Family Business (15 page)

‘Mum? Dad?'

‘Shut up,' David said. ‘It's business. You wouldn't understand.'

‘A lot
you
know,' Marie said. ‘
You
don't even know how to open your electronic mail box.'

‘Children!' Gina said. ‘Don't interrupt!'

Marie busied herself with a crumpet. David's attention was now split because of his sister's unexpected challenge. He didn't know which issue to follow.

‘What's the “do now”?' the Old Man said. ‘Does she owe you money?'

‘No,' Angelo said.

‘So “now” you “do” nothing, that's what you do now. You've got a happy customer who paid the bill. What more do you want?'

‘But we don't know what's happened, Papa,' Gina said. ‘Mrs Shayler may be satisfied, but we don't know how we satisfied her.'

‘You got hired,' the Old Man said. ‘You worked. You got paid. The customer is happy. Do you think the client has to explain all your little curiosities? No, no.'

‘But it is a puzzle,' Mama said. ‘Give them that.'

‘I give them whatever they want,' the Old Man said. ‘That's my mistake.'

‘But it's such a turn-around from the phone call Mrs Shayler made to David last night,' Gina said.

‘She wanted you to go to her house in the morning. You went to her house. Now the husband is asleep and the client says everything is good,' the Old Man said. ‘Things happen.'

‘I don't know that we
can
do anything,' Angelo said.

‘If you do a thing, who pays?' the Old Man asked, an element of exasperation entering his voice.

‘Have more coffee,' Mama said, ‘and let the children decide for themselves.'

‘Huh!' the Old Man said. He held out his mug.

There was a pause. Marie said, ‘Dad?'

‘What is it, Marie?'

‘You know you said you had a job for me?'

Angelo stared at his daughter.

‘A job today,' Marie said. ‘Don't you remember?'

‘Ah,' Angelo said.

‘Well, I've decided I'd like to do it.'

‘What job?' David asked.

‘I thought you had to go to Jenny's. I thought it was urgent,' Angelo said.

‘Well, I'm going to see her tonight instead,' Marie said. ‘And I need the money.'

‘What for does a young girl need money?' the Old Man said. ‘Are you cold? Are you hungry?'

‘I've got fashion statements to make, Grandad,' Marie said with a bright smile.

‘Fashion, is it?' the Old Man said. ‘Fashion
burns
money. I should know.' He looked in the direction of Rosetta's room. ‘Me too, I had a daughter.'

‘What job?' David insisted. ‘Why have you offered dopey Marie a job and not me?'

‘
You
don't even know how to open your electronic mail box,' Marie said. ‘
That's
why.'

‘Dad?' David said. ‘Mum?'

At that moment Rosetta entered. ‘Hello, everybody,' she said.

‘Good morning, Aunt Rosetta!' Marie said, and she ran to her aunt and hugged her. Everyone noticed the action as an unusual one except David.

David said, ‘I want to know about this job! I did well last night, didn't I?'

‘Very well,' Gina said.

‘There are jobs for you both,' Angelo said. ‘Don't worry. Come to the office. Give me an hour.'

‘Isn't it a
fabulous
day!' Rosetta said.

Gina and Angelo sat in the office drinking tea. ‘I thought Papa was going to insist on a job too,' Angelo said. ‘Sometimes life has too many hands. I can't keep up with the complications.' He took a garibaldi from the biscuit plate. ‘These don't have the taste they used to have. Do you think?'

‘So why take another?' Gina asked.

‘I don't know,' Angelo said. He considered putting the biscuit back. He bit into it instead. ‘No, they're not like I remember them.'

‘So what are these jobs you're going to give the children?'

‘What I told Marie was I needed someone to follow Jack Shayler. So I suppose it's follow Jack Shayler.'

‘Might be interesting,' Gina said.

‘But …' Angelo began.

They finished together, ‘Who pays?' and laughed.

‘But tell me, what's with Marie
now
?' Angelo asked. ‘Is “easy money” not so easy, or is it just postponed? She says tonight's with Jenny. So is that a lie? Is it Easy Money Terry tonight? Is that it? Tell me.'

‘She goes out with Jenny most Saturdays,' Gina said. ‘You know that.'

