in her pocket. ‘Oh my God!’ she pulled a small gold key from her pocket. ‘I nearly forgot about this. I found it under your desk when we were tidying up. Is it important?’

Lucy took the key and inspected it. ‘I’ve got no idea.’ She didn’t recognise it at all. Maybe it belonged to Byron – perhaps he’d dropped it when he was searching for the shirt. With any luck it was his apartment key and he’d been locked outside all night and had to sleep in the stairwell.

Lucy studied the key. A small dragon was engraved on one side. She turned it over, and her pulse started racing. The initials
H.D.
were engraved on the back. ‘It must have been with the shirt!’ She hugged her flatmate. ‘Great find!’

‘Cool, glad I could help,’ Charlotte said, taking the key and turning it over. ‘What do you think it’s for?’

Lucy shrugged as Charlotte handed the key back. She had no idea what the key would open, but suddenly the whole evening at the Art Bar was making a lot more sense. Mr Safari Suit wasn’t just there to give Miss Chan a freebie golf shirt; it was the key that he was handing over – all part of some
arrangement.
It seemed unlikely that it was aboveboard. Why hide the key in a golf shirt and pass it over in a shopping bag, in a hotel bar, when he could have just sent it by courier, or dropped it into her office? There was definitely something illicit going on.

‘You think that’s what Byron was looking for?’ Charlotte asked.

Lucy nodded. ‘Definitely. Must unlock something pretty important.’

‘Mysterious,’ Charlotte said, her eyes on the horizon again. ‘How do you think Byron fits into all this? What was he doing in the Art Bar?’

Lucy tapped the key gently on her lips. ‘He definitely wasn’t there to add to his rock collection. There’s no way he’s a geologist.’

‘So who is he, then?’

Lucy ran through the facts in her mind. ‘He must have been there to observe the deal. He can’t have been working for Miss Chan. He wouldn’t have sat there and watched the guy in the bad suit hand me the package. So, I assume he’s working with Mr Safari Suit.’

‘You think they work together, or is he a bodyguard or something?’

Lucy shrugged. ‘He doesn’t really have the build for a bodyguard, and I doubt a bodyguard would have been that scared of a flying stiletto. You should have seen him run when I threw my shoe at him. He was completely terrified.’ Lucy smiled. She was finally beginning to see the funny side of it.

‘Awww, you should stop picking on poor defenceless guys.’

‘I’ll pick on
you
in a minute if you don’t stop defending Byron,’ she pinching her flatmate on the arm playfully.

‘I can’t help it. He’s too cute to be as nasty as you say he is.’

Lucy shook her head. ‘Well, I don’t know that he’s nasty, but he’s a liar and a cheat, and I don’t like either of those things.’

Charlotte nodded. ‘I think his worst crime is hanging around with a guy in a safari suit. Being that badly dressed gets the death penalty in Hong Kong.’ Charlotte snorted at her own joke. Then she laughed. Then suddenly she was laughing so hard she fell over backwards in the grass.

Lucy just stared at her. Her flatmate didn’t seem to be taking any of this seriously. Charlotte was probably used to strange things turning up in boxes for eccentric clients, but Lucy wasn’t – and she had a really strong feeling about this. There was something very weird going on between Mr Safari Suit and Miss Chan, and Byron was right in the middle of it.

‘Byron’s neck deep in something bad,’ Lucy said.

Charlotte stopped laughing and sat up. ‘You really think so?’

Lucy nodded. ‘He must be.’

‘You think he’ll be back again for the key?’ Charlotte asked, looking concerned for the first time all morning.

Lucy nodded slowly. ‘And when he does come back, I’ll be ready. He’ll be the one half-dressed, wondering what happened to him.’

‘You don’t think you should talk to the police about this?’

Lucy held up her key and watched as the sunlight bounced off it. ‘Not a chance. This key is going to unlock everything I need to know – and give me my first big exclusive. And Byron is going to make it happen.’