‘I used to know it,' Angelo said. ‘Now I don't know what I know.' He displayed his garibaldi. ‘These used to have taste. Or is it me? She says she's going out. What else could it be?'

‘Leave it,' Gina said.

‘But I'm not a satisfied customer.'

‘There's nothing we can do, Angelo. We have to wait and see.'

Angelo studied his once-bitten biscuit. He couldn't put it back but that didn't mean he had to finish it. ‘I suppose.'

‘What job are you going to give to David?'

‘Follow Marie tonight?'

Gina said nothing.

Angelo said, ‘I thought I'd tell him to follow Rosetta's man after lunch. See if he's married.'

‘You can't do that!' Gina said, feeling that she had to respond to this ‘joke' because she had not responded to the first one.

Angelo smiled because Gina had been lured into thinking he was making a serious suggestion. Just because he was confused about Marie didn't mean he'd gone stupid. ‘But I've got to give him something,' he said.

‘Rosetta is so happy today,' Mama said. ‘Did you notice?'

‘Of course,' the Old Man said.

Of course
not
, Mama thought. But I can't expect miracles at his age. She decided to change the subject. ‘For a minute I thought Angelo was going to ask
you
to work today. He seems very busy.'

‘If he needs me, he knows who he can count on,' the Old Man said, but despite himself he yawned.

‘We were all up very late last night,' Mama said. ‘We haven't done that for a long time.'

‘No,' the Old Man agreed. He stroked his chin. ‘No.'

He's going to reminisce, Mama thought. I hope not Norman Stiles.

But the Old Man surprised her. ‘Rosetta so happy,' he said.

‘It's good to see,' Mama said. ‘She's been sad.'

‘Does that mean her Walter is back?' the Old Man asked.

Oh, Mama thought, disappointed. ‘No.'

‘Walter,' the Old Man said. ‘That would be handy for the will.'

‘Don't be silly,' Mama said.

‘Now I'm silly? What's silly? He's a solicitor, right, this Walter?'

‘To think you're going to cut Salvatore out of your will is silly,' Mama said.

The Old Man looked at her. ‘Who said that?'

‘I know what you think, and such a thing about poor Salvatore … Ridiculous! You're a foolish old man and you shouldn't interfere in the children's lives.'

‘Foolish it is now? Huh! You're hungry, I'm so foolish? You're starving, I'm so foolish?'

‘You're just causing trouble because you can't accept that there are things more important to Salvatore than the business which was everything to you. Because you can't accept you're not so important to the business any more yourself. That's the truth of it.'

‘Huh!' the Old Man said. ‘Huh!'

‘Time to adjust,' Mama said. ‘Act your age. Grow up.'

‘Huh!'

Mama sighed. Oh dear. He was bound to sulk now.

‘Huh!'

They sat in silence for a while. Then Mama said, ‘I was thinking.'

Some miracle, the Old Man thought.

‘About the Shaylers.'

The Old Man hesitated but couldn't resist. ‘What about the Shaylers? They're foolish too?'

‘How suddenly they're happy,' Mama said.

‘Like Rosetta,' the Old Man said. ‘Everybody's happy. Happy-happy. It's catching, maybe.'

‘I think maybe it's common enemy,' Mama said.

‘What nonsense are you talking?' Savouring ‘nonsense'.

‘Why the wife is satisfied today.'

‘OK, so why?'

‘Yesterday Angelo and Salvatore frightened the husband. He thinks they're killers, my boys. So the husband runs home, cries on the shoulder. Panics, she said. So maybe also the husband confides, “Boo-hoo. This has been happening, that has been happening.”'

‘What happening?'

‘All why he cried for help with the washing-up liquid.'

The Old Man considered. ‘He could confide,' he conceded.

‘And then the wife takes his side, no matter what,' Mama said. ‘So now they are together against whatever it is. The common enemy. So suddenly she's happy, because between them there's no more division.'

The Old Man sat silent.

‘You don't think it can work like that? Because I tell you, it can.'

The Old Man said, ‘You could be right.'

‘Such a vote of confidence,' Mama said, but she was not displeased.

‘Give me a paper, I'll mark an “X” so I vote for you, if that's what you want,' he said. ‘Everybody gets what they want. What else am I for? Salvatore wants to freeload, be my guest. You want a vote, here give me a pencil. Huh!'

Mama studied her husband. Though he was old in so many ways, he remained responsive to reason. She rose from her chair.

He watched her closely. ‘No pencil?'

If only he could ever be brought to apply himself to
important
things, Mama thought. ‘Let me get you something. Tea?'

‘All right, tea,' he said.

Although Angelo was still sitting by the window when David and Marie arrived, he was on the telephone. The children stood waiting, but their father hung up without saying anything.

‘Not there?' Gina asked from across the table.

‘Not there.'

‘And no machine?' Gina said.

‘He's never met Rosetta's friend.'

‘What do you want to do? Wait till Monday?'

Angelo considered. ‘I think it's worth a trip this morning. Howard may not be there, but other places in the row might be open. Someone might know things. Even where he lives.'

‘Good idea,' Gina said.

‘I'll go.'

‘No,' Gina said. ‘You stay here and run your ops.' She rose and handed Angelo her empty tea mug. Then she picked up the telephone and put it back on the desk.

‘Huh!' Angelo said.

‘Bye,' Gina said to them all, and she left.

As the door closed, Marie said, ‘Reporting for duty.'

David, who still felt hard done by, said nothing.

Angelo said, ‘It's the Shaylers. We're worried.'

‘See, I
told
you I was following Mr Shayler,' Marie said to her brother. David made a face in reply.

‘If you're going to squabble,' Angelo said, ‘go back to the house. This is work. Either be professional or go away to play your games. Am I understood?'

Both children nodded. ‘Who do I follow?' David asked. ‘Or is it something else?'

‘I want a tail on each of them. Marie, I want you to follow Mrs Shayler if she comes out. David, Mr Shayler. That way round nobody ends up where it's obvious, like Marie in a men's shop or David in dresses.' Then he described the two Shaylers. ‘Got it?'

‘Yes, Dad,' Marie said.

David said, ‘Do you know where they might go?'

‘Our problem is we don't know. Suddenly the Shaylers are confusing.'

‘Got it,' David said.

‘I want a proper job,' Angelo said. ‘Everything in the notebook with times. Phone in regularly. This is work. Not …' Angelo hesitated over the phrase ‘easy money'. He opted instead to say, ‘This is not money for nothing.'

The children nodded.

‘And nothing even slightly dangerous,' Angelo said emphatically. ‘I can't imagine what, but Shayler tells his wife someone wants to kill him. Maybe that's just because your Uncle Sal is so ugly, but he might have some other reason. So you only follow if he walks, David. No bus. No taxi. And that's for you too with the wife, Marie.'

‘OK, Dad,' both children said.

‘And if they stay inside all day, I still need who goes in, who goes out.' Angelo checked his watch. ‘You work till six. Phone in every hour. One can call for both unless you separate. Got it?'

‘Yes, Dad,' the detectives said.

‘On your way.'

They left.

Angelo moved to the window. The flower-dotted backs of the Paragon crescent smiled from above, but he looked down to the street. He waited for his children to emerge on to the pavement and turn in the direction of the Shaylers' house. They did, and he saw Marie toss her hair the way she often did after she said something she thought was funny. Then he saw David poke the end of Marie's shoulder with his fist. Then he lost sight of them, though he stood gazing down the street in the direction they had gone.

Rosetta popped into the kitchen looking for Gina but didn't find her. The car keys were not on their hook, so maybe Gina was out.

Or maybe not. Humming to herself Rosetta used her hips to flip her skirt from one hall wall to the other as she walked through to the office. After knocking perfunctorily, she went in.

Angelo was standing at the window. He turned.

‘Is Gina around?' Rosetta asked.

‘No,' Angelo said. ‘Is there business?'

Rosetta swirled for her brother. ‘What do you think?' She wore a full black skirt and a white blouse. Her cheeks were red, a combination of natural and artificial colourings.

‘Wow!' Angelo said, recognizing what was being asked for, and having no difficulty about providing it. ‘You look great!'

Rosetta beamed. ‘Do you really think so?'